Solving the "stuck neck" problem of chip talent training
【Talent Story】
In November, the new year's graduation season has just started.
In a university located in a third-tier city, two master's degree graduates ushered in an enviable job opportunity early-an annual salary of 350,000 yuan, engaged in chip design work.
With the impact of the epidemic, economic slowdown, and fierce competition, why these two young people can easily pass the barrier?
"We participated in the "One Core for Life" program of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "National University of Science and Technology"), and participated in the whole process of the processor chip from design to production and operation." They said with emotion that it was this experience that allowed them to learn from their classmates. Stand out from the crowd.
The crux of "lack of core" lies in "lack of people"
In 2021, the impact of the “lack of cores” in the global industry will gradually expand.
From automobiles to mobile phones, computers, network cards, to the general price increase of household appliances, ordinary people also begin to pay attention to the safety of the chip industry.
"An important reason for the'lack of cores' is the lack of talents for chip design and manufacturing." Bao Yungang, deputy director of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of the School of Computer Science and Technology of the National University of Science and Technology, emphasized that as the chip industry "the jewel in the crown" "Because of the high complexity and difficulty of the processor chip design, the relevant design talents are facing a huge gap, and it is urgent to accelerate the training of talents.
It is understood that the United States also encountered a similar talent crisis in the 1980s.
The solution is to lower the threshold of chip design so that students can participate in the tape-out, and specially start the corresponding talent training project, so far tens of thousands of chip talents have been cultivated.
"Accelerating the training of specialized talents for processor chip design is the key to solving the problem of "stuck neck" in the information field of our country." Bao Yungang introduced, the National University of Science and Technology of China launched the "Lifetime One Core" program in August 2019, which aims to allow students to design Processor chip and complete tape-out, and cultivate processor chip design talents with solid theoretical and practical experience.
Over the years, microelectronics-related majors in domestic universities have also been cultivating chip talents.
However, due to the division of disciplines, talent training in this field focuses on the design of the physical structure of the chip, and does not allow students to understand how to complete the process of tapeout and how to run the operating system on the chip.
"'Lifetime One Core' means that every student participating in the program graduates with a processor chip designed by himself." Bao Yungang said, the goal of the "Lifetime One Core" program is very clear, that is, to improve my country's processor chips. Design the scale of talent training, shorten the cycle of talents from the training stage to the front line of scientific research and industry, and cultivate more chip talents that are in short supply in the country.
"Hardcore Diploma" hard-won
On June 2, 2020, Jin Yue, Wang Huaqiang, Wang Kaifan, Zhang Linjun, and Zhang Zifei, five undergraduates from the National University of Science and Technology School of Computer Science and Technology with an average age of only 21.8, released their own designed and manufactured chips-64 bits RISC-V processor SoC chip.
This chip is the first processor chip in the country that is designed and taped out by school students. It can successfully run the Linux operating system and the UCAS-Core teaching operating system written by the students themselves.
And these 5 graduates were praised by netizens for obtaining the "hardcore graduation certificate."
The process of turning lines of codes in the digital world into chips that can run in the real world requires many unexpected challenges and setbacks for undergraduates.
"We need to carry out a lot of exploratory attempts, and in many cases we even need to overthrow the design and start over. This is a very big test for everyone's mentality." Wang Huaqiang said.
On December 19, 2019, after 4 months of intensive development work, the students' chip design drawings were formally submitted.
Everyone was like handing in papers for the college entrance examination, and finally breathed a sigh of relief, but their hearts were suspended again.
Because, we have to wait for the chip to be sent to the manufacturer for production and return.
On April 23, 2020, Wang Huaqiang learned from the WeChat group that the processor chip they designed by themselves had returned.
And this is not the end, but also needs to be tested and verified.
But at that time, the five students who participated in the program were unable to return to school due to the epidemic, and were unable to go to the site for debugging and testing.
Fortunately, several students in Beijing came forward to help them complete the debugging and testing work.
"The students named this processor chip'NutShell', which has the same pronunciation as'Guoke'." Wang Huaqiang said, "We hope that through this name, we can express our deep feelings for the National University of Science and Technology."
Create a new talent training paradigm
According to the National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletin of the People’s Republic of China in 2020, the total import of integrated circuits in 2020 has exceeded 2.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%.
"Our country's chip supply is highly dependent on foreign sources, and the development of the industry is always facing risks and challenges." said Chen Guokai, a graduate student in the School of Computer Science, National University of Science and Technology of China. And take responsibility."
In August 2020, Chen Guokai, a senior student of the School of Computer Science and Technology of the National University of Science and Technology, participated in the second phase of the "One Core for Life" program.
He said: "The teachers are giving directional guidance. We have to check the information ourselves, learn by ourselves, and do it ourselves. This process has allowed everyone to gain tremendous growth."
At present, the "Life One Core" plan has been carried out to the third phase.
"From the 5 students in the first period to the 11 students in the second period, we imagined 100 students in the third period. In fact, more than 700 students signed up, covering 151 universities and 20 overseas." Bao Yungang, the person in charge of the "Lifetime One Chip" program, said frankly that the "Lifetime One Chip" program has been radiated to the whole country based on the practical experience of the National University of Science and Technology, and is helping more domestic colleges and universities to form a process from processor chip design to tapeout. The practical courses of running the operating system have opened up new ideas for industry-university-research cooperation, and have gradually attracted worldwide attention.
On June 22, 2021, the open source high-performance RISC-V processor "Xiangshan" debuted in Beijing.
This is an open source processor core led by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and jointly developed by many companies. The source code and all design documents are open source.
This means that in the future, domestic companies will have the opportunity to try to use free high-performance processor chips.
In the "Xiangshan" development team, the five students who participated in the first phase of the "One Life One Core" program are already technical backbones.
"There are more and more participants in the'Lifetime One Chip' program, and those who can persist in the complete process in the high-intensity research and development process will surely be the hope of the Chinese chip industry in the future." Bao Yungang said, "I am concerned about this. The young people are full of expectations for the future, and they are also full of expectations for the prospects for the cultivation of chip talents in our country."
(Reporter Luo Xu)