"Mr. Qin, we have discovered this situation since last year, because our chips have developed too fast and have gradually exceeded the needs of customers." Mr. Ni had embarrassment on his face: "Our advanced chips, customers
It can’t be used at all. Now, what we sell on the market is Loongson 5. The main frequency of this kind of processor is as high as 5GHZ, which ordinary customers can’t use at all.”
Loongson-5 was once the flagship processor and was not put into the civilian market at all. It was used for various domestic advanced equipment, such as the 055 large drive. In order to meet the needs of intercepting ballistic missiles, Loongson-5 was installed. However, with the development of Loongson
After the successful development of No. 6, Loongson No. 5 began to be put on the market.
However, Loongson-5 is not as popular as before. Its powerful computing power can support military use, but many armies dare not use it. Just like the United States, do they dare to use Loongson processors on their weapons and equipment? Of course.
I don’t dare. If there is a backdoor or something like that on this processor, can their weapons and equipment still be under their control?
I don’t dare to use it for military use, but not for civilian use. After all, you can just buy a computer and use it when copying it, but you don’t need it in ordinary times!
If you spend a lot of money to buy a computer, and then you are surprised to find that you can't use even 1% of the processor's performance, is it still necessary?
The performance of the previous Loongson 4 processor is enough for use!
Under this situation, the processor naturally began to have overcapacity. Everyone felt that there was no need to continue to update their computers, and now it is very smooth!
"Yes, with the development of technology, chips will have overcapacity sooner or later." Qin Tao nodded, he was mentally prepared for this situation.
Let’s look at future generations. Once upon a time, a domestic assembly factory claimed that its computer production was the first in the world. But what happened next? The computer era has passed, and the mobile phone era has emerged. Mobile phones can do many of the functions of computers, so computers have become unsaleable. This
The assembly plant also began to go downhill.
And mobile phones have not been popular for many years. After all, when the market becomes saturated, especially when people’s pockets start to shrink, it will be impossible to replace mobile phones frequently. No matter how the mobile phone manufacturers fool, people will not be able to follow their assumptions.
How much is it worth to replace a mobile phone every year? How much is it worth to replace a kitchen knife or a vegetable basin?
Any market will gradually become saturated.
The computer market has begun to become saturated, what should we do?
Although the shipment volume of mobile phone chips is still large, and although Dongfang is still a strong player in this field, Mr. Ni is still very worried. After all, Loongson Company started with computers, and they do not want to see computers.
The market is gradually shrinking, and computer products are gradually being marginalized.
But they couldn't think of any other way, so they could only throw this problem to Qin Tao. Qin Tao was definitely smarter and more visionary than them.
"At present, our Loongson-6 is mainly pursuing multi-core and improving multi-tasking processing capabilities. However, because our processor is too advanced, the performance is definitely excessive." Qin Tao began to analyze: "So, the research and development of the processor
The process can be slowed down and there is no need to update prematurely. At the same time, we need to launch some low-priced products to expand market share."
Loongson has always been high-end, and the price is naturally not low. After all, only when the price is high enough can it make enough profits to invest in research and development. The price of the chip cannot be calculated based on the value of the sand.
As for the low-end market, it is left to the likes of Intel to survive.
Since the high-end market is already saturated, let’s develop towards the low-end!
"The market for processors priced at one to two thousand or even higher is definitely limited. We can reduce the price to a few hundred yuan. For example, for a processor that costs more than 100 yuan, the price of the entire computer can be reduced to one."
At about a thousand yuan, computers can be put into thousands of households, and even those in Africa who live in mud houses can afford it."
Mr. Ni nodded: "This is a way."
"At the same time, in order not to affect the premium capability of our Loongson, we can give it another name or other series. Loongson is still high-end, and this newly launched product focuses on the low-end market."
Mr. Ni nodded.
"Of course, this is not enough. We still need to explore new markets. Although the performance of general-purpose processors is excessive, the performance of graphics processors will never be excessive. In the future, we must vigorously develop graphics processors."
Mr. Ni looked at Qin Tao in surprise: "Use a graphics processor instead of a general-purpose processor?"
"Yes, they are different, and the objects that need to be calculated are also very different."
In the early days, computers only displayed characters. At this time, no special graphics card was needed. Just a character conversion circuit was enough. Later, when entering the graphical interface, the graphics card was needed to be responsible for the conversion. In the 3D era, a large number of graphics displays require graphics cards.
Auxiliary.
Specifically, for example, when playing a shooting game, how the characters in the game hold up their guns, how the bullets aim and fire, and their trajectory are all calculated by a general-purpose processor.
However, in order for the gun to show a metallic texture, the surface needs to be rendered, and the special effects of the bullet flying out need to be rendered. When the bullet hits the opponent's human body, how the blood shoots out, and how the opponent reacts, all require graphics cards to calculate.
Therefore, the emergence of graphics cards will make games more realistic. As the graphics become more and more beautiful, the computing power required by the graphics card will become more and more powerful. As for a general-purpose processor? It only needs to be able to calculate basic calculations. The graphics are all enhanced by the graphics card.
.
If the graphics card is not powerful, the screen may freeze, giving you the worst experience.
Over the years, the performance of display devices has also been continuously improved. At first, it only had a resolution of 800*600, and then gradually increased to a resolution of 1024*768, and then 1080P, which is 1920*1080, and later 2K.
With 4K, the resolution is getting higher and higher, and the performance of the graphics card required is getting stronger and stronger.
The refresh rate of games will also become higher and higher. In the past, 30 frames was enough, but now it requires 60 frames, or even more than 100 frames...
"Mr. Qin, are you talking about playing games? We..."
Mr. Ni is engaged in chips, so he naturally hopes that the chip market will become bigger and bigger. However, Mr. Ni also has a bottom line. Of course, he knows that if he continues to promote games in order to sell chips, especially those students who have no self-control.
The game will definitely harm them.
Therefore, Mr. Ni does not want to promote the game, especially without a bottom line.
"Games are only part of it, and more importantly..." Qin Tao thought for a while: "Do you know our future city?"
Mr. Ni nodded: "I know."
Future City is an important project of Mingzhou Group. The construction of the city is designed according to the future. It is very tall and full of science fiction, etc... Mr. Qin will not talk casually. Does he mean to express his words by saying this?
Will a large number of chips be needed in the future?
"The future city is very smart, and this intelligence needs to be based on a lot of calculations, and parallel computing is more convenient."
In later generations, artificial intelligence has become very popular and has penetrated into all aspects of society. When you buy a ticket, commonly used software will quote you a high price. If you are a novice, you will be given a low price. This involves big data calculations.
Big data is still a very low-level form. Advanced artificial intelligence can no longer tell the difference between true and false. In the past, when an acquaintance borrowed money from WeChat, he could confirm the authenticity by just making a video call, but with artificial intelligence
As it develops, what you see with your eyes may not be real anymore, but may be synthesized by artificial intelligence.
This kind of artificial intelligence does not rely on people to imitate, but relies on independent learning. When it sees a human face, it will analyze it, build a relevant model, and then perform calculations. In this process, programmers do not need to make any intervention.
.
When it comes to model building and learning, parallel computing will be involved. These are data-intensive and computing-intensive operations, and parallel computing is the best algorithm.
If you want to use parallel computing, a graphics card is the most suitable.
A single-core general-purpose processor can only queue up tasks and come one by one. Although it seems that it can handle multiple programs at the same time, it can still take care of PPt's work while opening QQ and watching movies. In fact,
There is only one processor, which queues up different task processing requirements.
Multi-core processors can also process several cores at the same time, and the number of processors is only ten or eight, which is not too much.
Graphics processors are very different.
There are hundreds or thousands of processing units in the graphics card. The common 980Ti has 2816 units, the 1080Ti has 3584 units, and the more powerful 4080 graphics card has 14,000 units.
Each processing unit is very weak and can only process some simple data. However, with so many processing units working in parallel, the computing power is quite powerful!
It is precisely because of this advantage that graphics cards have become the main tool for parallel computing and a powerful assistant for artificial intelligence. In order to research artificial intelligence, various companies often use hundreds or thousands of graphics cards to perform calculations.
Do you still have to worry about a surplus of chips? Graphics cards will never go out of style!
After hearing Qin Tao's introduction, Mr. Ni gradually relaxed.
"Next, in order to seize the commanding heights of science and technology in the future, we will vigorously develop artificial intelligence technology. Goose Factory will be responsible for the software, and our Loongson Company will be responsible for the hardware. We will develop more powerful graphics processors to serve scientific research and people's lives.
."
Mr. Ni nodded: "Okay, Mr. Qin, if you say this, I feel relieved. We will develop more display chips in the future and strive to achieve rapid development in artificial intelligence in our country!"
Playing games? Mr. Ni doesn’t want to provide advanced chips for gamers, but doing scientific research is a must!
"In the future, artificial intelligence will develop rapidly, and all high-tech companies around the world will attach importance to the use of this technology, and we will need to make some restrictions. For example, the most advanced chips can only be used by ourselves and will never be exported!"
"Yes." Mr. Ni nodded: "Just like our Loongson processor, we also use high-end processors for our own use and low-end ones for export."
"Just figure out the direction and work hard. By the way, are there any questions?"
"Mr. Qin, before you came, we thought of many ways. Some people even suggested causing factory accidents and artificially causing a shortage of chips in the market. Those are not the right ways. After listening to your arrangements, we are finally relieved." Ni
The old man said: "By the way, Mr. Qin, what do you think of quantum computers?"
Factory accident? That is not the behavior of a gentleman. Of course Qin Tao will not use it. As for the quantum computer...
"Quantum computers are indeed a new research direction. After all, if our chips continue to develop, sooner or later we will encounter physical limits, and Moore's Law will also end."
Chips cannot develop indefinitely. When the manufacturing process reaches 1 nanometer, it will encounter the basic law of force: quantum tunneling effect. Simply put, two close circuits will discharge and electrons will pass through them.
, the circuit will not work properly.
At the same time, manufacturing chips requires a photolithography machine. The wavelength of the photolithography machine is also limited and cannot be continuously reduced. When the photolithography machine cannot accurately etch circuits, it will naturally reach its limit.
If you want to break through this limit, you have to look for more advanced technology. Quantum computers emerged under this circumstance.
Different from the chip principle of conventional computers, quantum computers use brand-new quantum technology. Its basic unit is qubit, which represents 01 and 1 through two quantum states, such as the polarization direction of photons, the spin of electrons, etc.
, calculations are performed through quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, and the computing speed can far exceed that of computers built with transistors, and it will not encounter those physical limits.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Moreover, another more advanced aspect is that the method of quantum computers is very suitable for parallel computing, so quantum computers and artificial intelligence are the best combination.
"Since you are interested in this kind of computer technology, of course you can start research." Qin Tao nodded. We are still far from the physical limit of the chip, but it is best to be prepared for a rainy day.
When new technologies replace old technologies, there will be many twists and turns. Just like when electric vehicles replace fuel vehicles, it will cause counterattacks from fuel vehicle companies. Quantum computers will also encounter this problem if they replace conventional computers. If conventional computers are produced
If a business comes to develop it, it will be different.
"Okay, then should we study in secret, or..."
"Quantum computers can be studied secretly. We can make this artificial intelligence public and add it to our future city projects."
High-end artificial intelligence will definitely be used in the future city. Everyone who enters the future city will enter the management of artificial intelligence. When they walk to the gate of the community, the door will open automatically. When they enter the home, the water heater will be turned on.
Okay, this is so classy!
"Yeah." Mr. Ni nodded.
A few days later, Loongson held a press conference.
"Our Loongson Company will establish a dedicated artificial intelligence research and development center. We believe that this technology can benefit mankind!" Mr. Ni stood on the rostrum and talked eloquently in front of countless cameras.
"First of all, let me introduce to you what artificial intelligence is. This technology is based on computer science and integrates interdisciplinary subjects such as psychology and philosophy. It is mainly used to simulate, extend and expand human intelligence. Through these studies
, to create intelligent machines that respond in a manner similar to human intelligence.”
Now, Loongson Company is already a leader in high technology. It can not only develop advanced machines, but also formulate various concepts.
Artificial intelligence was proposed by Loongson Corporation!
"Are you going to develop robots?" a reporter asked below.
"In many science fiction novels, there will be robots that look exactly like humans, but we don't necessarily have to develop machines that look like humans. What we study is thoughts, machines that think the way we humans do." Mr. Ni said: "
For example, language recognition, image recognition, language processing, etc. are the primary forms of artificial intelligence."
Artificial intelligence sounds very high-level, but it can actually be explained very simply. You greet him, he greets you, you ask questions, and he answers, all based on human thoughts. This is artificial intelligence.
For example, if those intelligent customer service personnel do not answer according to pre-determined answers, but can analyze the customer's questions and then find the most appropriate answers, this is artificial intelligence.
You can even let two artificial intelligences talk to themselves, chatting all day and night, and still speak normally. This is a qualified artificial intelligence.
Following Mr. Ni's speech, the topic of artificial intelligence research and development instantly became a hot topic around the world.
Some media outlets expressed support.
"Our future world must be intelligent. With artificial intelligence to help us, we can make the future world better!"
"In the future, if you are lonely, you can definitely find artificial intelligence to accompany you!"
“In addition to giving birth to children, artificial intelligence can do everything!”
At this point, the topic started to deviate.
Some people also expressed concerns.
"Artificial intelligence will be the most dangerous technology of our century, and this technology will lead to the extinction of mankind!"
This is a bit sensational to say.
Seeing this argument, Qin Tao sneered.
"This is because they are afraid of our technological progress, so they try their best to exaggerate the dangers of our technology. If they were the first to propose this technology, they would publicize how advanced their technology is everywhere."
"Yeah, these people don't have any skills, so they are jealous of others." Zhang Dong, the person in charge of the goose factory, said. He received the news from Qin Tao and came to report on his work.
"However, Mr. Qin, this should be in the field of software. Just leave it to our Goose Factory. Isn't Loongson Company engaged in hardware?"
Over the years, Goose Factory has developed a lot of software, especially intelligent driving in cars and airplanes. In his eyes, this is the category of artificial intelligence, so this artificial intelligence should still be Goose Factory's project!
"You have more important things." Qin Tao said: "In comparison, artificial intelligence is just child's play. If it works well, we can be more powerful than Soros!"