Hammer of Technology

This actually comes from resentment towards a certain sentence of Lu Dongyi.

Ning Wei still remembers that he was still in Jiangcheng University at that time, nearing his senior year graduation, when he was relaxing in KTV with his roommates, Senior Brother Lu called and said: "Why do you go to KTV at a young age? When you retire at the age of 60 or [-], you will spend a lot of time playing.”

At that time, Ning Wei only thought that Brother Lu was very social, but after he came, he found that Lu Dongyi really thought so.

Now Senior Brother Lu is under the watchful eyes every day, in order not to wait until the age of 50 to enjoy life, he has to work hard?Otherwise, if he gets married and goes on a honeymoon with classmate Jiang, he will be told by his senior brother.My sense of urgency often has something to do with the people around me.Really, if it was in the previous dormitory, Ning Wei probably wouldn't have this feeling of not waiting for me at all.

So he really hopes that the courageous Mr. Cook can withstand the pressure and directly decide on the cooperation between the two parties, because in this way, the biggest malice from the world will be Huawei and Apple standing in front of them. , and his task is simple, you don't have to worry about negative issues such as promotion, restrictions, etc., as long as you do research with peace of mind.

This is like fighting against the king. Although it seems to be a headwind, as long as the other four players play a good team and draw the opponent's attention, he, the jungler, develops and steals towers in the rear. As long as the opponent is not paying attention, he would rather To be sure to knock off the opponent's crystal directly, that's how confident it is!

Although this situation may not look good in the early and mid-term, who cares so much about the process?As long as the final result is that the opponent's crystal is knocked off and our side is intact, the star system that should be on it will naturally be given.On the contrary, no matter how good the game is, the house is stolen in the end, even if the MVP of the whole game is on the opposite side, the star that should be lost will still be lost.

The only pity is that on this issue, all the bosses are very cautious. Even after Tim Cook listened to it, Ning Wei could tell from his expression that the bosses were indeed moved for a moment.But soon he broke free from that illusory beauty and regained his clarity.

It's not that his proposal is unattractive, it's that everyone is afraid of taking too much pressure.To put it bluntly, Mr. Ledon in Ericsson probably lacks the courage. The one in front of him may have the courage. He has been playing the downwind game for too long. When he thinks that he may have to play the headwind game for a while, he will inevitably worry. From this point of view It can be seen that these bosses are far less resilient than Huawei.

Really, companies and people are actually very similar in many cases.When a company has long been accustomed to desperately surviving in the cracks, its sense of urgency will be far stronger and sharper than other companies, and it will not miss any opportunity to turn around.But if the development has been going smoothly, it does not mean that there is no sense of urgency at all, but it may be more cautious when facing some opportunities.

Just like Tim Cook at this time, he thought about the wording for a long time before slowly opening his mouth and said: "I will seriously consider your proposal, really, Dr. Ning, very seriously. Actually, I am here this time. It is the idea of ​​in-depth cooperation. For example, I have been thinking about whether Apple’s next-generation or next-generation products can use the 5G baseband chips provided by our allies. This requires understanding the production capacity and industrialization of this new baseband chip. plan."

"At the same time, we also hope to reach cooperation with some Chinese companies on the matter of car manufacturing, and incorporate Chinese manufacturing into Apple's supply chain. We have also tried to contact some Chinese companies before, but the results were not good. But Once I came here with great sincerity, and even decided to make some concessions to complete our car-making plan. So many things can be discussed, just like what you said before, as long as you keep communicating, then Anything is possible, isn't it?"

Ning Wei nodded, then looked at Tim Cook curiously, and asked the question that he had been wondering for a long time: "Speaking of building cars, Mr. Cook, are you really planning to complete the first car according to the drawings we provided? A design to replace the Apple car."

"Ha ha!"

Hearing this question, Tim Cook did not appear unhappy as Ningwei imagined, but showed a very sincere smile: "Of course, why not? Although the design drawings you provided are very important to The requirements for the industrial base are a little higher, and some spare parts do not meet the requirements for mass production, but isn’t this in line with Apple’s philosophy? We can and will create the best and most identity-defining products on the planet to face the future concept car."

"Of course concept cars will not be mass-produced, but our engineers will reduce some configurations and make ordinary models that can be mass-produced according to the concept of concept cars. After all, car manufacturing is a new field, so the goal I set is actually very Conservative. For the future concept car, we only plan to produce [-] vehicles in three years. After careful analysis by our engineers, it is not a big problem to achieve this goal.”

"As for ordinary models, we can continue to use the design concept of concept cars. If it is not necessary, there will be no major changes in appearance, but some spare parts that are not currently industrialized are replaced. Although it is naturally not comparable to concept cars in terms of performance. , but as long as it is still better than our competitors. Also as a new industry we have just entered, I think Apple should not be so aggressive. After all, for Apple, car building is for the future, not the present.”

It makes sense, Ning Wei only feels that he has benefited a lot.

Indeed, the whole world knows that Apple is probably the company with the most abundant capital reserves on the planet, and it is also the most profitable high-tech company with the highest net profit, and it can even be said that it is not one of them.The company's cash flow is so healthy that any company's finances will be jealous.More importantly, Apple's products are still selling well, so there is no pressure on Apple's car-making plan to make a profit.

It’s just that the mobile phone industry will suddenly be subverted one day in the future, and Apple’s mobile phones will not be easy to sell. At least there is still a pillar industry that can continue to support Apple.So at this stage, people's demand has never been to occupy a large market, as long as it can strengthen the stickiness of fans and send a signal to the world that Apple cars are the most advanced on the planet, and it is enough for everyone to continue to have full confidence in Apple.

Sure enough, this is really called advancing and attacking, and retreating and defending. With a good hand, you can be willful.

After hearing Tim Cook's words, even Ning Wei felt a little envious and jealous.Of course, this also shows that it is not unreasonable for Tim Cook to make Apple the largest company in the universe.At least they are very clear about what goals they need to achieve. Unlike some companies, when they propose a new project, they actually don’t even think about why they want to do it and what kind of goals they want to achieve.

Ning Wei nodded with a sigh of relief, feeling that there are not many people who are sober like this in the world, and some of them can't vomit quickly after talking to this level: "You know, I am a researcher in mathematics, and I am a businessman. Actually, I don’t know much about it. But I think you’re right. Really, I must buy one when Apple releases a concept car. By the way, maybe our concept chip can be used in Apple’s concept car .”

"Concept chip?" Tim Cook frowned slightly and asked.

"Yes, concept chip."

Ning Wei nodded, and then explained carefully: "Of course, I haven't disclosed this news to the outside world. Mr. Cook, you should be the first to know. Specifically, we use the chip technology manufactured by the three-dimensional silicon through tube technology. The node has been advanced to 65nm, which is nearly three times higher than the 180nm technology given to you before. Well, because it is three-dimensional, so this triple includes three-dimensional triple in addition to two-dimensional three times."

"For example, with the same thickness, we used to stack three layers, but now we can stack nine layers, and the density of silicon transistors in each layer is also tripled, so that the available stacked transistor surface area is increased by about nine times, and then carbon nanotransistors The spacing has also been reduced by three times, which means that the number of transistors that can be accommodated per unit area has increased by about 27 times."

"Of course, there should be more. In fact, this process can almost design and produce some relatively high-end chip products. In fact, the number of transistors that can be stacked per unit of this process level is almost equivalent to the traditional chip manufacturing technology 10nm process level, but this It’s not easy to compare, Intel’s 7nm and TSMC’s 7nm completely tell two stories, right?”

"Of course, if we want to further improve the process, there are still some difficulties. After all, our R&D center has really worked hard to upgrade from 180nm to the current 65nm. In the past month, everyone has worked overtime day and night. Several engineers and technicians stayed up all night yesterday. When you came over, I was still guarding the laboratory. If it weren’t for a call from Director Tian, ​​I might not come back today. I still have to wait for a new generation of chip products to be produced. .Really, it’s been so hard! Of course, we are friends, and after tomorrow’s awards dinner, I will present Apple with two newly upgraded chips.”

Ning Wei sighed, with a sad look on his face, coupled with a sincere expression, and the dark circles between his brows and eyes that have not been completely tucked away, he can feel the bitterness revealed in the words, of course, it is more likely to be question marks in his head.

Less than a month?Is this chip process upgrade a joke?Is this something that can be solved by working overtime?What kind of geeks did Ningwei's experimental center raise?Really, Tim Cook doubted for the first time whether the chip manufacturing process that Ning Wei said was the same as what he understood.

It takes years for Intel to upgrade its chip technology from 180nm to 65nm, but it takes months for China.Moreover, from a structural point of view, the upgrading of the three-dimensional structure of the chip process is obviously more complicated than the upgrading of the traditional silicon chip manufacturing process. The traditional process only needs to consider the two-dimensional circuit structure, but the three-dimensional structure also needs to consider whether the three-dimensional structure will interact with each other. Interference, how to solve the heat dissipation of the tighter internal space of the transistor, and a series of problems.

But now Ningwei says they have upgraded the manufacturing process to 65nm?

Really at this moment, Tim Cook suspected that what Ning Wei was discussing with him was not the upgrading of chip technology in the industry, but the upgrading of chip technology in the magical sense.Really, at this moment he couldn't figure out how Ningwei did it.

Even if there is a long-standing technical reserve, it does not make sense.Apple has also done research on this [-]D silicon-through-silicon tube technology, and there are not many related papers. The sudden launch is enough to shock the whole world. This is why everyone chose to come to China to participate in this extremely sensitive moment. The reason for the Wolf Awards.

So if what Ning Wei said is true, then he must re-examine the tripartite cooperation that Ning Wei just said.Because there is only one truth, that is, everyone has underestimated the significance of the big data artificial intelligence platform in guiding the improvement of real industrial technology.In other words, everyone underestimates the resource integration capabilities of the March Smart Platform.

That's the conclusion Tim Cook came to in this split second.For a moment, he really had the urge to strangle the young man in front of him to death.It takes less than a month to promote the upgrading of chip technology, what else can this intelligent platform not do?

Only magic can beat magic, but now Apple doesn't have magic skills, which is a problem.Really, at this moment Tim Cook is suddenly glad that he still has a second option, and if he can't beat it, it's better to join directly.

Of course, Tim Cook will not make any decisions at this time.Even if you want to make a decision, you have to wait for the chip that carries the magic power of this era to actually get it in your hands, and then say it after passing the test.Or he can stay in Huaxia for a while at that time.But now there's really nothing to talk about.

But no matter what, the two chatted happily. Ning Wei’s office left a very deep impression on Tim Cook. If he didn’t know that the other party’s wealth is actually not as small as his, he might want to donate a set for this place. Electronic devices made by Apple...

So after exchanging a few pleasantries, Tim Cook left politely, preferring not to hold back. It is foreseeable that Tim Cook's arrival is a signal that he will be very busy in the coming days.

What made Ning Wei very happy was that he didn't even have to arrange the accommodation of these bigwigs, because these distinguished guests were all invited by the Wolf Foundation, so the accommodation was all settled by the Wolf Foundation.

Ning Wei felt that it was perfect for the host to be able to take this role.

……

After getting in the car, Tim Cook sat in the back row to calm himself down for a while, then took out his mobile phone from his pocket, without thinking about calculating the time difference. It was still 6:[-] a.m. Silicon Valley time, and he made a direct call .

The call was to John Turnus, a hardware engineer who had just taken over as Apple's senior vice president of hardware in January last year. He was in charge of Apple's entire hardware engineering team and had a direct report to Tim Cook. authority.Of course, power corresponds to obligation. High salary and high power represent high responsibility.The rules of the game in the capital world have always been very concise and clear. For example, one of the obligations is to answer calls from the boss during non-working hours.

The phone rang five times, and the call was connected just before Tim Cook's patience was exhausted.

"John, what does it mean if Huaxia's 65D silicon-through-tube chip manufacturing process has reached the [-]nm process level?"

Really, you can imagine the mood of John Turnus at this time. At six o'clock in the morning, the big boss called him to enjoy the future with him. He asked: "Well, that, Mr. Cook, what did you say just now?"

"Let me ask you what does it mean if Huaxia's three-dimensional silicon-through-tube chip manufacturing process has reached the 65nm process?" Tim Cook emphasized his tone and repeated the question.

"Has reached the 65nm process? Are you kidding me? I think this kind of assumption is impossible. It's as impossible as Master has sent 500 million people to Mars."

"Let me say it again, John, now is not the time for you to express your daredevil ideas, I am asking what it means if it has been realized!" Tim Cook's tone became more and more serious, which was the same as when he chatted with Ningwei just now. The tone of voice is different.

At this moment, the engineer on the other end of the phone probably woke up quickly, and replied: "That means that Huaxia will soon have the ability to break through the existing patent wall and design and produce general-purpose large-scale integrated circuits based on new architectures. We can even start to launch the basis This technology is used to design the next-generation CPU. The biggest disadvantage of the three-dimensional structure is the heat dissipation problem when the chip is running at high frequency. If this problem can be solved, it means that the multi-core technology will be brought to the extreme in the future. After all, the three-dimensional structure can Compared with the two-dimensional structure, the number of transistors accommodated is exponentially doubling. Therefore, if this assumption is true, I suggest that the next generation of products should immediately start the design based on the new chip structure. "

Tim Cook's tone softened a little, and he continued to ask: "In other words, if the Huaxia people have really mastered the technology of the 65nm process, should we cooperate with the Huaxia people?"

This sentence made the person on the phone hesitate for a moment, and then said: "Purely from a technical point of view, the answer is yes. Of course, the premise is that the Huaxia people really have this technology and have been able to achieve mass production. After all, this Technology is the future."

"Okay, I understand, you can rest." After finishing speaking, Tim Cook hung up the phone.

Then he made another call, and this time the phone rang three times before being connected. Tim Cook asked directly: "Dan, if the Chinese 65D silicon-through-tube technology has reached the [-]nm process?" , I will make a more comprehensive and in-depth cooperation decision with the Huaxia people, do you agree?"

"Tim, are you crazy? It's impossible!"

"I mean if!"

"If... well, if it's an if then I'm fine with it. If we can get rid of Intel's RF baseband, maybe it will make our product more popular."

"Okay! Thanks for your input, Dan!"

"Hey, hey, hey...damn it!"

When I called again, Tim Cook's phone was already busy.

……

In this way, when he got to the hotel room, Tim Cook made six phone calls and got six replies.Then he said to the secretary: "Help me arrange the itinerary. I need to stay in Huaxia for a while, tentatively... for half a month."

"But you still have to attend next month..."

"All the schedules have been canceled within half a month, and I told the outside world that I want to solve the supply chain problem of Apple's future mass production in China. This is the most important task at present."

"Okay, Mr. Cook. By the way, Mr. Cook, Intel's official Twitter and Huaxia's official Weibo have just released a promotional video. Maybe you are interested in watching it."

"Oh, really? Then let me see."

……

Walking into the room and sitting on the sofa, Tim Cook turned on his phone and logged on to Twitter, clicked on Intel’s official Twitter, and saw a series of cool instructions.

"The new intel7 process technology, the performance per watt is increased by 15%, the power consumption of multi-core with the same performance is only 1/4, with a more powerful cooling system..."

"16 cores and 24 threads..."

"8 performance cores (P cores), 8 energy efficiency cores (E cores), a new hybrid architecture..."

"30MBL3 cache with 14MBL2 buffering..."

"Newly upgraded intel thread manager, resource allocation is more reasonable..."

"Single-core frequency up to 5.2GHz..."

"Supports DDR5 memory overclocking configuration platform, with dynamic memory overspeed technology, the maximum speed is increased to 4500MT/s..."

"One-key overclocking function..."

"Support new integrated WIFI6E..."

"DMI4.0 standard, the internal communication rate has been greatly improved..."

"Intel leads a new era! Stay tuned, the 12th generation Intel Core processor, comprehensive technological innovation! Intel is the leader in redefining the chip standard in the PC field!"

……

After watching the content of the video, Tim Cook turned off his phone.

There is nothing to say, Pat Kelsinger is really anxious, this time he will not squeeze toothpaste, all the technical means have been used in the new generation of products over the years.Really, these technical integrations are worth a big product launch event, and maybe the whole world will be moved by this launch event.

If he had seen this video an hour ago, he might have been moved by Intel's breakthrough.After all, this means that the CPU in the PC field is really moving towards a heterogeneous era, and the technical level displayed by the new generation of products is absolutely subversive.

But now Tim Cook only feels that there is no wave in his heart.

After all, it is no secret that Intel has been researching heterogeneous technologies. The upgrade of the process and product technology this time is basically expected. There are indeed some black technologies that he did not expect, but it does not surprise him too much. .

But these are not so great compared with the upgrade of the three-dimensional tube technology from the 180nm process to the 65nm process.

He even knows why Intel released this promotional video at this time. Pat Kelsinger is coming to China to meet that young man. After the meeting, there must be something to talk about, and there must be some impact first. Things to give yourself confidence.

There must be sequelae of doing so. Almost all technical reserves have been used in this generation of products, and the difficulty index of upgrading the next generation will increase exponentially.

It can also be seen how much pressure Ningwei's three-dimensional silicon-through-tube chip technology has brought to this veteran semiconductor king.

It's just a pity, but it's just a matter of picking this moment, so it's okay to make this teaser video appear to be useless, and the effect probably won't be very good.The hole cards are released all at once, and when we talk back, we see new chips. How should Pat Kelsinger deal with himself?

Really, at this moment Tim Cook felt a little sympathetic to this colleague.

These days, the boss is not easy to do!

……

Although Tim Cook didn't have any special feelings about Intel's newly released technology, he even began to sympathize with Intel's new helm because of this short 1-minute promotional video.

But on the Internet, the heat caused by this promotional video is obvious to all.

Fans who love DIY are starting to boil!

Intel’s 12th-generation CPU has been bouncing for so long and finally came out, not to mention that there are so many dry goods after the launch. Although the promotional video is very short, it is full of black technology if you interpret it casually!

Many people may not know what the new Hybrid hybrid architecture represents. In fact, this architecture has already started to be used on mobile phones, but this is the first time on PCs.Basically, it can be understood as intelligently processing all tasks. The E-core is responsible for tasks with lighter loads, with instant processing and extremely low power consumption. The P-core is responsible for high-load tasks with powerful performance and faster speed.

Therefore, in order to make this architecture play a greater role, Intel also equipped with a new intelligent thread manager.

There are other revolutionary improvements such as other technologies, which are enough to make these electronic enthusiasts look forward to this product, and the discussion voice naturally rises accordingly.

"Fuck, Intel just lost the king this time! Sure enough, the 11th generation product is stretched, and the 12th generation is rushing up. When will the official release promotional video be released?"

"Lifetime series! Really, I thought that the performance improvement of the 12th generation compared to the 11th generation would not be too great. We all know that Moore's Law is coming to an end. Now everyone is squeezing toothpaste. Our CNMD chip can only be used for radio frequency. It is far from designing a CPU. It's still far away, who would have thought that Intel would be a man at this time, and seeing the performance of 12, I began to worry about whether there would be something wrong with the 13th generation!"

"Don't think about the 13th generation. Intel has always followed the basic principle that an even-numbered generation is the magic U. Just enjoy the pleasure brought by the 12th generation first! What's annoying is that it released a promotional video and didn't even say the specific launch time. Bad review!"

"I was going to change my computer this month, but now I have to wait. I just hope that the motherboard manufacturer and the DDR5 platform can give me some support! Don't be fooled by such an awesome CPU!"

"Good guy, has AMD offended Intel recently? Is it so unreasonable to just lose the king?! Brothers, let's make a prediction. We will immediately welcome AMD's big price reduction promotion. After the release of 13, AMD will not cut prices. Immediately broadcast a handstand and rotate 360 ​​degrees to pee..."

"MMP, it's too early to replace the computer. Intel announced the news one day earlier. I wouldn't go to get a knife at this time! Ask, is there any good reason to return the new computer that has just been used for half a month? "

"Everyone, don't get excited. Don't you think that Intel's generosity is unreasonable this time? By the way, maybe you saw our CNMD chip structure anxiously, so you just give up on yourself? The style of squeezing toothpaste has given up. This is the rhythm of self-destruction. Ah! If you wait a little longer, maybe a generation of CNMD structures will be born in a while!"

"Let's go upstairs and save yourself. Although CNMD is very powerful, the 180nm process is not bad for radio frequency. It is used to design CPU. Do you want to go back to the Pentium era?"

……

Yes, as soon as Intel's promotional video came out, the entire PC consumer market was boiling.

Although in the era of the mobile Internet, ordinary personal computers are no longer even standard configurations for households, but for those who like large-scale games or are engaged in design work, the performance of personal desktop CPUs and GPUs is still a very hot topic.

These people are generally too lazy to speak out in other forums, but the existence of this group of people must not be underestimated. After all, those who really like to play games generally still have some financial strength.It is true that they may not like shopping very much, dress more casually, and are relatively low-key on weekdays, but they are really unambiguous about spending money on electronic equipment, let alone the slightest bit of reluctance.

Not to mention that Intel has indeed invested a lot of money this time. The performance improvement of the new generation of CPU is indeed very powerful, which is already very topical. Topics, hot searches on major forums and social media were quickly pushed to the top, and all kinds of soft articles were overwhelming, flooding the entire network, taking advantage of the trend to capture the information platforms of the entire network.

The result is naturally very gratifying. Even passers-by who don’t care about PC hardware can know that the legendary Intel has amplified its tricks again by swiping Douyin or the pop-up messages of various software, and this time it directly exploded , launched a CPU that is said to be full of black technology, and it works better with the new generation of Microsoft 11. The technology circle once again staged a big drama of the return of the king.

The only thing that can compete with Intel's promotional video on the Internet today is the news that the Wolf Award ceremony will be held at Huaxia Yanbei University.

Of course, this news was not revealed today. In fact, it has been hotly discussed on the Internet for several days. It was only today that the Wolf Foundation made an official announcement. According to the statement of the Wolf Foundation, the reason why this time The award ceremony was chosen in China, instead of being held in Israel according to the tradition. The main reason is that the foundation decided to change the awarding mode in the new era. In the future, the Wolf Awards will adopt a world tour awarding mode every year. location of the person.

The passage in the official announcement probably also explained that the reason why Huaxia Capital was chosen for this year's awards ceremony was probably because the main winner was this year's Wolf Prize in Mathematics winner - Ning Wei.