Chapter 8 Microcontroller

I have finished speaking. Oh right—Tang Wenjie, your wife has arrived

Su Xinghe looked at his son, whose face was filled with determination. He pinched his chin and, after a long period of contemplation, slowly nodded: "Microcontrollers are embedded systems. Unlike X86, which has already formed a monopoly, they are not that complicated and can indeed be worth trying. However, it cannot rely solely on me and a few of your senior brothers; to proceed, we must establish a joint research group with the department."

Su Xinghe nodded with a smile: "Good!"

Having encountered the seemingly innocent and harmless hidden boss Su Yuanshan once again... those fellows were completely convinced and ultimately demonstrated programming skills that matched their professional background and expertise

Su Yuanshan smiled and said: "Let Senior Brother Qin stay with you at Yuanxin to work on microcontrollers. Once you are promoted to a doctoral supervisor, you can have him follow you to pursue his doctorate."

As everyone turned around and saw the poised and graceful Yang Yiwen standing in the back with a beaming smile, the sound of whistles erupted once more. Tang Wenjie pushed his chair away, rushed to Yang Yiwen's side, and embraced his girlfriend, laughing triumphantly.

Qin Weimin is currently leading a team in Jiangyin, responsible for conducting simulated docking with PCL—his area is the final process of EDA. This is equivalent to handing over the designed layout to automated equipment, which ultimately completes the production line manufacturing.

Well, Yuanxin EDA also employs such shameless methods

In fact, this is also the awkward situation faced by all professors and associate professors in the semiconductor and computer industries in the country. This is a rapidly developing technology, and once one misses the opportunity, it becomes very difficult to catch up. To change this situation, we will have to wait for another ten years until those who possess advanced technologies and concepts return to the country. By then, it will no longer be a question of whether one can catch up, but rather whether one is qualified to pursue it.

Su Yuanshan brushed off the dust from the chair, and after pulling his father to sit down, he smiled and said: "Are you asking me or the company?"

As the Technical Director, I should have pointed out some shortcomings in our previous work, but I do not wish to dampen everyone's spirits today. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future; we shall meet again in our next battle

... ...

Ahem... let me say a few more words

Upon hearing this, Su Xinghe shook his head and smiled. He gently patted his son's shoulder and said, "Son, it's just the two of us now, so I will speak frankly. If Qin Weimin's pursuit is merely to obtain a doctor's degree title, I would certainly be willing to guide him. However, if Qin Weimin wishes to advance further in the semiconductor industry, specifically in integrated circuit design, then I fear that I... might lead him astray."

Today, a heavy flush adorned the pale face of Xi Xiaoding, the Chief Engineer and Technical Director. He is the allocator of all task modules, as well as the final approver and the one who cleans up after others.

Everyone knows that this is the second boss, and he is also the money god who invests, so he gives Zhang Ke a lot of face

What are your plans next?" Su Xinghe stopped by the bench, rubbed his face, and looked at his son

Everyone was taken aback, and then they erupted into thunderous applause.

The microcontroller has only recently entered the domestic market, and the market is still in an era of fierce competition among various players, far from the situation in later years where the Intel 8051 family almost dominated the realm of 8-bit microcontrollers.

"No, Dad," Su Yuanshan said softly. "Technology can be acquired through learning, but it can also be developed through research. In the past, there were no conditions or environment. Now you have Yuanxin, and the country is also working on the 908 project. As long as we can persistently pursue those people in the West, even if we cannot overtake them on a curve, we can at least pull down a pair of pants."

The 32nd-floor revolving restaurant has a minimum consumption of 300, which is nearly a month's salary for an ordinary university student on a stipend. Even though the salaries of those present are at least double 300, it remains a high-cost venue that they dare not venture into

I do not understand technology very well, but I know that everyone has been working hard lately. So... Zhang Ke looked at his brother-in-law and pointed his index finger upwards, saying: "Brother-in-law, shall we take the stairs to the 32nd floor?"

Su Yuanshan looked at his father with admiration—a professor who could calmly acknowledge his own shortcomings in academic ability is a truly respectable professor

This situation has also led to confusion domestically—uncertainty about which architecture to adopt for development. Therefore, it is not only undergraduates who lack the qualifications to study microcontrollers; even master's and doctoral degree students can only follow their advisors to research the architectures mastered by their mentors, thus truly entering the field of "large-scale integrated circuits"

Su Xinghe's body remained still, and the effects of the alcohol dissipated significantly in an instant. He stared at his son: "Creating an entirely new framework?"

By the way, what is the small group doing? Who is in charge?

Xi Xiaoding looked around and a smile slowly spread across his face: "We are all technical people, so there is no need for pleasantries."

If you and Senior Brother Qin have developed a microcontroller with an independent architecture, at least this pair of underpants can be considered as having been pulled down, and it can be regarded as having caught up. The gains from the process of catching up are our knowledge and wealth. How can this be considered misleading the younger generation?

This EDA, as well as Yuanxin, was almost entirely developed by his genius son, who, while proud, also faces considerable setbacks

After a long period of contemplation, Su Xinghe nodded emphatically: "I will follow your advice. Tomorrow, I will call him and say that both of our opinions are to have him stay at Yuanxin."

That night, Su Yuanshan assisted his slightly inebriated father into a taxi to return to the school

Currently, the personnel are divided into three groups. One is responsible for the subsequent research and development of EDA, led by Xi Xiaoding. The other is responsible for microcontroller development, which you will oversee

Su Yuanshan nodded: "Yes, the new architecture will start with the 8-bit machine."

Your senior Qin is about to graduate soon. A few days ago, I asked him what his plans were, and he seemed hesitant. On one hand, he wants to stay at Yuanxin, but on the other hand, he wants to apply to go abroad and see the world. I am not sure how to advise him. Su Xinghe looked at his son; under the streetlight, although his son's face was still youthful, his gaze was mature and profound, unlike that of a young person

Su Yuanshan smiled slightly: "Brother Tian Yaoming is in charge, and I will assist him. We will strive to produce two decoding chips for the pager in the shortest time possible"

For example, Qin Weimin and Tang Wenjie learned the Z80 microcontroller from Su Xinghe

Three teams, three legs

As for Tian Yaoming, he is a second-year doctoral student in the Electronic Communication Engineering program at the University of Electronic Science and Technology, and he was also "borrowed" from elsewhere

... ...

Currently, Motorola is collaborating with Inspur to develop decoding chips. The domestic pager encoding adopts the International Wireless Paging Standard Code 1, which offers a large address capacity and unlimited message sending, making it most suitable for Chinese. However, in this era where Chinese character output still relies on Chinese character cards, developing a chip focused on Chinese encoding that can be directly inserted into the wireless paging station for an on-site upgrade is undoubtedly the best choice

At 6:30 PM, at the 32nd floor revolving restaurant, let us not miss each other!

... ...

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone for their cooperation and efforts over the past few months. I also extend my thanks to Yuanxin for the opportunity to collaborate with all of you and witness the birth of a top-tier industry software

Behind the workstation area, Su Xinghe, Zhang Ke, and Xi Xiaoding stood together, while the others, including Su Yuanshan, were moving chairs to sit in the empty space

Once Yuanxin collaborates with the University of Electronic Science and Technology to develop a microcontroller with independent intellectual property rights, as long as the performance remains reliable, the domestic market will at least be stable

The crowd burst into laughter—although Xi Xiaoding stated today that he would not point out shortcomings, he has indeed received quite a bit of criticism on ordinary days. Particularly, there are several computer science majors from T University and P University who, when they first joined the company, were quite ambitious and looked down on even the doctoral candidates from the Electrical Engineering department. As a result, they were caught off guard by Xi Xiaoding, who seized the opportunity to give them a thorough education.

There is no problem with the joint research group; as long as you are the leader, the greatest achievements will be yours. The most important thing is that it is still possible to proceed now

Although the code quality among various teams varies significantly, it has ultimately been built up brick by brick, establishing the Yuanxin EDA.

The completion of the alpha version today does not signify the end of our tasks. Next, we need to conduct bug fixes, streamline the code, and further improve the subsequent tools, as well as perform compatibility verification with various foundries for the PDK (Process Design Kit standard cell library and toolkit)

Company

The two individuals did not hurry to go upstairs, but instead strolled in the campus, enjoying the night breeze to sober up.

The night was deep, and Su Xinghe got up to prepare to go home, suddenly remembering that this young man still had a group he hadn't mentioned.

The reason why the 51 microcontroller is expected to dominate in the future is twofold: on one hand, Intel has almost completely released all its patents, allowing authorized manufacturers to make improvements; on the other hand, it has introduced detailed textbooks, thereby occupying a stronghold in educational institutions. As a result, by the 21st century, the textbooks used in related majors at universities across the country are uniformly based on the principles of the 51 microcontroller

Zhang Ke coughed, and upon seeing this, everyone fell silent.

Su Xinghe sighed: "It is still possible to work on microcontrollers now, but X86 is more challenging. Our engineering and science fields are not like the liberal arts; once we miss out on cutting-edge technology, it becomes truly difficult to catch up. Currently, the CPUs in the west are thriving, while we have barely any movement here... What is there to discuss about authorization—AMD didn't have authorization either, yet they managed to replicate it in just a few strikes, didn't they?"

He is well aware of what level his father, Su Xinghe, is at in both lives—having a master's degree is more than sufficient, while having a doctor's degree is somewhat lacking

Speaking of which, Microsoft's rise to prominence followed a similar path, first establishing a foothold in schools and then influencing the general public