When Zhang Lexing was competing with the dim sum on the table, a middle-aged uncle with a beard came straight to him.

"Could it be that you know each other?" Zhang Lexing muttered in his heart, but he couldn't remember where he had seen this uncle.

Just when Zhang Lexing was thinking hard about whether the middle-aged uncle was an acquaintance, the middle-aged uncle had already walked to the dining table, and then Zhang Lexing realized that the middle-aged uncle's goal was not himself. The middle-aged uncle stood at the dining table, stretched out a hand and picked up a silver box on the table, opened the silver box very skillfully, and then took out a cigarette from it, lit the cigarette with the candle next to it, and began to swallow the clouds and smoke.

Zhang Lexing looked at it, and always felt that this middle-aged uncle seemed to have seen it somewhere, so he asked weakly: "Sir, I think you are very familiar, can you tell your name?"

"John, just call me John. The middle-aged uncle changed the cigarette in his mouth.

"Zhang Lexing, it's an honor to meet you. Although he still didn't remember where he had seen John, Zhang Lexing didn't want to be rude and hurriedly reported his name.

"Would you like one?" John gestured to the silver box on the table.

"Thanks, no, I don't smoke. Zhang Lexing waved his hand.

John didn't say anything more, just took a cigarette in his mouth and kept spitting out the clouds, and the expression on his face didn't look pleasant. Eating dim sum all the time was actually boring, so Zhang Lexing decided to change the topic and continue the conversation.

"John, do you seem to have something on your mind, so it's convenient to talk about?" Zhang Lexing asked casually.

"Actually, it's nothing, I have an idea, but not many people are optimistic, and I came to the party this time to sell it again, but no one cares. John sighed, and it seemed that the successive setbacks had hit him hard.

"What kind of idea is it?" Zhang Lexing's curiosity surged up irrepressibly.

"Have you ever heard of a reduced instruction processor?" asked John.

"Reduced instruction processor? do you mean RISC?" Zhang Lexing asked rhetorically.

"It's a reduced instruction processor, but not RISC, it's MIPS!" John corrected very seriously.

Zhang Lexing's most familiar processor is Intel's X86 series, of course, this also includes AMD's X86 compatible series. Intel's processors originally followed the path of complex instructions (CISC, complex instruction processors), and their counterparts were reduced instruction processors (RISC), one is complex and versatile, and the other is simple and efficient. Zhang Lexing can only know a little about the reduced instruction processor (RISC), and the deepest impression in his mind is the MIPS series, which is also the reason why the processor of the PS game console is an improved version of the MIPS series. Unexpectedly, I heard the word "MIPS" from a stranger's mouth today, and Zhang Lexing's brain suddenly felt a little dead.

"MIPS?" Zhang Lexing was a little unsure, worried that he had heard poorly, so he repeated the words he had heard.

"That's right, it's MIPS, Microprocessorwithoutinterlockedpipedstages, not Patterson's old man's RISC. John saw that Zhang Lexing still looked confused, so he began his lecture on the history of processor development.

After listening to John's introduction, Zhang Lexing knew the twists and turns. The uncle in front of him was John Hennessy, and now a professor at the Stanford Microelectronics Laboratory, leading a group of students to work on modern microprocessor architectures.

The concept of the reduced instruction processor was born relatively early, and in 1964, the CDC6600 giant computer developed by Dr. Simon Clay of the CDC (Control Data Corporation) is recognized as the origin of the reduced instruction architecture. The first true compact instruction processor came from IBM, and in 76 years Kirk of the Watson Research Center developed an 801 processor, although the Watson Research Center's original goal was not a processor but a translator for telephone calls. The performance of the 801 processor is very powerful, but unfortunately it is not as good as the IBM bureaucracy, except for the initial prototype, it has not come up with a decent product for eight years, so that the 801 processor has no ability but nowhere to play.

In recent years, the academic community has been very interested in streamlined instruction architecture, one of the more famous is the RISC project led by David Patterson of Berkeley, and the other is the MIPS team led by John in front of Zhang Lexing. Patterson's team was founded relatively early, and they are very fanatical about the reduced instruction architecture, sparing no effort to promote the RISC architecture everywhere, and even the name of its research project is called RISC, and the finished processor developed is also called RISC-I, RISC-II, and even Patterson himself has been given the nickname of Mr. Risc.

The main feature of Patterson's RISC architecture is the use of register window technology, which relies on the use of a large number of registers to minimize access to the main memory to improve the computing speed, and the more successful place is the introduction of a pipeline mechanism and branch delay to solve the problem of data waiting. Pipeline technology greatly improves the computing speed of the processor, but it also leaves considerable trouble, because as long as there is a pipeline there is a problem of interlocking, especially the hardware pipeline, this problem is particularly serious, and the timely use of branch delay technology can only alleviate this problem, but can not fundamentally solve it.

John's Stanford MIPS program started a little later, and his research direction was different from Patterson's. John was very aware of the interlocking problem from the beginning, and they put the solution on the compiler, using an exceptionally simple hardware architecture, combined with the compiler and other software technologies to arrive at a complete RISC concept. After some time of research, John's MIPS plan has achieved results - MIPS chip samples, as the name suggests - non-interlocking pipeline processors, do not use complex hardware mechanisms to deal with the pipeline part, but rely on the compiler to optimize the combined instruction data flow, avoiding the headache of pipeline interlocking.

To be honest, Zhang Lexing doesn't know much about processor hardware, and he doesn't know much about the reduced instruction architecture, and under John's endless explanation, he didn't fully understand that it would be good if Dr. Yu was next to him, maybe the two could still talk happily. Although I only scratched the surface of John's MIPS plan, this did not prevent Zhang Lexing from fantasizing about this chip. The application range of MIPS chips is actually quite extensive, and even the domestic Loongson that Zhang Lexing heard of in his previous life has something to do with it, of course, Zhang Lexing is most interested in Sony's two generations of game consoles are using MIPS-related processors, which makes his game console dream a little imminent.

Of course, John couldn't imagine this in Zhang Lexing's heart, and he continued to talk eloquently, praising Patterson's RSIC processor on the one hand, and analyzing the highlights of his research plan on the other.

"John, your plan is very attractive, when do you plan to start?" Zhang Lexing felt that he was already a little unbearable, and if he let John continue, he would soon become a novice, and quickly changed the topic to other aspects.

"Alas!" John's face darkened again, and he said a little uncomfortably: "No one has been willing to fund this project, everyone has been focusing on David's achievements, but they are not willing to face up to the shortcomings in it, who made my start too late." ”

"It's a shame. Zhang Lexing's heart blossomed, such a good technology has not been paid attention to, it seems that his opportunity has come, so he took out a business card and handed it over, "John, I have set up a venture capital fund with my friends, we are very interested in this potential technology, are you interested in cooperation?"

John took the business card and looked at it carefully, then raised his head and said, "Red River Fund, I heard from a friend that the Adobe company I invested in seems to be doing well. Are you really willing to fund my research project?"

"It should be no problem, but I hope you can provide more detailed application materials, send them to the address on the business card, and then do a simple assessment, and we will negotiate the specific details. I hope we can have a happy cooperation!" Zhang Lexing stretched out his hand.

John shook Zhang Lexing's hand and said happily: "Thank you! I believe that your investment will get a good return!"

Seeing that there was hope for investment, John seemed very excited and talked more. However, he should have also seen that the previous discussion of MIPS technical details was too profound, and the prospective investor in front of him obviously had some difficulty listening, so he wisely changed the topic, and did not continue to dwell on RISC design, but chose some lighter topics, such as anecdotes in the circle and campus anecdotes.

"Bossak, Lerner, you're here too?" John saw an acquaintance and waved to say hello as he chatted.

"John, who are these two?" Zhang Lexing felt very strange when he saw the two people greeted by John.

"They're teachers at Stanford, Posack is the director of the computer center in the computer department, and the two of them are husband and wife. John introduced.

Bossak and Lerner walked over with wine glasses and greeted John, who took the opportunity to introduce Zhang to his two colleagues. Hearing that Zhang Lexing was willing to invest in John's MIPS plan, Bossak and Lerner showed eager expressions.

"Mr. Zhang, we actually have a project that we want to invest in, I wonder if you would like to hear us talk about it?"

Anyway, it's okay, it's okay to listen, Zhang Lexing made a gesture to Bosak to ask for a speech.

"Nowadays, there are many LAN specifications, and it is difficult to communicate with each other normally, so we envisioned a new network device that can connect to different LANs to ensure normal communication with each other, and we call this kind of equipment a multi-protocol router...... "Posack began to introduce their project.

"Multi-protocol router?" Zhang Lexing felt a little familiar, as if he had heard of it a long time ago, but he couldn't remember the specific details, so he had to continue to be a listener. After listening to Bosak's introduction, Zhang Lexing realized that the two in front of him, like John, had research results, but they lacked funds to transform the research results into actual commodities. Bossak and Lerner's attitude was very sincere, and Zhang Lexing decided to include their project in the scope of inspection, and maybe the future development prospects are bright.

At the end of the conversation, Zhang Lexing casually asked: "Bosak, what is the name of your company?"

"Cisco, what do you think of the name?" Bossak said.

Zhang Lexing suddenly had a feeling of being thundered, and Cisco actually appeared in front of him like this.

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