The "chip youth" who made China's "spirit core" intelligently

[Decoding "New Power Crowd"]

Right now, these two fingernail-sized central processing units (CPUs) can complete 588 billion floating-point operations per second. Billions of transistors are arranged on this tiny chip, and it also embodies the hard work of more than 400 day and night from 62 members of the Tianjin Feiteng Embedded CPU R&D team.

This star team of Tianjin Feiteng Information Technology Co., Ltd. is responsible for the research and development of domestic Feiteng series embedded and desktop processors, and is active in the frontier of cutting-edge technology. With an average age of 32 years, they are already the main force in the development of domestic CPUs.

Not long ago, this group of "chip youth" won the "China Youth May Fourth Medal Collective".

1. "Every line of code is written by myself"

　　"The role of the CPU in all information systems is equivalent to the role of the brain on humans." In the company's conference room, Ma Zhuo, deputy director of the embedded research and development department of Tianjin Feiteng Information Technology Co., Ltd., made the most basic "science" for reporters. .

　　At the end of the 20th century, the first-generation Feiteng team took on the important task of chip research and development. Ma Zhuo, born in 1980, recalled the history created by his predecessors, and the spirit of "difficult and difficult, Yu Ru Yu Cheng" still moved him. "Without any technical information and without the support of computer-aided software, hundreds of engineering and technical personnel started day by day, starting with transistors one by one, and they all chewed down this'hard bone' with the spirit of ants chewing their bones."

　　In 20 years, the technology battle has shifted. The series of trade friction incidents in the past two years has made Chinese people more and more aware of the importance of chips, and "core technology that cannot be bought" can only rely on themselves. Behind the diverse applications, there must be a "Chinese core". Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, once said: "At present, the overall technology and industrial level of China's cyberspace field ranks second in the world, second only to the United States. Among them, emerging technologies in e-commerce, mobile payment, artificial intelligence, and big data are "Long board"; correspondingly, chip design, chip manufacturing and basic software development are China's "short board."

　　"The more important risk is the security risk." Ni Guangnan believes that China's informatization is now too dependent on foreign countries. The CPU is the security cornerstone of the information system. If the CPU is not controllable and safe, the information system is like a building on the gravel, and there is a danger of overturning at any time.

　　Ma Zhuo said: "Our R&D team is all localized. Each line of the core source code of the Feiteng CPU is written by ourselves. This fundamentally ensures that the CPU is fully controllable. Controllability is the way, safety is the goal, is The bottom line must not be exceeded. In terms of security, Feiteng CPU has always been at the forefront of domestic CPU products. We have achieved the first domestic CPU security and trust framework and have been verified in multiple chips."

2. Comparing with the international advanced level

　　From the time he went to college, Ma Zhuo and his classmate Zhang Ming were keen to "tamper" with chips. From "thin tampering", they turned into a middle-aged man with a big belly. In 2018, Ma Zhuo and Zhang Ming resigned from colleges and universities and entered Tianjin Feiteng Information Technology Co., Ltd. together. The two witnessed the entire process of the development of the Feiteng team from the initial dozen people to more than 500 people today, witnessed the development of the single-chip scale of the domestic chip industry from hundreds of thousands of transistors to tens of billions of transistors, and witnessed the Feiteng chip The entire process of the process from 0.35 microns to 16 nanometers witnessed the whole process of Feiteng from a product to the formation of a complete high-performance CPU product line covering servers, desktops and notebooks, and embedded.

　　As of April 2020, Feiteng's series of CPU products have sold more than 500,000 pieces. In the context of the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, their shipments have continued to double. Feiteng and more than 1,000 domestic software and hardware companies have built a fully autonomous information system ecosystem with Feiteng CPU as the core, which is a party and government office system, infrastructure key industry information system, cloud computing and big data platform, industrial control system and other fields. Provide a comprehensive localization solution.

　　When referring to the dilemma of the development of domestic information systems, Academician Ni Guangnan once said: "Now many problems are not technology, but the market, we should vigorously support and promote domestic innovative technologies, and insist on making up for the shortcomings."

　　In the field of domestic CPU R&D, Feiteng once spent more than ten years to complete the road of foreign R&D teams for decades, and today's young people, under the pressure of "Moore's Law", use faster product iteration speeds Only in a short time can the domestic CPU level be pushed to a new level and reach the shoulder height compared with the international advanced level.

　　In early 2018, a desktop processor chip called FT-2000/4 was urgently approved. This is a blank field that has no foreign technical data for reference at all, and the project requires technical indicators to be in the forefront of similar international products. The difficulty of development can be imagined.

　　"We made this design for more than a year, more than 400 days and nights. In order to complete the task as soon as possible, everyone gave up the weekend, gave up the National Day holiday, gave up the New Year holiday, gave up the Spring Festival and reunited with the family, every day Both lunch and dinner are solved on the desk, and while eating, we can quickly analyze several sets of data." Ma Zhuo said, during that time many people in the team often got off work at two or three in the morning or even four, and returned at 8 or 9 in the morning. The company continues to work.

　　Ma Zhuo said that this team is "steel elite", and the work is connected accurately and efficiently. Just like the players on the relay track, when the current sub-task is nearing completion, the next designer is ready to start. With the efforts of everyone, Feiteng's embedded CPU R&D team completed the design of this high-end desktop microprocessor with a life span of one million units at an unprecedented "Chinese speed."

3. Stick to the faith and be determined to serve the country

　　Compared with the way that many IT companies use high salary to motivate their teams, the composition of Feiteng's "steel elite" is full of drama: there are backbone engineers of American chip companies dug up with 80% of the salary, and there are graduates from famous schools that give up first-tier city job opportunities. Students, and graduates of different majors full of team consciousness.

　　Tian Jinfeng, 35, is the deputy manager of the R&D department of this team. He jumped from a US company to Feiteng. He admitted that his current salary is only 80% of the previous company. "In the original company, a person is just a screw. I have been working in the sector I am responsible for for several years. I may have done a very deep and precise job, but I have no chance to understand the whole situation. At Feiteng, I can plan my career according to the project situation and my personal interests. Develop and give full play to personal value."

　　Feiteng's salary level is not competitive among similar companies. But personally experience the development of FT-2000/4, which gave Tian Jinfeng a sense of accomplishment that he had never had before.

　　Song Jiali, a girl from Shanxi Province, graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 2016. She has a sweet smile on her face when she speaks. In this team mainly based on science and engineering, she looks like a clear stream. At the same time, her major is materials science, which is also an alternative in this team focusing on integrated circuits and computers. "Although Feiteng's salary was not the highest, I think Feiteng's scientific and technological background is good, which will allow me to grow more." She said.

　　After joining the job, Song Jiali started training and learning for half a year as a newcomer. Because it is interdisciplinary, all knowledge is almost re-learned, reading books, looking for literature, and consulting other professional elites in the company. What Song Jiali did not expect is that her professional staff who are not professional can also work in the company's core R&D team. This gave her more motivation.

　　Feiteng does not promote overtime work and has no overtime pay. But almost all nights of the year, the office building is lit, and it seems that there will always be someone working overtime.

　　"Chip R&D is a cooperative work that affects the progress of the entire team for personal reasons. It is very painful. Of course, I will work overtime with dark circles." Song Jiali said to the reporter with a smile.

　　There is no academic authority, only data authority, not only seniority theory, to prove yourself with the results of work. An open and equal working atmosphere has given young people more confidence and motivation.

　　Patriotic, unity, hard work... Behind a group of codes are young faces, beating hearts. Zhang Ming believes: "Faith is more important than professionalism, and attitude is more important than ability. How high a youth can grow depends on his values ​​and spiritual pursuits. In the past, the ambition of seniors in the science and technology industry was to create a "competitive machine", and soar The ambition of the team's young talents is to create a'striving core' for the country."

　　On April 28, 2020, the results of the selection of the 24th "China Youth May Fourth Medal" were announced. The latest honor of this team is "China Youth May Fourth Medal Collective".

(Reporter Liu Qian Chen Jianqiang)