After Yu Youcheng left, Li Yixuan thought that he couldn't rely on Yu Youcheng for everything, he had to lead the research and development of CPUs, and also give lectures to students, and one person could be busy, so he sent him two robot assistants.

After the robot joined, Yu Youcheng's work was much easier, and the research and development efficiency of the CPU was improved a lot.

Yu Youcheng made a lot of simplifications for the Core CPU, and the first thing he cut was the clock multiplier technology, which he thought would not be necessary with the current level of computer hardware.

Nowadays, the main frequency of computers is still in a low stage, and the main frequency of the CPU is generally equal to the external frequency. After the advent of 486, due to the continuous increase in the working frequency of the CPU, some other equipment of the PC (such as plug-in cards, hard disks, etc.) are limited by the process and cannot withstand higher frequencies, so the further increase of the CPU frequency is limited.

In this context, the frequency doubling technology appeared, which can make the internal working frequency of the CPU become a multiple of the external frequency, so as to achieve the purpose of increasing the main frequency by increasing the frequency multiplier.

To put it simply, the frequency doubling technology enables external devices to work on a lower frequency frequency, and the CPU frequency is a multiple of the frequency of the external frequency.

For a computer, it is not enough to have a CPU, it also needs the support of other hardware, such as GPU, graphics processor, and chipset is also essential.

In 1980, in order to develop a motherboard with 8088 as the core, IBM spent more than 100 million US dollars, tossed for a year, and finally had to give up development, and acquired a computer motherboard developed by Warner Bros. subsidiary and Atari from the market.

Due to the early concept of chipsets, the structure of the computer motherboard of the company is super complex, and the stability and reliability are not ideal, IBM spent more than 100 million dollars on this basis, and it took nearly a year to basically get the reliability and stability of the motherboard, but the production cost of a single motherboard is as high as nearly 1,000 US dollars, and finally the final retail price of IBM-PC is more than 3,600 US dollars.

Let's say, if there had been a chipset at that time, the motherboard of the IBM-PC would have cost less than $1,000 anyway.

Of course, since the CPU is not yet finalized, it is too early to talk about the chipset. However, the design of GPUs cannot wait for the CPU to be finalized, and must be developed at the same time.

There were no dedicated graphics processor manufacturers in this space-time, and the first graphics processor manufacturer, ATI, would not be established until 1985. Again, people generally used the PPU produced by RB Ricoh or Canon as the graphics processor.

PPu is the Chinese translation name of Physics Processing Unit. It is used by Ricoh and Canon to process the photos taken by the camera, and cannot be used as the graphics processor of the computer.

Unlike CPUs, GPUs don't require any integer operations, powerful floating-point operations, parallel processor operations, and various rendering effects on the picture.

Before video games entered 3D, 2D graphics cards did not need complex logic algorithms, and for cost considerations, Li Yixuan decided to use ATI's ASIC technology to develop graphics chips and graphics cards, but the structure is very different from ATI's graphics chips.

ATI's first- and second-generation 2D graphics cards rely more on improving the graphics computing power of the graphics card through the improvement of software algorithms, which is what we call "soft acceleration".

The GPU designed by Li Yixuan not only has "soft acceleration" but also "hardware acceleration". At its core, it uses floating-point operations on four-bit vectors. It can be used by a register and four floating-point combinators for different functions, which are used in the graphics rendering pipeline to implement matrices, light and shadow, projection, etc.

Among them, that is, the depth of field of the picture is realized on the 2D flat picture, and after focusing through the virtual objective lens, there are three levels of expression of the far, medium and near objects, so that the picture seems to have a three-dimensional sense, which is actually a visual deception.

In addition, particle effect technology is also an indispensable part. In later generations, the large-scale application of particle special effects technology was gradually popularized after the opening of the era of 3D online games. Again, it was previously used only for military and meteorological research.

The so-called particle effects, as large as the effect, are to simulate the effects of water, fire, fog, air, light and other effects in the "reality" in the virtual environment.

For example, with particle effects, he can give the equipment system a certain amount of enhancement to make it look more beautiful. Another example is the use of particle systems, which can produce ripples, refractions and other reactions on the surface of water. In addition, with the use of particle effects, he can add different changes in the weather to the picture.

Particle effects are not without their drawbacks, that is, they require a lot of computing power from the CPU.

For this problem, it is not impossible for Li Yixuan to overcome. First of all, the particle effects he does are not 3D particle effects, but only render the 2D picture, which can greatly reduce the workload of the CPU.

In addition, he also adopted the practice of later NVIDIA companies, cutting the dependence on the CPU, and leaving some of the original CPU work to the GPU, when processing 2D graphics, the environment material map and vertex blending, texture compression and bump mapping mapping, and double texture quad pixel rendering are rendered point-to-point.

In this way, the whole picture has achieved a similar effect that is almost unique to 32-bit computers, and the 16-bit screen is taken to the extreme.

It took two days, the GPU architecture diagram is almost the same, there is no need to add new things, the rest will have to wait for Yu Youcheng's CPU finalization to decide, the CPU must work perfectly with the GPU to play the maximum function.

After checking it again and correcting a few mistakes, he took the drawings and went to Yu Youcheng.

Yu Youcheng looked at the GPU architecture diagram drawn by Li Yixuan and said, "You have been doing this in the past few days?"

"Yes, our Oranges computer is not only used for office, but also for home entertainment, and games are the best way to entertain, otherwise how can computers be popularized at home? In the future, I plan to be able to watch TV, watch videos, and listen to music on the computer." "There are no entertainment video tools such as VCD and DVD, so Li Yixuan uses video instead.

Yu Youcheng said: "This is a good idea, if computers are only used for office work and scientific research, families don't need to buy computers at all." However, have you ever thought about it, if according to your settings, the hardware configuration of the computer is very demanding, how high is the budget cost, can ordinary families accept it? Also, according to your design, I think this processor will generate a lot of heat, right, you are not afraid of burning out the hardware?" Yu Youcheng pointed out a big push problem.

"Don't be afraid, I have a way. Li Yixuan picked up the pencil and said while drawing: "We can divide the graphics card into three grades: high, medium and low, so that the computer can be divided into three different price points." Consumers can buy computers at different price points depending on their budget. In addition, when making games, add a small program that will automatically recognize your computer's configuration, and if your computer's graphics card is too low, the gaming computer can minimize the particle effect, or simply screen it out. In this way, this problem is well solved. Moreover, as time passes, when the particle renderings show their perfect side, I believe that many players will update their computer consoles because of a game. ”

In order to play games in later generations, enthusiasts who pursue top-notch quality from time to time have a large number of people. Perhaps, with the upgrading of computers, many players will find that why the graphics of this game are getting more and more beautiful?

In fact, there are many of the most extreme effects of games in later generations, which most computer gamers cannot experience. Because their ligands can't keep up. However, that doesn't stop players from getting excited.

When they see that other people have installed a top-of-the-line computer graphics card and experienced that ultimate visual feast, can he still tolerate his own low configuration? He will take the initiative to upgrade his computer, a better graphics card, a larger memory, a better motherboard, or a better CPU, or even a four-way Titan is not impossible.

When people have desires, they will consume.

"It's really a word to wake up the dreamer. In fact, this method is very simple, Yu Youcheng just didn't think of it.

"The picture is solved, what about the motherboard and audio assembly?" Yu Youcheng asked one question after another.

Li Yixuan spread out another piece of paper, "The motherboard design is easy to do, look at this." ”

"Chipset !!," Yu Youcheng said in surprise as he looked at the picture above.

"That's right, it's the chipset, as computer technology becomes more complex and high-end, the design of the motherboard of the computer becomes more and more complex, and with it, the production cost increases, which is contrary to Moore's Law. If the cost of motherboards is not reduced, computers will become a luxury that no one can afford in the future.

And my chipset solution is for simplifying the motherboard. It is responsible for connecting the core of the computer, the CPU, to the rest of the machine, and can use this to determine the level of the motherboard, so that the computer motherboard can also be divided into high, mid, and low grades like the graphics card.

The chipset is divided into two, one is the Southbridge chip and the other is the Northbridge chip. The Southbridge chip is responsible for the communication between I/O buses, such as PCI bus, USB, LAN, ATA, IDE hard disk interface, audio controller, keyboard controller, real-time clock controller, advanced power management, etc., while the main function of the northbridge chip is to control memory.

The memory standard changes more frequently than the processor, so the data processing capacity of the Northbridge chip is very large, and the heat generation is also large, and the heat sink is covered to strengthen the heat dissipation of the Northbridge chip, and the higher-end Northbridge chip will also cooperate with the fan to dissipate heat. ”

"Then can your chassis still fit?" Yu Youcheng asked another question.

Li Yixuan was already immune to his questioning, and drew a common instant box on the diagram, and drew various components on it one by one, of course, all of which were simplified.

"Do you think this will solve the problem?"

Li Yixuan drew a two-sided diagram of a mid-tower standard chassis, one showing the front side of the case and the other showing the reverse side. This reverse is used to walk the back line.

Yu Youcheng pointed to the hard disk area and said: "This hard disk area really wants the disk array sold by your company!"

"That's right, this hard drive area is designed according to my company's RAID technical specifications. You can install up to 4 3.5-inch hard drives, and if you want, you can expand the hard drive area down to fit up to 6 hard drives. If that's not enough, then make the chassis too big again, designed according to the standards of small and medium-sized computers, ten or twenty hard drives, even more hard drives can fit ......"

Yu Youcheng immediately stopped and said, "Enough~ Enough~ Enough...... There is no need to design a personal computer so big, I think this mid-tower case is not big or small, and it is too big to be an eyesore at home. But I think it's possible to launch a smaller chassis on top of the mid-tower chassis, what do you think?"

Li Yixuan said in his heart, it is not a loss to be an international master of computers, and he can draw inferences from one another, and even think of a small case.

I picked up the pen and drew a small standard chassis in the blank space on the paper, and showed the length, width, and height.

Whether it is a small case or a mid-tower case, the size is just right, and it is a whimsical brain, Yu Youcheng has to admire Li Yixuan's mind.

"There is only one last problem left, how do you solve the audio group, and how do you solve the audio? If your personal computer wants to be popularized in the home, in addition to the visual feast, there must also be an auditory feast, right?"