Is it difficult to design a chip? It's hard, but it's not as hard as you think.

It took Huawei ten years, Apple eight years, and Xiaomi only two years and a billion dollars.

Although the functions are not comparable, they are also designed. In Mr. Lei's own words, Huawei and Apple made chips relatively early and belong to the pioneers of the industry. And Xiaomi only began to develop chips in 14 years, and at this time the technology is already very mature and has a late-mover advantage.

Jiangyan has invested more than 30 billion yuan in the field of panels, in addition to the technical research and development of the LCD screen itself, the improvement of the manufacturing process has spent a lot of money. The cost of a simple design chip is definitely much lower than that in the panel field.

In addition, we should also pay attention to one point: do not see that foreign enterprises invest tens of billions of dollars and feel that it is very expensive, but look at whether the money is really implemented and how high the utilization rate is. Labor costs we must be much lower than theirs, capital management, other companies dare not say, Jiangyan company has definitely achieved the word "implementation".

With the same spending of 10 billion, Jiangyan Company can make 120% of the effect, while those foreign companies are estimated to only make 50% of the effect, which may not be enough. In addition to the management advantages and labor costs, the benefits of "dictatorship" have to be mentioned again.

The entire Jiangyan Group can be said to belong to Hang Yu alone, who dares to be greedy for his money, and the company has been completely solemn after two successive major rectifications! There is no factional struggle within the company, and everyone is serving Hang Yu's will.

So Hang Yu made up his mind to do high-tech, and after the order was issued, the effect was not ordinarily good.

Jiang Yan's time to make chips is quite good, and the architecture has been designed in the past two years.

The "tank" architecture, which is completely independently designed, is not compatible with the software of other companies on the market, but it is particularly compatible with the software of Jiangyan Company, which is specially customized for Jiangyan Company and cats.

The reason why it was named Tank Architecture is because the core figure of the chip design team, "Zheng Dongmen", is a player in World of Tanks and has a soft spot for tanks. When Zheng Dongmen designed the architecture, he hoped that the architecture would become a unique existence like a tank.

It's not that the tank architecture isn't compatible with software from other companies, it's that it hasn't been released yet, so no other company has tested it.

But Hang Yu is not worried about this problem, because the cat's mobile phone can meet the basic needs of users just by carrying Jiangyan's software. Social, gaming, payment, live streaming, online shopping, etc., can be said to have formed an internal ecology.

As for the future after the chip is announced, whether other companies will be compatible with it depends on whether the cat's mobile phone sells well. If the cat's shipments are large enough, other software companies will naturally not give up this piece of meat.

Hang Yu has a certain confidence in this, relying on Jiangyan's internal ecology is enough to feed this independent architecture, perhaps not as convenient as those mobile phones with ARM architecture at first, but slowly, the independent architecture will show its advantages.

"Almost all of the popular mobile processors use the ARM architecture, which has four major advantages. First, it is small in size, low in power consumption, low in cost and strong in performance. The second is the extensive use of registers and the fact that most data operations are completed in the registers, resulting in faster instruction execution. Third, the addressing method is flexible and simple, and the execution efficiency is high. Fourth, the instruction length is fixed, and the processing efficiency can be improved through multiple pipelines. Zheng Dongmen is introducing the advantages and disadvantages of the ARM architecture to Hang Yu.

"Hearing you say that, the ARM architecture is still very easy to use. Hang Yu said.

Jiang Yan's time to make chips is quite good, and the architecture has been designed in the past two years.

The "tank" architecture, which is completely independently designed, is not compatible with the software of other companies on the market, but it is particularly compatible with the software of Jiangyan Company, which is specially customized for Jiangyan Company and cats.

The reason why it was named Tank Architecture is because the core figure of the chip design team, "Zheng Dongmen", is a player in World of Tanks and has a soft spot for tanks. When Zheng Dongmen designed the architecture, he hoped that the architecture would become a unique existence like a tank.

It's not that the tank architecture isn't compatible with software from other companies, it's that it hasn't been released yet, so no other company has tested it.

But Hang Yu is not worried about this problem, because the cat's mobile phone can meet the basic needs of users just by carrying Jiangyan's software. Social, gaming, payment, live streaming, online shopping, etc., can be said to have formed an internal ecology.

As for the future after the chip is announced, whether other companies will be compatible with it depends on whether the cat's mobile phone sells well. If the cat's shipments are large enough, other software companies will naturally not give up this piece of meat.

Hang Yu has a certain confidence in this, relying on Jiangyan's internal ecology is enough to feed this independent architecture, perhaps not as convenient as those mobile phones with ARM architecture at first, but slowly, the independent architecture will show its advantages.

"This thing is quite complicated, the arm architecture is divided into two types, the mainstream is to license the IP core that has been designed, such as Cortex-A53/A72. After obtaining such authorization, the manufacturer only needs to select the number of cores, bus interconnection, and cache according to the needs to basically complete the design of the CPU part. Generally, we call this kernel scheme designed directly by ARM the public architecture, and the chips of MediaTek, Samsung, and HiSilicon belong to this category. Zheng Dongmen said.

"What about the other one?" asked Hang Yu.

"Another option is to license ARM architectures, such as ARMv7/ARMv8, and after obtaining these instruction set architectures, manufacturers have to design their own cores, and then complete the construction of the entire CPU part. This can become a semi-autonomous architecture, and most of Apple's and Qualcomm's chips are the product of this solution. Zheng Dongmen introduced.

"Which is better or worse?" asked Hang Yu.

"The biggest benefit of the first public solution is that it saves time, effort and cost. Chip manufacturers only need to follow the rhythm of ARM, and they will inevitably not be left behind, which can not only ensure performance, but also complete the finished product on the market in the fastest time, and at the same time, it is also convenient for people who know a little about mobile phones to judge the strength and positioning of the chip. The first disadvantage is the loss of differentiation and the inability to form an exclusive selling point. Second, we must always keep up with the footsteps of ARM, once it lags behind, it will be easily perceived by the outside world, and it will instantly become a low-end elimination image. ”

"The advantage of the second autonomous solution is that it is flexible, manufacturers can design better single-core performance and lower power consumption than the public IP, and at the same time, it also has a high degree of freedom in bus interconnection, which has a lot of room to play. However, this kind of scheme must be established on the premise that chip manufacturers can afford to burn money and hire people, and it will take a long time to have results that surpass the public version. Zheng Dongmen said.

Hang Yu nodded slightly, simply put, it is more appropriate to use the former if you have no money, and it is more appropriate to use the latter if you have money and strength.

Generally speaking, enterprises that dare to choose a semi-self-service architecture must be very confident in their own strength, and the final chip performance will be stronger than that of the public version, and it has distinctive selling points.

"How does our tank architecture compare to the ARM architecture?" Hang Yu asked.

Apple's Qualcomm chip architecture can only be regarded as semi-autonomous, because it is based on ARM, while Jiangyan's chip architecture is completely independent. Hangyu's goal is very clear, to create an independent ecology based on chips and operating systems.

Mr. Lei said that Xiaomi has two major difficulties when making chips, the first is to decide to do this, which is a huge torment. The second is when the tape-out comes out and you decide to invest, which is also a difficult decision because you have to invest a lot of money after that.

Hang Yu's decision to make a completely independent software and hardware ecology is even more tormenting, because this is something that Apple has not done, and no company in the world can do a software and hardware ecology alone.

Of course, Apple itself is an American-funded company, so there is no need for him to do a completely independent ecosystem.

But Jiangyan is necessary because it is a Chinese company.

To tell the truth, in this world dominated by Europe and the United States, being born in a country with completely different cultures is itself a kind of "original sin". You want to be compatible with other people's cultures, but the problem is that you can't.

Now we are opening up and learning from the West, but it is not really compatible. It's just that it uses the scientific foundation of the West and introduces some Western products and cultures, but it is not really compatible.

The cores of the two civilizations are mutually exclusive and incompatible, so one is destined to be a subordinate. What if you don't want to be a subordinate or be controlled?

Look at the neighboring countries such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar, which were originally part of the Chinese civilization circle, and most of them use Chinese. But after modern times, they all changed their writings and forgot their roots.

Even so, countries such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar are not truly compatible with Western civilization.

In the words of Mr. Ren himself, their chip making is just a guarantee, a bargaining chip for dialogue with European and American capital. But with this kind of leverage, is it really foolproof?

What should I do if ARM stops authorizing?

Jiangyan Company is truly independent, the operating system is there, and the chip has to be independent architecture.

Whether it can succeed is not sure, Hang Yu's logic is that it is possible to succeed if it is done, and it is sure to fail if it is not done.

"It's not as mature as ARM, and the overall performance is not as good as... To use an analogy, it's probably an early tank. We need time to perfect, and I believe that its potential will never be lower than that of the ARM architecture. Zheng Dongmen said.

"Your words leave me at a loss, but I have great hope for them. Hang Yu said.

"I know, but I also want you to understand that we give more than hope in it, but also life. Zheng Dongmen said seriously.

"That's an exaggeration. Hang Yu was skeptical.

"It's not an exaggeration at all, after all, what we're doing is something that will rewrite history, and I'm willing to give everything for it. If you can, I hope you don't bother me anymore, I don't have much time. Zheng Dongmen said.

"Well, you can get busy. Hang Yu said.

Zheng Dongmen didn't say a word, and immediately returned to work and rededicated himself to research and development.

"That's how he is, don't be surprised. Lin Yuxiang said.

"What's so strange about it, I admire people like that. Hang Yu said: "Do you know, if it weren't for colleagues like them who are so dedicated to scientific research, I might not have made up my mind. ”

Hang Yu dared to challenge such a difficult task, not because he felt that he was very good, but because he had seen Fu Yunze who was old but kept burning himself, Xu Shuang and Wen Yisheng who were energetic and focused on scientific research, and many workers who struggled for scientific research. They proved themselves with practical actions, and they also moved Hang Yu.

Their R&D capabilities are among the best in the world, and Hang Yu has confidence in them. Hang Yu believes that these best researchers in China can do things that he can't, or even imagine.

Of course, Hang Yu will not let them selflessly dedicate themselves because they are enthusiastic about scientific research, and their welfare must be guaranteed.

"If you can't make up your mind, they won't be so desperate. Lin Yuxiang used the word desperate to describe the working state of these new generation of scientific researchers, you must know that Lin Yuxiang is a person who has experienced the hardships of the Anti-Japanese War, he said that he is desperate, you can imagine how hard the chip research and development team is.

"Support each other. Hang Yu said.

"To be honest, as a scientific researcher, no one likes to follow other people's butts, especially to copy other people's paths, and take a path that is destined not to surpass others. Your choice is very difficult, but it is a different truth, there is hope to surpass others, and there is hope to become a new generation of leaders in the industry. These people are not only working for you, but also for themselves, and they want to be the leaders in the industry and have a voice. It means a lot to them. Lin Yuxiang said with emotion.

This is the difference between scientific research workers and ordinary business personnel, regular business personnel mainly make money, and they still have ideals in addition to making money, and ideals are very important to them.

In particular, the top people in the field of scientific research usually want to make a difference.

"It means a lot to me as well. Hang Yu said.

Although the performance of the tank architecture is still unclear, Hang Yu saw the results and saw the working state of Zheng Dongmen and others, and finally calmed down.

Why did Jiang Yan dare to do its own architecture? Because it has its own mobile phone operating system.

After two generations of optimization, the Cat Operating System is already a first-class mobile phone operating system on the market, with advantages over Android and Apple. Many domestic mobile phones have tried to use the cats operating system, and as soon as the shipments go up, a large number of software will naturally be compatible with it.

Around the cats operating system, an independent ecosystem has gradually matured.

"Let's do both traditional chips and smart chips, we have to catch up in the field of traditional chips, and we have to take the lead in the field of smart chips. Hang Yu thought about it carefully and felt that he could not give up the research and development of smart chips.

Because he knows that in a few more years, there will be other companies developing smart chips, which is a trend in the future.

Jiangyan has led the trend of cloud computing, and naturally it can also lead the trend of smart chips.

"You'll have to hire more people and spend more money. Lin Yuxiang said.

"You do the math and report it. Hang Yu said.

Engaging in scientific research Hang Yu has never been cowardly, a sanctimonious person like Jack Ma has N properties, and Hang Yu has a villa, which shows how ambitious he is.

Before Qin Xuefang said that Hang Yu was nested in his own small world and didn't communicate with those rich people, Hang Yu didn't pay attention to it at all. Why? Because the top 10 richest people in China are not in the same pattern as him.

What is Hang Yu's business? Build a completely independent software and hardware ecology! The pattern is different, social networking is not of much use to him, and it is better to communicate with the company's employees more when he has this time.