Chapter 150 I can design, but you can't build (4k)

On his first day of work in 60, Gao Zhendong received a notice from the th Ministry of Machine Building. A day later, he was invited to the th Ministry to discuss and communicate the next steps in computer development.

After receiving this notice, Gao Zhendong decided not to do anything else today but to do one thing: to think carefully about the development of computers in the next few decades and to present appropriate contents in the form of planning suggestions at the meeting.

This matter does not require drawing lots or wasting search opportunities. If it does not involve technical details, it can be roughly determined just by relying on the history of computer technology development that Gao Zhendong has been exposed to.

After all, in principle, since the invention of semiconductor technology, there is no difference in core principles between computers sixty years later and computers today.

As long as we focus on developing the most core things, we won't be left too far behind. With Gao Zhendong around, we may even take the lead in some projects.

After thinking for a while, Gao Zhendong wrote a few words on the paper.

——Computer Technology Development Plan and Suggestions

Gao Zhendong was thinking and writing at the same time. He was not going to come up with a large and comprehensive planning proposal all at once. Many technologies would only be produced and applied when the technical conditions developed to that stage.

Gao Zhendong's mentor in his previous life had participated in the preparation of a similar plan. In his mentor's words, planning must ensure foresight, advancement, comprehensiveness, and integrity, but one thing that is very taboo is greed. Being greedy and wanting everything will ultimately disperse limited resources and result in nothing being done.

After all, in the real world, there is no "Show me the money" or "Operation cwal". The realization of any plan requires the investment of resources and the accumulation of time.

Why is it that, apart from grand strategies that cover a very long period of time, there are only a few countries that can truly implement development plans of the span of a "Five-Year Plan"?

The level of the 12th Ministry of Machine Building is obviously not enough to reach the level of formulating strategies. For example, "taking information technology as one of the scientific development strategies" is not something the 12th Ministry of Machine Building can say. That is something at a higher level.

Therefore, the communication with the 12th Ministry of Machine Building was more at the level of tactical execution, so Gao Zhendong wanted to focus on some necessary, far-reaching and significant technical nodes or technical directions.

As Gao Zhendong was thinking and writing, time quickly came to the afternoon.

Looking at the paper, there are actually not many entries left. Many of them were written down and then crossed out when they were found to be inappropriate.

For example, the artificial intelligence that was very popular in his previous life, he wrote it down at the first opportunity and then crossed it out.

The core mathematical principles of technologies such as artificial intelligence and deep learning appeared very early and had some applications, but they did not gain widespread attention until after 2010 and became popular on the entire Internet only after 2020. There is a reason for this.

Gao Zhendong’s mentor once said that a company introduced neural networks into water conservancy and hydrological forecast calculations in 2000. After learning from a large amount of data, the calculations were still acceptable, but there was a small problem: it was slow!

For ordinary hydrological agencies that do not have supercomputers, by the time they calculate the forecast results, the flood will have already passed for a day or two.

Its actual application effect is far inferior to that of traditional methods or empirical formulas.

Correspondingly, wanting to develop artificial intelligence at this time is undoubtedly a bit too much.

In the end, Gao Zhendong only left a few contents closely related to equipment manufacturing, popularization and promotion.

As for the longer term, when the time comes, Gao Zhendong's influence should be enough, but now, it is still a little short.

You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and you can't become fat in one bite.

Gao Zhendong felt that he had almost finished, so he stopped writing and gave himself a break.

This break reminded Gao Zhendong that today was Sunday. Although he had to go to work, it would not delay the accumulation of lottery draws.

I looked at my cumulative number of lottery draws, and sure enough, it had reached six.

Gao Zhendong decided to draw once, and temporarily hold 5 times on his hand for emergency use.

His mind swept across the pile of materials in the storage, and when he saw the name of the material, Gao Zhendong managed to restrain his urge to switch from printing to writing.

Be patient, be patient, there is no need for it now, wait until things get moving.

——《Single Crystal Furnace Structure Design》

It should be something that, if not everywhere in the world, at least will be available on all the major knowledge websites on the Internet.

Single crystal furnace, a device that uses the Czochralski method to grow single crystals.

Not only silicon single crystals, but many kinds of semiconductor-related base single crystal materials can be produced using this thing.

For example, the mercury cadmium telluride material crystal used in the line scan infrared thermal imager extracted earlier.

Moreover, the materials produced in this way have very good consistency. This is no nonsense, wouldn’t the consistency of single crystals be bad?

If I remember correctly, according to the history of domestic semiconductor development, at that time China was engaged in the pulling of silicon single crystals, and it should have been successful in the 60s.

But even if it succeeds, it will definitely not be able to compare with this in terms of mass production performance and crystal performance. This thing in hand integrates future mature technologies and concepts, and it is definitely different from what our primitive predecessors have come up with now.

Apart from anything else, the crystal diameters are not on the same level.

I'm sorry to my predecessors who are working on silicon single crystals, I can't wait any longer.

The next morning, Gao Zhendong rushed to the 12th Ministry of Machine Building.

In the conference room, there were leaders from the 12th Ministry of Machine Building, leaders from the Defense Work Committee, Director Li from the Computing Institute, Chief Engineer Chi, and a few unfamiliar people who were probably from the semiconductor manufacturing plant.

The meeting did not have too many cumbersome procedural routines and went straight to the point.

When Gao Zhendong learned that the National Defense Committee and the 12th Ministry of Machine Building needed to confirm the time for the development of the next generation of transistor computers, he thought for a while.

"If it's just about design, I can come up with the design of the next generation of computers within one to two years. But when it comes to manufacturing, I think it's difficult for us to manufacture it now." Gao Zhendong is confident in saying this, especially after the 4-for-1 search function. Among the materials he collected, there are many IP core designs of classic CPUs, and there are also many detailed explanations of classic CPU architectures and designs.

This is what people who work on CPLD/FPGA like to do, and some of them also like open source.

IP core design can be simply understood as the design diagram of the CPU.

The time Gao Zhendong mentioned surprised everyone present, but the fact that it could not be produced made the leaders of the 12th Ministry of Machine Building a little surprised, because they were all transistors.

"Comrade Zhendong, aren't they all transistors? If we can make a DJS-59, why is it so difficult to make your next generation computer?"

Gao Zhendong spoke freely: "Leaders, in my plan and idea, the operating frequency of the next generation computer will be about ten times that of the current DJS-59, the word length will be expanded to 16 bits, and the size will remain the same or be further reduced. I am not satisfied with the speed and word length of the current DJS-59, it is not good enough to use."

When they heard about this huge improvement, which was like launching a satellite into the sky, the people from the Defense Work Committee, the 12th Ministry of Machine Building, and the Computing Institute were all delighted and surprised.

The good news is that Gao Zhendong never makes empty promises. Since he said so, he must be sure of it.

What is surprising is that Gao Zhendong’s performance improvement plan is so radical, the span is so high that it is a bit scary.

The leader of the 12th Ministry of Machinery made the decision and said, "Comrade Zhendong, if you really think so, I dare not say anything else. We, the 12th Ministry of Machinery, fully support you."

The leader of the Defense Work Committee did not hesitate: "The Defense Work Committee system also fully supports you."

How could they not support it? Since the DJS-59 was put into mass production, the benefits it has brought to related work are visible to the naked eye. When they hear that there is a good thing that is ten times faster and has twice the word length, they have to catch up quickly.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "It's not that simple. The number of transistors in the computer I'm planning will increase dramatically as its performance improves."

Several people nodded in agreement. To improve performance, there must be a price to pay.

"I estimate that the number of transistors in this computer, not counting the storage part and only counting the mainframe, is as high as 3 to 4. In addition, with the performance improvement and doubling of word length, the transistor memory must also increase accordingly, so the overall increase in the number of transistors is a very large number."

After hearing this number, everyone was a little silent. With this number of transistors, the price must be very high.

The leader of the Defense Work Committee smiled and said, "Comrade Zhendong, if the performance of the machine is really as good as you said, it would be acceptable if the price increased ten or twenty times."

He knew very well that this was a leap from quantitative change to qualitative change.

Others also nodded in agreement, but what they didn't expect was that the biggest problem was not the price.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "It's not a price issue, but a reliability issue. At this scale, the reliability, availability, electromagnetic compatibility and other performance of a machine composed of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of transistors will drop sharply, and may even become unusable."

Everyone then realized that there was such a problem. It seems that high-tech things are not so easy to achieve simply by piling up numbers.

"Then you should have a solution? Since you have already planned the next generation of computers, I believe you must have your own considerations for the problems involved." Based on Gao Zhendong's attitude at work, the leaders of the 12th Ministry of Machine Building believed that he must have some considerations and would not just raise problems without proposing solutions.

This is actually also an issue that you should pay attention to when reporting work to your leader and seeking support. It is normal to complain about difficulties, but don't just ask for support without offering any solutions. If you mention the problem and provide several solutions at the same time, the possibility of getting support will be much greater.

As expected, Gao Zhendong nodded: "There are several ways. I will explain them one by one."

"First, I was planning to use integrated circuits to solve the problem. Integrated circuits are a new technology from abroad and are now gradually becoming practical. They can integrate many digital logic devices into a small component."

"This can greatly simplify the complexity of computer circuits and solve the problems caused by a large number of transistors."

Gao Zhendong's idea is to use integrated digital circuits to build a CPU. Although it is not as good as a fully integrated CPU, it is usable at this scale.

Just like the digital logic circuit chips such as 74, 54, and CD4000, although these circuits are still in their infancy, it is almost enough in terms of time.

Everyone present had heard of integrated circuits, especially the technical personnel who were more familiar with them.

The person from the semiconductor manufacturing plant, actually the person from Plant 1274, asked, "But we don't have integrated circuit technology right now. We have discussed this with relevant research institutes, but there is still no progress."

The first domestically produced integrated circuit was not produced until 1965.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "I know, so my idea is to walk on two legs. There should be some integrated circuits I need abroad now. We can find a way to buy some."

"At the same time, we can also conduct our own research in China, and if successful, we can start domestic substitution work."

"From now on, there is still some time until my design is completed. During this time, whether I wait for foreign technology to mature and more integrated circuits that meet my requirements to appear, or for domestic development to be successful, there should be some results, which will be just enough to keep up."

Seeing that everyone was thinking, Gao Zhendong took the opportunity to put forward his own ideas: "In fact, I came here today just to put forward my own suggestions in this regard."

The leader of the 12th Ministry of Machine Building signaled Gao Zhendong to continue.

"First, it is recommended to tilt resources towards integrated circuit manufacturing. From the perspective of existing technological development, information technology, including computer technology, is one of the main directions of future development. Information technology can penetrate into all aspects of production and life. Just like the steam engine and internal combustion engine in the past, it is one of the main technologies for the next productivity revolution."

It doesn't say it is the "main driving force". At this time, it would be better to choose the wording more carefully.

"Semiconductor manufacturing technology is one of the core basic technologies of information technology. Without it, even if we design the best products, we will not be able to produce them and will be strangled by others."

"Semiconductor technology has just started, and the gap between us and foreign countries is the smallest. As long as we invest a certain amount of resources, we can at least keep up with foreign countries and not lag behind them. In some specific aspects, we can even have some locational advantage projects, which will allow us to take the initiative in some cases."

These few words made the eyes of several leaders present sparkle. They seized the opportunity of new technologies, kept up with international standards, developed regional advantages, and maintained strategic initiative.
The two leaders of the Defense Work Committee and the 12th Ministry of Machine Building exchanged glances. The leader of the 12th Ministry of Machine Building smiled and said, "'Information technology' is a good term. You are indeed a cutting-edge technical talent with fruitful achievements. I didn't expect that in addition to specific technical achievements, you also have ideas on scientific research strategies. Do you have any specific suggestions?"

Gao Zhendong took out the paper he had written and handed it over: "This is my specific idea in this regard. It may not be mature. It is just my personal opinion. It is for reference only."

(End of this chapter)