(hereinafter referred to as "HCMC"), a long whiteboard stands quietly, which has just witnessed the countdown to the sprint of the C4000A processor, and is now filled with the points of yesterday's review and today's task list of the digital beamforming chip (hereinafter referred to as "DBF chip"). Now it is full of digital beamforming chip (hereinafter referred to as "DBF chip") yesterday's review points and today's task list.
The morning light shines through the window, reflecting the line of yellow characters on the top of the whiteboard - "DBF chip back to chip test launch ceremony". The banner is still brightly colored, and it witnessed the exciting moment more than a month ago: the DBF chip independently developed by Huachuang Micro led by the successful lighting, completed from the design code to the physical chip of the "key leap".
Since the beginning of this year, commercial space construction has been speeding up, and a communication satellite, like a "mobile base station" in the vast starry sky, has set up a data sky road for remote mountainous areas, vast oceans and other areas that have long been in the "signal desert". As one of the core devices of StarNet communication, DBF chip has been carrying the mission of "China's digital core on StarNet" since the beginning of its research and development, and has made every effort to ensure the efficient and smooth "dialog" between StarNet and Heaven and Earth.
As the DBF chip design is finalized and productized, and will blossom in near-Earth space, CCTM will continue to inject strong kinetic energy into the "China Chip" with its hard-core digital chip strength and proactive spirit of innovation, and move forward to a broader ocean of stars.
"Core Light":"Smart Ears Array" connects the world.
At 9:00 a.m. on October 13, Liu Jing, the person in charge of the DBF chip R&D project of HCT Micro, walked quickly to the whiteboard in the center of the office, and the routine morning meeting started on time.
"Everyone, tell us about the progress of yesterday's test!" Liu Jing opened the door. More than ten team members reported in turn, with a smooth tone and precise data. Half an hour later, Liu Jing had sorted out the problematic veins and quickly laid out the testing priorities for the day.
Afterward, everyone quickly returned to their respective test benches. The only thing left in the room was the slight buzzing of the instruments running, as well as the thin sound of keyboard tapping.
Concise and concise, calm and focused, is the consistent style of these engineers. But when it comes to the DBF chip back to the chip test, everyone immediately opens the box.
In March of this year, the DBF chip's layout file was officially delivered, starting the crucial transformation from blueprint to physical object. hundreds of chip samples were escorted back to the company by special personnel and vehicles at the end of August. Although the chips arrived well past the end of the day, the project team members and company leaders were welcoming the arrival of the chips.
These chips encapsulated in a multi-layer protective box, only ten square centimeters in size, in the light flashing silver. At this moment, they are about to usher in the first "passing test" - power-on test. Success or failure is here: if you can successfully "light up", means that from the concept to the product took a solid step; if you fail to "stone", not only is tens of millions of dollars of production costs sunk, but also means that the whole team to open a new round of R & D do not know the end of the journey! The team will have to start a new round of research and development without knowing the end of the journey.
When the first chip was carefully removed by Liu Jing and installed on the test board, more than twenty pairs of eyes focused on the screen. The air seemed to freeze, time passed in silence, and everyone waited with bated breath for the results.
After nearly two hours of waiting, a line with the word "PASS" suddenly popped up on the screen. "Successfully lit!" Liu Jing clenched her fists fiercely, her voice carrying uncontrollable trembling. The accumulated tension and anticipation instantly erupted, and cheers and applause resounded throughout the laboratory.
So, what kind of "black technology" is hidden in this DBF chip that has gathered the team's efforts for several years?
Liu Jing used a vivid analogy: in a noisy environment, the traditional communication chip can only rely on a "single ear" efforts to distinguish specific sounds, the effect is limited and susceptible to interference; and DBF chip not only has all around the "intelligent ear array", but also carries a "super brain" that can instantly analyze the sound. The DBF chip has both a "smart ear array" spread around and a "super brain" that can instantly analyze the sound. In practical applications, DBF chip can support more than 64 high-speed signal links work in parallel, through real-time high-speed computing, suppression and even shielding of interference noise, and accurately lock the target signal source, the comprehensive performance indicators at the forefront of the industry.
"You see, now the simulation is of a satellite communication scenario in a complex electromagnetic environment." An engineer clicked the mouse, and a large number of disorganized interference signals appeared on the screen, nearly drowning out the weak signals representing valid information. However, when the DBF chip algorithm starts, as if there is a pair of invisible hands to open the signal "fog" - the key signal was quickly enhanced, purified, and ultimately presented on the screen a clear, stable data waveform.
At present, the project team is making every effort to promote the completeness test and system application development of the chip. When all the verification processes are completed, the DBF chip will be lifted up to form a network, shining the light of science and technology from Nanjing in the vast sky."Core Road":Exploring the limits of the microdigital world
At 10:00 a.m. on the same day, HCT's microprocessor chip R&D office was immersed in a busy atmosphere. This seemingly unusual office space is full of hidden mysteries.
Two engineers are sitting around in front of a simulation and verification platform, discussing in low voices the data flowing on the screen. The multi-million-dollar device, less than one square meter in area, can simulate the operating state of a chip in a real environment, allowing designers to find and fix design flaws in advance.
Here, electrostatic protection reaches an almost demanding level. Engineers wear anti-static suits, feet wear anti-static shoes, human body static discharger is constantly running, even every work chair is equipped with grounded anti-static chain. "The internal circuitry of the chip has been refined to the nanometer level, and excessive static electricity can cause permanent damage to the circuitry. The electrostatic voltage generated in our daily activities can reach thousands of volts, and comprehensive electrostatic protection is the lifeline of the chip R&D office." Zhu Jinghao, the company's technical director, introduced.
In his view, chip development is an extreme exploration in the microscopic world. "We have to delicately lay out billions of transistors on a tiny silicon chip." Zhu Jinghao with a pen on paper to draw a square, "This is like in the square inch to build a mega 'digital city', not only to ensure that the 'traffic' smooth, but also to avoid the 'power supply insufficient', but also to prevent 'signal crosstalk'."
In addition, the processor chip industry pursues the law of "fast fish eat slow fish", to the flow of film, for example, must be booked months in advance "slot", once you miss the scheduled flow of film "train", not only the R & D progress is forced to delay, but also may lead to products miss the best market window. Once you miss the scheduled "train", not only will your R&D progress be delayed, but you may also miss the best market window for your product.
This "core road" is a battle with physical limits, a race against time, and a head-to-head battle with countless unknown problems.
In May this year, C4000A-16, the fourth-generation C-series high-performance RISC-V processor developed by CCTM over a period of two years, passed the 100% maturity stage review and went through a two-month stress validation, and everything was fine. Just when the team was ready to start the sign-off process, a hidden "ghost" bug surfaced during the prototype validation stress test, which could cause the chip to fail under certain operating conditions.
At this time, there was only one month left before the node at the end of June. A team of more than ten people quickly set up a research team to launch a three-way "hasty march" operation: the first way to pinpoint the root cause of the bugs and assess the least costly code modification program; the second way to carry out a full-coverage investigation, scanning all the potentially associated risks; and the third way to seek avoidance solutions at the system software level.
"When the attacking task is the heaviest, everyone's mind is full of codes and waveforms, and as long as there is a flash of light, they record and verify at any time." Zhu Jinghao pointed to the record book he was carrying and said.
In the end, the team fought for more than 40 days to solve this deep-seated problem at minimal cost. The project schedule was delayed by only a few days from the original plan, and the team was able to get on the "train" without any danger."Core Fire":A Technological Leap of Fifteen Years
At 3:00 p.m. on the same day, the reporter followed Zhou Haibin, the technical director of HCT Microchip, and stepped into the company's newly completed 1,000-level purification workshop. The world here is a different scene: in a constant temperature and humidity environment, the air is circulated through high-efficiency filters for many times, and the room is almost spotless.
Through the observation window of the high and low temperature test chamber, the reporter can clearly see that the chip is undergoing a rigorous test from extreme cold to scorching heat. "Only through such extreme environmental adaptability experiments can we ensure that the chip can maintain stable performance in any environment." The person in charge of the site said.
Moving to the precision probe test area, under the precise guidance of the microscope, a probe that is thinner than a hair is lightly touching the micron-level soldering points of the chip. On the display screen on the side, the real-time data curve clearly outlines the chip's "health map", and every tiny fluctuation is under the keen monitoring of the engineers.
Gazing at the efficient operation of the new equipment in the workshop, the research and development staff in a hurry, as the company's senior figure, Zhou Haibin can not help but feel a lot of emotion.
In May 2019, CCTM was officially founded. The company started with a core team of 46 people, but from the first day, they took "strengthening and expanding the high-end chip industry" as their mission.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, HCMC has developed into an industry newcomer with hundreds of employees and rapid growth in annual output value, possessing more than 200 independent intellectual property rights, and has successfully overcome dozens of key technologies, and was promoted to the National Specialized, Specialized, and Specialized Key "Small Giant" Enterprises in December last year. "Small Giant Enterprise" in December last year.
This is a technology inheritance spanning more than ten years, but also a "core fire" to pass on the history of struggle.
On December 27, 2010, the first-generation processor "Huarui 1" developed by the old team was released in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and this high-end quad-core DSP (Digital Signal Processor) chip has successfully solved the "coreless pain" of large-scale domestic electronic equipment. This high-end quad-core DSP (digital signal processor) chip has successfully solved the "coreless pain" of domestic large electronic equipment. Through continuous technology accumulation and innovation breakthroughs, six years later, the team successfully launched the second generation of eight-core heterogeneous DSP processor "Huarui 2".
"When HCT Micro was founded, we were in the critical stage of industrialization and promotion of 'Huarui 2', and soon ushered in the opening year of the '14th Five-Year Plan'." Zhou Haibin recalled, "Going from the research institute to the market, we have to face more diversified customer demands and more stringent cost control, but it is this market-oriented refinement that puts our technology and product iteration into the fast lane."
On August 3, 2022, the third-generation C-series octa-core high-performance processor "3080" was successfully developed, becoming the highest floating-point computing power DSP chip in China at that time. Now, the fourth-generation C series RISC-V processor "C4000A-16" is on the chip manufacturing line, and is about to usher in its "birth ceremony". This chip can be widely used in edge-side high-performance computing, general-purpose computing, intelligent processing and other application scenarios, marking another solid step in the field of high-performance RISC-V processors.
"We have newly completed the A round of financing, the introduction of strategic investors not only bring capital, but also market resources and industrial synergy." Zhou Haibin revealed. The "14th Five-Year Plan" is coming to an end, and the company has been striving to move forward to the "15th Five-Year Plan" development blueprint, CCTV will be based on the responsibility of the "national team", focusing on the core business of processors, and continuing to evolve the RISC-V high-end processor series with independent innovation as the engine. With innovation as the engine, CCTM will continue to evolve the RISC-V high-end processor series, aiming to become a leading enterprise in the industry and contributing to China's arithmetic base!
For CCTC micro-people, burying their heads in the square inches, but looking out of their hearts, is already a million miles of "core" space.
