The method is very simple, think about the classification of hard disks in history, and you will know what his alternative is, yes, it is the SSD solution.

Hard disks are divided into mechanical hard disks and solid-state drives, mechanical hard disks needless to say, and solid-state disks, which are hard disks made of solid-state electronic memory chip arrays, are composed of control units and storage units (flash chips, DRAM chips). It is exactly the same as that of ordinary hard disks in terms of interface specifications and definitions, functions and usage methods, and is completely consistent with ordinary hard disks in terms of product shape and size.

Now the price of traditional mechanical hard disk is too high, the capacity is too low, the volume is very large, the giant magnetoresistance effect will not be discovered until 88 years, even if Ling Shizhe immediately announced the giant magnetoresistance effect to the world, it will not help, now the hard disk only solves the problem of whether there is or not, and it is still too early to be practicalized.

It was not until two years later, in 1973, that IBM launched the "Winchester" hard disk with a capacity of 30MB and determined the basic architecture of modern hard disks, that the hard disk began to slowly enter the practical stage.

The first hard disk to enter the commercial stage "Winchester" is the same as the first generation of mechanical hard disk, the size is huge, or the size of two refrigerators, as high as 350,000 US dollars, not to mention the average person, even many large international enterprises can not afford to use, only the US government and the Pentagon will be its customers, used to store the highest level of classified data.

Ling Shizhe wants a hard disk that is small in size, as large as possible in capacity, and cheap, even if the giant magnetoresistance effect is given to it, IBM will not be able to get a hard disk that meets his requirements in a short time.

Traditional hard drives are not good, so it is natural to shift our attention to SSDs.

There are two types of SSDs, one is a hard disk based on a flash memory chip as a storage medium, which is also commonly known as an SSD.

One is the solid-state drive based on DRAM as the storage medium, which is a non-mainstream hard disk, which imitates the design of traditional hard disks, sets and manages volumes for file system tools of most operating systems, and provides industry-standard PCI and FC interfaces for connecting to hosts or servers. It is a high-performance memory with a long lifespan, and the fly in the ointment is the need for a separate power supply to protect the data. DRAM (DynamicRandomEssMemory) is, to put it bluntly, what we often call a memory system.

Ling Shizhe's ideal is a solid-state drive based on the structure of flash flash chips, the internal structure of this hard disk is very simple, the main body of the solid state drive is actually a PCB board, and the most basic accessories on this PCB board are control chips, cache chips and flash memory chips for storing data.

After seeing that the time was exactly 12 o'clock in the evening, and it was daytime in Canada, Ling Shizhe called Nien in Canada to ask about the research and development progress of the blade server, and sure enough, Nien reported to him that the research and development had encountered obstacles.

"Boss, even if you don't ask, I'll report back to you when you return to Canada in a few days. Boss, we re-examined the architecture of the blade computer you proposed, and we found that there is a flaw, that is, we can't effectively connect it with the tape disk, barely connected, there will be all kinds of problems, and it can't be used at all, and the people in the R&D department suggested that the architecture of the computer should be redesigned, but in this way, the structure of the entire blade computer will have to be overturned again, so that it will not be a blade computer anymore, and his performance will be greatly reduced. Unless you use a hard drive, but the current hard drive has no use value at all, it is too expensive, and no one will spend money on it. "The word computer is always used in Nion's debriefing.

For the concept of the server, Nien is more accustomed to calling it a computer, and now the computer has a very limited use, in addition to financial calculations, it is to carry out a variety of large-scale scientific experiments, such as nuclear physics research, aerospace vehicle design, national economic forecasting and decision-making, medium and long-term weather forecasting, etc.

Even if the blade server is made, it can only be used as a supercomputer temporarily, and if it is to be used in more fields, a large number of third-party software vendors need to develop a variety of application software for it.

Therefore, in terms of structural design, Ling Shizhe adopts the turbine design of the later generations, each blade is a server, which can work together and can be increased or decreased at any time according to the needs of the application; Its storage and operation are completely separated, the hard disk on the board is used to install the operating system and application software, and the external memory is the disk array, which is used to install the database of various data, so as to ensure that user data and data are not affected in any way when the software system is updated or the CPU is upgraded, to ensure the security of stored information, and to achieve long-term, efficient, reliable operation and easy to upgrade and maintain, which is why he has to install the hard disk on the blade motherboard.

"Nien, I combed through the design architecture of the blade computer we developed today, you are right, I did ignore the hard disk problem, sorry, I only found out this problem now, the hard disk has become the biggest shortcoming of the blade computer, if you don't solve this problem, it will always be on the drawings, the world will never know that there is such an excellent computer design concept in the world, Nien told them, I will not agree to change the structural design scheme, now we are facing the problem, It is to find a way to kick this obstacle away, as long as this problem is solved, the blade computer will not be a problem, it will shock the world, it will make the whole world surrender at its feet! Got it?!!! Ling Shizhe had been calmly explaining to Nien, and when he said the last two sentences, he couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart and roared loudly.

A wild roar woke up the people in the entire villa, Zhang Yuzhen, Li Li, and the servants all got up from the bed, came to the living room, and saw Ling Shizhe, who was on the phone, yelling at the phone.

Zhang Yuzhen exploded her lungs angrily, regardless of 3721, she stepped forward and yelled at him: "You street boy, you are neurotic, you don't sleep at night, you roar ghosts, put down the phone immediately, and go to sleep for me immediately!! ”

"Mom, Mom, I was wrong, I was wrong, I won't yell anymore, Mom, I have something, I can't stop working now, I promise not to yell loudly, I'll say it well." If you know you've made a mistake, you have to apologize.

After listening to Ling Shizhe's assurance, Zhang Yuzhen sighed, calmed down, and said to Ling Shizhe: "Ah Zhe, the work can't be done, don't make yourself too tired, rest more." ”

Ling Shizhe covered the microphone and said, "Mom, I know, I'll go to rest in a while, you guys go to sleep first." ”

Seeing that he was still stubborn, Zhang Yuzhen shook her head, turned around and went upstairs, Li Li stayed and told the maid to rest, and then she went to the kitchen to cook noodles for Ling Shizhe herself.

Seeing that they were all gone, Ling Shizhe raised the microphone again and said, "Nien, do you know that just last year, StorageTek developed an SSD?" ”

"Wait a minute, boss, I'll look it up." Nien put the phone next to him, didn't hang up, got up and walked to the filing cabinet, looked for a moment, pulled out a thick folder from the third row in the middle, returned to the desk, opened the folder, quickly glanced at the catalog page, and finally found the relevant directory about the SSD, and then flipped through the page, after a brief look, picked up the phone and said: "Boss has been found, the patent applied by StorageTek last year, number xxxxxxxxxx, is a patent for an SSD drive. ”

"Yes, that's right, that's what Nien is. Nien: How much do you know about SSDs? Ling Shizhe said excitedly.

"I've heard of it, but boss, the SSD is still just an idea, and no one has been able to make it yet, the key is the memory chip, the current memory chip is a ROM chip, and the memory chip in the computer camera is used for it, once the data is written, it can't be erased at all. It needs a chip that can be erased and written. Boss, do you have a workaround for rewritable memory chips? ”

The ROM chip that Nien said was invented by Ling Shizhe, and he came to this world in order to get the point-and-shoot camera out in advance, and he needed to use a memory chip to store the camera's various photographic data, but unfortunately the memory in this era is still RAM. RAM is not a chip, it is a magnetic drum, it was used as the memory of the computer in the early days, it is the same as the memory chip, once the power is off, all the data is gone, Ling Shizhe took out the ROM chip and became the inventor of the ROM chip.

ROM is a kind of read-only memory, when the system is out of power, they can still keep data, there is no data inside, users can use a dedicated programmer to write their own data.

Its disadvantage is that it only has one chance to write, and once it is written, it cannot be modified, and if there is an error, the written chip can only be scrapped.

"That's right, I already have a plan, you take it and write it down...... This rewritable programmable chip of mine, I call him a flashrom chip, it is a single-voltage chip, and its principle is composed of a double-layer floating gate MOS tube. But the first layer of gate medium is thin and acts as a tunnel oxide layer......

…… The erasing method is to add a positive voltage to the source, using the tunneling effect between the first stage of the floating gate and the source, to attract the negative charge injected into the floating gate to the source. Since the source is erased with a positive voltage, the source of each unit is connected together, so that the fast-wipe memory cannot be erased by bytes, but by the whole chip or block. Do you remember these?

Remembering the next one we're talking about, it's the technical point, Nion, you guys have to use a single tube design when you design, what...... Can't do it with the current semiconductor process? It can be done, it can be done completely, you listen to me, you remember, it is mainly to add a floating gate and a selection gate to the original transistor, and form a floating shed for storing electrons on the semiconductor where the current is conducted in one direction between the source and the drain...... Above it is a select/control gate that controls the conduction current between the source and drain...... 0 with electrons and 1 without electrons...... Do you understand? ”

Ling Shizhe said that the FlashROM chip is the famous flash memory chip in later generations, which is divided into NOR type and NAND type. There is a big difference between the two, NOR-type flash memory is more like memory, expensive and small capacity; The NAND type is more like a hard drive, which costs a little less and has a much larger capacity. Therefore, NOR-type flash memory is more suitable for frequent random reads and writes, and is usually used to store program code and run directly in the flash memory, for example, mobile phones are large users of NOR-type flash memory, so the "memory" capacity of mobile phones is usually not large; NAND flash memory is mainly used to store data, and the flash memory chip used in solid state drives is NAND type.

Nien, after reading the information recorded on the paper, repeated it to Ling Shizhe, and after knowing that there were no mistakes, Ling Shizhe said: "Nien will do this first, you first make an experiment and see the effect, if it works, we are going to the next step, turn him into a hard disk, and consider how to establish the basic architecture of the solid state drive; In addition, if you can buy the SSD drive patent, if you can't buy it, you have to take down the right to use the driver patent, remember, there can't be the slightest loophole in the terms, you know? Okay, I'm going to sleep late, so I'll be here today. ”

After hanging up the phone, I saw Li Li sitting next to him, looking at her appearance, she had obviously been sitting for a long time.

Without waiting for him to ask, Li Li spoke first: "I was woken up by you and couldn't sleep, I see that you haven't eaten much today, you have been calling for so long, you are also hungry, come and cook a bowl of noodles for you, you can eat it while it is hot." ”

Lifting the lid in front of him, a large bowl of hot wonton noodles was placed on the plate, Ling Shizhe touched his stomach, he was still really hungry, picked up the chopsticks and devoured it.

After eating, Li Li asked, "What kind of hard drive are you, the problem is solved?" ”

"Hmm......" Ling Shizhe nodded.

After returning from the process laboratory two days ago, he has been checking the information about the solid-state drive in the study for the past two days, and he has checked all the information in this life, in the past life, and now he can finally determine that the solid-state drive can be produced with the current technology, and there will be no unfinished things, otherwise he has to temporarily stop the blade server project, and wait until the hard disk technology has made a major technological breakthrough before it can be restarted.

Now that he was sure that the SSD could be developed, he was also relieved.

There are no mechanical parts inside the solid state drive, so that even if it is moved at high speed or even accompanied by flipping and tilting, it will not affect the normal use, and its volume can be made very small, compared with the volume of the current mechanical hard disk two refrigerators, it can directly achieve the size of the traditional hard disk in the future, or even smaller, it is very convenient to use.

In later generations, the cost of solid-state drives is higher than the cost of traditional mechanical hard disks, but in this era, if solid-state drives can be born in advance, the price will completely kill mechanical hard disks, you must know that the current mechanical hard disks have not yet reached the practical level, and the price is more than 300,000 US dollars.

The only thing that bothers him now is the capacity of the hard drive, and now is not the era of the future, 125gmb, 256gmb flying all over the sky. If this problem arises, then we will be thinking of a way, and the giant magnetoresistive effect will have no effect on it.

"Why did those people swear that when you put forward the idea of a blade server, they swore that they could do it with the current technology, but now they said that they couldn't do it, and you, the boss, were looking for a solution everywhere?" Li Li asked dissatisfiedly.

Ling Shizhe was stunned, yes, since they told him that it couldn't be achieved with the current technology, he wouldn't be on the blade server, and he wouldn't get stuck like now. I'm reborn, and I don't know much about the technological foundation of this era, you should always know, right? an elephant and say it's no problem. Now that we have a hard drive, we are all stuck.

Turning his head and thinking about it, Ling Shizhe shook his head with a wry smile, the main mistake was still him, the purpose of the blade server was a project that was hurriedly launched because the RPM+1 reduced instruction set CPU did not have any sales, because other computer companies are trying to expand the application range of computers in order to sell more computers, and they have always used CISC complex instruction set CPUs.

In this era, the market of general-purpose computers is much larger than the market for special computers used in special fields, and now computers are expensive, not a little expensive, and the users who buy them are all large enterprises and institutions, and small and medium-sized enterprises do not want to think about it, even the minimum configuration of the minicomputer of the DEC company is more than 18,900 US dollars, and the highest is more than 30,000 US dollars, the price is so high, if you don't make efforts to expand the application field, then no one will buy it, and the price of the computer will remain high. It is impossible to come down at all, the market will become more narrow, even if it is Moore's Law, its role is very limited, and it will never become the famous computer law in later generations, so general-purpose computers will become the mainstream of this era.

In such a context, the CPU of RPM+1, a reduced instruction set computer, is naturally tragic, and no one uses it.

The RPM+1 processor is a processor that goes against the trend of history, and it was born at the wrong time. In order to sell the processor, Ling Shizhe put on the blade server, at that time in the conference room, everyone just simply looked at the technical solution, did not conduct a scientific and rigorous review, and hurriedly launched, in addition to this era, people do not have the consciousness of using hard disks at all, and now the data is stored with tapes, or early steel wire tapes, I didn't think that this computer must use hard disks to run normally, and as a result, it was a tragedy.

Hey, you can't blame them, you can only blame yourself, we must establish a project audit department in the future, which is responsible for the technical review of new projects, and there must be no more situations where ideals and reality do not match.

Hearing Ling Shizhe tell the cause and effect, Li Li's anger also disappeared, and she supported Ling Shizhe's plan to establish a project audit department, and actively put forward new suggestions, such as the basic structure of the new department, management methods, procedures and systems, etc., Ling Shizhe also benefited a lot, stimulated his thinking, and actively participated in the discussion of the new department.

In the words of the two of you, and in my words, the structure of the new department of the project audit department began to gradually improve.

Time was losing little by little, and by the time the discussion was about the same, it was already 4 o'clock in the morning.

"It's so late, let's rest, next time we're discussing." The two ended the discussion, and Ling Shizhe yawned and Li Li went upstairs to the room.

Ling Shizhe thought as he walked, now this hurdle can be put down temporarily, if the SSD can be successfully solved, this hurdle is over, and I don't know how many hurdles are waiting for me in the future.