Cao Weidong hurried over after receiving the news.
With his arrival, Lu Youtong, director of the management department of the research base, and the chief engineer in charge of EDA software development came to welcome him.
Everyone comes together.
When everyone arrived, Lu Youtong said.
"Director, we are ready to test the Spark EDA4.0 version."
The current product system of Xinghuo Electronics Factory is the free learning version 2.0, the version 3.0 to be released, and the 4.0 version which is still in the research stage and is about to undergo final testing.
"Can."
Cao Weidong nodded.
Spark EDA4.0 will start testing today.
After receiving the call, he came over specifically to watch.
Following Lu Youtong’s order, the test began.
An engineer stepped forward to operate.
The startup screen of Spark 4.0 continues Spark’s consistent simplicity——
Under the dark night sky, a star gradually fades and shines. Finally, the picture freezes, and then switches to the user interface.
Smooth!
Comfortable!
concise!
Especially the pure Chinese interface gives people a natural sense of intimacy.
However, in addition to these advantages, what is surprising is the way Spark EDA operates——
"In addition to these advantages, the biggest improvement of Spark 4.0 is automated operation." The chief engineer introduced with a smile.
"Automated operation?"
Cao Weidong asked curiously.
"Yes, it is what we often call fool-like operation..."
said the chief engineer.
“We have built in many underlying logic chains commonly used by users in the software. When users want to perform certain operations, and the operations are consistent with our preset results, they can directly activate our preset programs and automatically
Complete design."
A cadre of a Xinghuo Electronics Factory who was visiting the side asked in surprise.
"So powerful? Doesn't it mean that many people who have never learned it can quickly learn it?"
"No, we currently don't have many presets to meet most uses, and EDA is just a tool. Whether it can produce results depends on the user."
Tools can only optimize and can never replace manual labor.
Of course, this deep-rooted concept was only limited to before the emergence of artificial intelligence...
At this time, the chief engineer patiently explained to everyone.
"And in the automated process, users can add and modify parameters according to their own needs, so the results will be different, and this requires users to perform flexible operations."
"Of course, what we have to do in the future is to sort out more operational logic chains, add them to the software "library", and gradually improve them..."
Cao Weidong sighed.
“It’s already pretty good.”
He feels that this software is actually somewhat intelligent.
Of course, there is still a long way to go before true intelligence, because that requires sufficiently powerful computer computing power.
In terms of current technology, the development direction of EDA is nothing more than optimization of algorithms and architecture.
Well-known international companies, or Xinghuo Electronics Factory, are all working hard in these two aspects.
But in Wanjie Mall, Cao Weidong saw EDA software belonging to future technology.
There are two branches in it.
One is intelligence.
The second is cloud computing.
The former is a combination of industrial software and intelligent programs.
Rely on the computing power of the computer itself for intelligent deduction, design, error correction, and testing of the chip.
The latter directly moves EDA's computing power to the cloud space.
How big the computing power of the cloud server is, how big the computing power of EDA is.
Theoretically, there is no upper limit to the computing power of EDA that uses cloud computing power, and its performance depends on the running equipment.
Of course, these two development paths lead to the same destination.
Because with the development of chips, we will inevitably enter the sub-nanometer era, the optical nano era, or the ultra-large-scale integrated circuit era. At that time, only by relying on huge computing power and the refined application of artificial intelligence computing power can we complete everything.
Required chip design.
Times are advancing, and technology will inevitably iterate.
However, Cao Weidong has not yet redeemed those technologies.
Because in terms of the current ecosystem, even if he builds such EDA software, it will be shelved.
Today's commercial computers only have two options after enabling EDA software.
1. Software crashes.
Second, the computer crashed.
"Domestic lithography machines have made breakthroughs. After adopting immersion technology, they have theoretically entered the 14nm era and can even hit 7n..."
"The hardware has matured. Should I develop domestic CPUs and GPUs, domestic commercial computers and operating systems?"
Cao Weidong suddenly came up with this idea.
A chip is a semiconductor device that integrates all electronic components and circuits.
There are roughly four types of chips used in computers, namely CPU, GPU, TPU and Soc.
The CPU is the core chip of the computer, responsible for executing instructions in the program and processing various data and information.
GPU is a chip specially used to process graphics data. Through a large number of computing cores, it can process a large number of simple computing tasks in parallel, thereby achieving efficient image rendering and parallel computing.
These are the two types of chips that are most easily touched every day.
What Ni Guangnan originally wanted to study was the CPU.
The other two chips, TPU and SOC, belong to deeper areas, helping artificial intelligence perform deep learning and realize various complex system-level applications - such as intelligent voice assistants and self-driving vehicles.
"Actually, this idea is not impossible. Mr. Ni is in my team. If I develop self-research projects for CPU and GPU chips, he should be the first to join."
“I don’t know what Lenovo would have developed into without Mr. Ni.”
The development of history has its own inertia.
Even though Ni Guangnan chose to join Spark and Liu missed Ni, Lenovo was still established.
But the scholar who collaborated with Liu was replaced by someone else.
Cao Weidong felt that if he had the opportunity, he could take a look at Lenovo's development status.
Just when Cao Weidong was thinking wildly, the Spark 4.0 software had been tested. All the engineers and factory cadres in the entire research room were shocked and speechless by the software, leaving only heavy breathing echoing in the research room.
Cao Weidong looked around and said with satisfaction.
"We will improve the 4.0 software as soon as possible and fix the bugs that appear in it. I have a hunch that this will be an important weapon for us in the Spark EDA market."
The engineers present responded one after another.
Cao Weidong stood up and was about to return to his office when his secretary ran into the laboratory with a worried look on his face.
"Director, something serious has happened!"
"What happened?"
"Cadence issued a notice and united several major international EDA software manufacturers to establish an EDA software alliance. This alliance publicly accused us of violating market rules and demanded an apology and compensation, otherwise we would be sanctioned through commercial means!"