"What?" Hu Weiwu was taken aback and wondered: "Mr. Yang, what do you mean by this?" ”

It is important to know that instruction sets and compilers are the foundation of computer chips, and the success of a new computer chip in the market depends on its compatibility with most applications on the market.

If you don't even have an app, you can't promote it in the market.

Loongson chose to be MIPS compatible before, and it was precisely such a mistake that was made!

Originally, Hu Weiwu had already decided to jointly develop ARM mobile phone chips with Matrix Digital this time, but Yang Lin suddenly proposed to independently develop an instruction set, which was beyond his expectations.

Isn't this self-destruction of the Great Wall?

If a new instruction set is adopted, then what is the use of Yang Lin going to the trouble of obtaining the authorization of APPStore from Apple?!

Without the authorization of APPStore, the best result of Matrix Digital's MatrixOS is the end of WindowsPhone.

In fact, in Hu Weiwu's view, the instruction set is not a lofty thing, it is actually a collection of computer instruction encoding, and all the operations of the computer are realized through the instruction set.

It doesn't make any sense for Matrix Digital to define its own set of instructions.

For example, you can use "+", "-", "*", "/" to define addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, or "-", "+", "/", "*" to define addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and you can use the capital Chinese character "壹" to represent 1 or "一" to represent 1.

1+1=2, this expression can be understood all over the world. But one + one = two, only Chinese can understand. And if you define "-" as adding, then one - one = two, only you can understand.

Because you can't get people all over the world to follow your baton, and you can't make people all over the world use "-" to represent plus in their daily mathematical operations, you can't make "-" in school textbooks all over the world to mean plus, and you can't make "-" to express plus in proven mathematical formulas and theorems.

As a result, the technical difficulty of redefining the instruction set is close to zero. The U.S. also once banned patenting individual instruction sets, and was only allowed to apply for patents when the instruction set was combined with an implementation method.

Matrix Digital develops its own instruction set CPU, just as we abandon the traditional Arabic numerals in mathematics and use Chinese characters to prove mathematical theorems, the autonomous instruction set and Arabic numerals are only the carrier of knowledge rather than the knowledge itself. What is really valuable is the implementation of the instruction set and the mathematical theorems that are proven.

Yang Lin smiled and said: "Mr. Hu, you listen to me first, to be honest, I am not willing to give up the existing instruction set system to design a new instruction set, after all, this is completely thankless." However, the MatrixOS we are going to develop is a bit special, and if we want to realize all the functions of this operating system, the existing instruction set system may not be able to do it, so I have to do it as a last resort. We hope to start from the bottom layer of the CPU so that it can maximize the performance of MatrixOS. Of course, the new instruction set should also be compatible with the ARM system, after all, the software ecosystem is a level that we can't bypass. ”

Hu Weiwu's face softened slightly, and then he wondered again: "Mr. Yang, what kind of system is MatrixOS you are talking about, and why do you need to design a new instruction set from the bottom?" ”

Yang Lin smiled slightly and said, "This involves the company's trade secrets. I'm afraid I can't say it yet. All I can tell you is that the new type of instruction set I need is strictly a hybrid instruction set. ”

"Mixed instruction set?"

Hu Weiwu's brows furrowed suddenly.

Instruction sets can be divided into complex instruction sets CISC, reduced instruction sets RISC, and extra-long instruction sets (VLIWs).

At present, the computer chips on the market are mainly based on complex instruction sets and reduced instruction sets, and ultra-long instruction sets are very rare because they are incompatible with CISC and RISC software ecosystems, such as Intel's Itanium and NVIDIA's Denver.

The competition between CISC and RISC has been going on for years.

For example, each instruction of a complex instruction set represented by X86 can perform several low-level operations. For example, reading, storage, and computing operations from memory are all integrated into a single instruction, and the number of instructions is large and complex, and the instruction encoding format is chaotic, resulting in complex encoders and difficult pipeline design. Variable instruction lengths also introduce additional challenges in instruction alignment, which comes at the cost of performance.

The reduced instruction set, represented by ARM and MIPS, has simplified the number of instructions and addressing methods, fixed the instruction length, and unified the instruction coding format. Speeding up commonly used instructions, making it easier to design pipelines and therefore more efficient. For a period of time, because of the high efficiency of RISC, Intel had to develop RISC processors while developing the CISC product line.

Yang Lin said: "Mr. Hu." As you may know, the current CISC instruction set is being converted to RISC-like instructions in the decoding stage, converting the back-end pipeline into RISC-like form. With the development of technology, the RISC instruction set has reached hundreds or even thousands, and in fact, the two have ended up on the same path to development. As for what I'm going to do, I'm going to launch a hybrid instruction set chip that really fuses RICS, CISC, and VLIW. ”

Hu Weiwu nodded, he couldn't deny Yang Lin's words, he thought for a moment and asked: "Mr. Yang, if Matrix Digital and Zhongke Loongson cooperate, do you have any ideas about cooperation?" ”

Yang Lin said: "It's very simple, if Zhongke Loongson intends to cooperate with Matrix Digital, Matrix Digital can invest 100 million US dollars, Zhongke Loongson will invest 50 million US dollars and technology shares, and each hold 50% of the shares to establish a new chip design company, starting from the underlying design to create a new mobile phone chip for MatrixOS." ”

Hu Weiwu's face changed slightly, and he said with a wry smile: "Mr. Yang, it's no problem to establish a joint venture company, but the funds are ......."

He was a little embarrassed.

Loongson has stumbled in the market in the past two years, and can only barely support himself, and he is not a big tyrant like Matrix Digital, where to find so much money.

The reason why he came to the door this time was not because of the wealth of Matrix Digital.

Yang Lin smiled slightly and said: "Mr. Hu, if Zhongke Loongson has financial difficulties, Matrix Digital can come up with all 150 million US dollars, but we have to account for 70% of the shares." (To be continued.) )