Chen Shen spoke in detail about the IP core, and Father Chen also had a basic understanding of this invisible thing in his words and knew its function.

Chip design is already the upstream of the chip industry chain, but this IP core is still further upstream of this chip design, it is located in the upstream of the chip industry!

"There are two key points in the design of a chip, one is the instruction set, and the other is the microarchitecture."

"When a CPU performs a computing task, it needs to comply with a certain specification, which is called the instruction set, which is a collection of computer instructions. The x86 architecture of the toothpaste factory and the ARM architecture of ARM refer to the CPU that uses the corresponding instruction set. ”

"......," Chen's father was silent for a long time.

This is clearly not understood.

Chen Shen rubbed his eyebrows, and came up with another statement: "The instruction set is like a person going up and down the stairs, normal people use their brains to think about it and know that they have to open their legs first, and then wave their hands, step by step, this instruction set is used to guide the chip to calculate the steps needed to 'go up the stairs', but the process of going up the stairs may be different in different instruction sets." ”

Father Chen suddenly came to his senses and said into the phone: "You go on, try to be as easy to understand as possible, my head is not as powerful as yours, and I can fit so many things." ”

"Okay......"

Chen Shen was a little helpless, and continued: "In addition to the instruction set, another key is microarchitecture. This refers to the internal structure of the CPU, in other words, the arrangement of the internal transistors. Microarchitecture is to cooperate with and implement the instruction set, so according to the different instruction sets, the design of the microarchitecture is also different, and the same set of instructions can be designed with many different microarchitectures. ”

"It's like...... Just like a person walking up a staircase, it takes both hands and feet to work together, but jugglers can also walk up stairs upside down with their hands, and this microstructure is the tool needed to realize the idea of 'going up the stairs', as long as it can achieve the desired effect. ”

"I understand, I understand......" Comrade Chen nodded again and again on the other side, Chen Shen was not sure if he really understood, anyway, if he didn't understand him now, the old man could still go to a friend to understand, it didn't matter.

He continued: "These two things belong to the IP core of the chip, and in the current situation, there is no IP core with sufficient influence in China. ”

"The instruction set of the chip is either ARM or toothpaste factory, and 95% of the world's mobile phones and tablets are ARM architecture."

Huawei's mobile phone chip also uses the ARM instruction set and architecture, and buying the instruction set will also give a public microarchitecture for verifying the instruction set, so Huawei chips have always used this public microarchitecture.

However, this is the norm in the chip industry, even if it is a four-star, Qualcomm and other companies have to use ARM architecture and microarchitecture on mobile phone CPUs and GPUs.

It's not that they don't want to go beyond this public microarchitecture and redesign a better microarchitecture, but they all fail so badly that they either give up or change the public architecture to continue to use.

It smells so good!

There is only one Apple on this road, and relying on the system is its own big advantage, it has taken a lot of effort to get through.

In short, these two things are a convenient universal template, and after buying, you have to make a lot of modifications or adjustments before they can be put on the market.

When Father Chen heard this, he couldn't help but be curious: "These two things are difficult?" ”

Chen Shen thought for a while, "Depending on the situation, the instruction set is still very easy to make, and even let an undergraduate student do it, but the design of the microarchitecture is not so easy." ”

That requires top-notch chip design capabilities.

After all, even four-star and Qualcomm have not been able to jump out of the five-finger mountain of ARM public microarchitecture.

Chen Shen said: "And although it is easy to make instruction sets, this thing is related to software and system ecology. ”

"Taking mobile phones as an example, the two mainstream operating systems of mobile phones and tablets both support the ARM architecture, and if we develop a new set of instructions, it will be difficult to get support from them. Even with their support, the ARM-based chip only supports the ARM instruction set to run, so as long as the mobile phone using our instruction set cannot use the ARM-based chip......"

When Chen Shen said this, Comrade Chen already understood.

The instruction set, CPU, and operating system are all closely linked to each other!

They constitute a big ecology, and if you want to overthrow them, it is not enough to make technological breakthroughs, but to re-establish an ecology.

He suddenly thought of what Chen Shen had just said to him, and suddenly realized: "That's why you want to use VR to break the game?" ”

"That's right, only by starting from the three aspects of chips, operating systems, and instruction sets, and building a new ecology at the same time, can it be possible to overthrow their advantages in a short period of time."

If it weren't for the systematic technical support, if Chen Shen came by himself, he would have had a headache in the face of this situation for a long time.

But now that there is a systematic homework to copy, things should go a lot smoother.

"Then the next step is to establish a chip department as you just said, which is responsible for the design business of carbon-based chips?"

Chen Shen continued: "Yes, in the next era, the design threshold of chips will be higher and higher, and with the advent of the era of carbon-based chips, IP cores will become a new scarce resource. ”

Thinking that his father must not understand the meaning of this passage, he explained by the way: "The future development direction of chips is to achieve as many functions as possible on a chip." ”

"This kind of chip is called SOC chip, which integrates a series of CPU, GPU, ISP, sound card, baseband, memory controller, etc., or even more chips."

"This means that it reduces the performance limitations that were previously caused by the delay of signals moving in and out of multiple chips, and it improves the reliability of the system and reduces the cost of the system. In addition, it saves space inside the device and reduces energy consumption at the same time. ”

Father Chen on the other end was confused, but he still remembered Chen Shen's words just now: "What does this have to do with the IP core you just mentioned?" ”

Chen Shen patiently explained: "The complex functions of the SOC chip will also lead to its development becoming more difficult, and if the IP core is not used in the research and development, the development cycle and cost of the chip will be unbearable for most companies." ”

The template of the IP core is used in the development of SOC chips, which is like a brick that can be used immediately.

With these "bricks", when chip designers are faced with some non-core functions, they only need to take them and use them directly, and designing chips is as convenient as building a house.

"The IP core is the tool we use to influence the design of carbon-based chips."

In the design data given by the system, the IP core of a part of the carbon-based chip has been given, and they only need to continue to study it on this basis.

At least it's a long way ahead of other manufacturers.

"Coupled with the preparation process and VR glasses, we have a strong influence on chip design, manufacturing, and application."

"As long as the closed loop of this chain is successful, we will be the king of carbon-based chips!"

"When the time comes, maybe our company will also be able to 'sanction' the chip industry in other countries......"

After hearing this, Father Chen couldn't help but look at Dongfang......