The tongue hardware: Look at the mobile chip dealer in the oven

1 Let's think about it in a different place, like the kitchen?

"ARM, Samsung, NVIDIA, TSMC, what are the roles of these vendors?" "," Samsung's Orion and Nvidia's Tegra 3 are all known as arm-based cortex-a9, and why do they look completely different from each other and perform differently? "What the hell is arm doing?" What is Samsung doing? What is the relationship and connection between them? ”

　　These questions are believed to have appeared in the minds of many readers. What does arm do? What are Samsung and Nvidia doing? While this problem does not affect our purchase of mobile phones or other semiconductor products, it is clear that many enthusiasts are eager to get a solution.

To be ashamed, we have been working to translate the obscure semiconductor world into a world that is more easily understood and accepted by the vast majority of readers. And in the previous GPU encyclopedia, we tried to explain the graphics process in a variety of ways, including decorating or cooking, and so on. But we are obviously not enough, although we have done our best, there are still too many seemingly complex problems in the world to be resolved. For example, the "what is the relationship between mobile chip dealers" mentioned here is a very difficult bone to chew.

What is the relationship between the Apple A5 processor and arm made by Samsung ...

If we use arm as a solution provider for IP core, Samsung, Nvidia and arm are partners who can produce different SOC chips under arm's authority, and TSMC is the factory of the production of SOC chips as plausible answers, Not only the answer itself is like saying nothing, but it will also trigger more "What is IP core?" What does the solution provider do? How the same source has a different SOC chip ah "Such questions, it is clearly irresponsible and difficult to achieve the purpose of the explanation." The best way to do this is to find an object that we can all understand to compare and explain, even if the analogy is often not very rigorous, but it does help us face a variety of questions.

But what kind of metaphor can be compared with the intuitive interpretation of such questions?

If you don't think about it, let's do pizza and have a feast.

Well, thinking not only makes people feel tired, it's easier to get hungry. Since it's hard to understand the problem at this level and it's just a matter of cooking, we might as well change the angle-in today's article, let's bake a pizza to satisfy our craving buds.

2 What flavor of pizza would you like to eat?

What flavor of pizza would you like to have?

Pizza is a simple and complex food, and this Italian-originated food is now one of the most common food footprints in the world. It is believed that Marco Polo most likes to eat a kind of northern popular onion oil pie when traveling in China. After returning to Italy, he always wanted to be able to taste again, but he could not bake it. At a party, Marco Polo told a Neapolitan chef about the characteristics of the chives pie. The cook could not put the stuffing into the dough during the copying process, so Marco Polo proposed to put the stuffing on the bread and with the cheese and condiments of Naples, this simple improvement and mixing produced unexpected effects, the final finished product is greatly welcomed by diners.

A seemingly simple mix of food--pizza

The simplicity of pizza is so straightforward that we can even call it rustic. It is made in essence by baking noodles, vegetables, meats, sauces and cheeses, without the need for too much culinary skills, with no ornate appearance or deep-seated taste stimuli. But it is precisely this superficial simplicity that has created the satisfaction of pizza eaters.

The sweet and crisp green pepper, bacon baked in the rustic atmosphere, mushrooms long delicious, tomato pleasing sour, mexican spicy hot sauce, as well as cheese full of milk fragrance, all these simple direct taste in or after the wake to become soft, or directly roasted to become crispy on the surface of the embryo on the completion of the mixture, the incredible amplification, Become a thick melodious symphony melody. It's hard to say where the pizza really smells, but almost nobody can ignore the satisfaction of pizza. When the song is gathered by a variety of delicacies to jump on the tip of the tongue, the uniform and perfect melody let us feel full of the belly, but also harvest a peaceful but rich feelings.

Few people can resist the lure of pizza.

The combination of peace and perfection creates the delicacy of the pizza, and the menu is the key to creating this peace. To make the pizza taste perfect, a taste menu is essential to prepare for the job. Most of the pizza ingredients are common, even cheap, but simple is also a charm. So when it comes to the basics of pizza, we just need to practice this simplicity.

The dough itself has almost no taste, but it is the basis for all tastes. Warm water with butter and evenly high protein flour the strength after a uniform kneading, while the dry yeast in warm water takes over the rest of the work after we and the good face, making the dough soft and able to suck and mix the ingredients with the cheese-forming broth. Three-color sweet pepper can not only bring vitamins and cellulose, but also the greasy flavor of cheese; the spicy aroma of the onion can be pleasant after heating; the sour and sweet tomato sauce is not only refreshing but also has an appetizing effect; the cheese and mushroom melt together to produce a very rich flavor; Without meat, we will naturally not let bacon and sausage, they are baked in the smell of incense is not gorgeous, but is definitely the "aroma" of the most direct stimulation of the part.

With baking, the aroma of the ingredients will magically blend together.

Without any seasoning, all the fragrance comes from the flavor of the ingredients themselves, so long as you can mix them properly, the satisfying enjoyment will come to you naturally. While nature is giving us food, we also pass on the universal concept to us--whether it is the kitchen or elsewhere, whatever we are making, the harmonious collocation is the most basic common element.

It also includes a semiconductor chip that seems to have nothing to do with diet.

3arm-The writer of the ingredients menu

arm-The writer of the ingredients menu

If the design of a mobile chip is seen as baking a pizza, the writer of the menu is the behind-the-scenes--arm of IP core for virtually all mobile smart platform chip makers.

Arm

The IP core can be translated into a "hard core", which is the logical description of the most basic components of an integrated circuit. Converting some of the common digital circuitry into functional blocks, such as memory controllers, bus interfaces, or operator units, is described in a modular format, which avoids the engineer's redesign of many unit details, reduces the burden of repetitive work, and makes the chip design more efficient.

The role of IP core is like the basic pizza menu, we like the traditional light pizza, so our menu determines the ingredients are made of flour, peppers, mushrooms, onions, bacon, cheese, tomato sauce and butter, which characterize the most basic ingredients for a pizza, while IP The same is true of the core's role in the chip. The most basic features of the SOC chip architecture required for mobile smart platforms, including whether or not to sequence, the use of dual-launch or three-launch instruction end, the pipeline contains how many Agu, can be paired with what the memory bus, whether there is sufficient multi-core scalability, and so on, all of which require arm for design and development, The result of the design is the IP Core that acts as a hardware menu.

"Menu"--cortex A15 architecture for mobile CPUs

these features, like the "taste" of the chip, already existed before it was born, and can be "seductive" with a modest pairing. So what arm does is to complete the basic collocation of the unit and function module according to the basic features of the mobile domain processor and chip, write the collocation in the form of the menu, and be as close as possible to the demand of performance and other characteristics.

In the chain of mobile chip makers and the entire chip manufacturing, arm can be said to be the starting point for everything, like Marco Polo's chef friend from Naples, the first to create the "pizza" the most basic formula and existence.

4 "I think it's a little bit less bacon, mushrooms are the key."

"I think it's a little bit less bacon, and mushrooms are the key."

Everyone's appetite and feeding needs are different, such as the strong aroma of cheese in some people's taste experience may become even "sour smell" feeling, the large number of meat will also incur a lot of women's boredom. Carefully adjust the food mix, so that each of the simple ingredients can be the best show, this is the true meaning of cooking.

North American, Mexican, traditional Italian or even French-style ... Pizza has produced countless variants in hundreds of years. A harmonious collocation will evolve a rich and colorful result, and with its own flavor changes from a local food into the world's most popular food, this is a fine taste of the legend.

The intensity of the blue cheese is doomed, it's not for everyone.

or cheese, we decided to use cheese in the first menu, but we had no verdict on what kind of cheese to use and how much cheese we had. Provo cheese is a smoky process with a more intense taste than mozzarella cheese, but the smoky flavors overlap with bacon, although the taste of cheese is salty and creamy, but its relatively good fluidity affects the taste of the pizza, and the taste of the blue cheese is too strong and heavy enough to "distract ”...... The harmony of the pizza is too perfect, every taste is linked, and even the same cheese, the subtle adjustment options of the species will bring different results to the final taste experience. So no matter who wants to make a tasty pizza, fine-tuned menu configuration is an essential step.

"Ascetic" of Nan Father no desire but no fresh not happy

Nan Dad is a ascetic person, his taste is light, do not like any strong or stimulating taste, but only the flavor and taste have a paranoid love. In order to cater to his needs, Swiss hard cheese is a moderately salty, less fluid and chewy cheese that makes the most of the work. Melted Swiss hard cheese can hold the taste of food, which will aggravate Bacon's unique smoke breath, which is not accepted by Nan, so the appropriate reduction of the amount of bacon, while the use of more easily soup straw mushroom and purple cabbage to boost the taste of the flavor of umami is necessary to adjust the process.

We have carefully prepared Swiss hard cheese for Nancy (why not mozzarella it ...) ）

The fine adjustment brings a new balance, although we still use the "cheese + bacon + vegetable + mushroom" combination in the basic menu, but Swiss hard cheese, purple cabbage, and straw mushroom are added, and the amount of bacon is cut, Let the pizza in front of the public taste of the popular to become only for the Nan dad solo beautiful melody. Not only we, but the fact that pizza is able to develop a variety of different styles but also tasty and attractive variants is the result of these minor adjustments and the amplification of the interlocking elements.

If we continue our new topic, then in a mobile chip design process, who adjusted the arm to write the menu, and turn it into a different form but can correspond to the entire mobile intelligent platform broad market demand of the chip product group?

5 Chip designers-the Art of Harmony

Chip designer-The Art of Harmony

It's like Nan's dad doesn't like all kinds of more irritating flavors, and different mobile platforms produce a variety of traits due to the needs of different application groups. Better endurance, lower calorific value, or even more powerful processing power, these factors will result in the final form of the chip.

If arm provides the IP Core of the SOC chip and writes the most basic menu, the person who adjusts the menu to the different needs of diners and the rules that affect each other's tastes is the familiar chip supplier of Samsung, Qualcomm and Nvidia.

Tegra based on Cortex A9 IP Core 3

The relationship between melted cheese and bacon or mushroom and vegetable broth, ingredients and flavours is objective, but to demonstrate this relationship requires a thorough understanding and understanding of the properties of the ingredients and the different needs of different diners. If we have a hot and sour Mexican-style pizza for Nancy, no matter how reasonable and harmonious the final taste is, we can still only reap the same ending----Nancy doesn't like it. So for different diners to adjust the details of the menu, so that people want to be satisfied with the part of the final satisfaction, is the most basic task of the cook. Similarly, this is the basic task of chip suppliers.

"What thing?" I didn't even eat lunch, I waited for your cake, and you put the pepper on me?! ”

Each chip supplier understands the logical architecture differently, in order to design a unique and can meet the corresponding market demand for products, chip suppliers in the acquisition of ARM provided by the IP core, will be based on their own level of cooperation and strength of the program to modify and adjust, Although this modification preserves the most basic features of the original menu, it produces a completely different result because of the difference in detail. such as the CORTEX-A9-based Nvidiategra 3 and Samsung Orion, or the French-style pizza and Mexican pizza, also known as pizza.

Another question that chip suppliers need to consider--what exactly is the process

In addition, chip suppliers need to make a very critical decision, that is the chip used in the manufacturing process. Different manufacturing processes, like different cooking methods, only choose the most suitable recipes in the food combination of the cooking style, taste of the gorgeous can eventually be released, the performance and characteristics of the chip can be normal presentation.

Pizza or pizza, but people who sell pizza have changed the menu for different people and their understanding of taste and cooking. People who prefer vegetarian food can choose French-style pizza, and those who prefer a stimulating palate can taste Mexican pizza. No matter where we are, no matter what our preferences, we can find our own territory in the world of taste, and we can search for our own products in the mobile market. All of this is the result of the chip vendor's modification of the arm menu.

6 The best menu also needs careful baking to be able to shine

A good menu is a great way to bake.

Fire is a magical thing, it can bring warmth to people, but also can heat and make food become edible, the existence of fire has been accompanied by cooking and the whole history of human civilization. It is not even exaggeration to say that it is the emergence of fire in our food intake process, which finally created the human civilization today.

Art of Cooking, fire (image from web)

Most of the connection between fire and things happens in the process of cooking. The correct application of fire and heat not only allows food to be converted into the final edible, but also stimulates the various properties of the food itself. Because of this, the cooking process itself can even be called "The Art of Flame". This feature is most vividly reflected in the pizza baking process.

Regardless of the traditional open flame or the modern process of electric baking, pizza production process in hundreds of years did not occur any essential changes, flame or electric heat pipe through the heat radiation rather than direct contact, the heat transfer to the pizza to be baked, and then induce a series of magical changes, the taste of its loaded on each release. This process, known as baking, is gentle and serene, but it is like a reward for the cook and a gift to diners.

Baked Pizza with open flames

Under the heat of baking, the seemingly simple stacking of pizza ingredients began a series of pleasing ensembles. The gas produced by the yeast fermentation in the pie embryo expands the pie embryo after absorbing heat, and the cheese begins to melt under the action of heat; the mushroom begins to use amino acids to illustrate our best definition of freshness, while the sweet peppers, onions, and purple cabbage release the soup with fragrant vegetables, which are mixed with fresh mushroom soup and melted cheese. The maximum sucking of the cake embryo with the aroma of butter and the full expansion of it, together with the climax of the Taste Symphony. Soothing, harmonious, and yet so overwhelming.

Electric ovens can also be used for baking purposes

If a little change, such as increasing the temperature of the baking surface, reduce the amount of yeast in the embryo and butter, and then remove a large number of vegetables such as purple cabbage soup, this soothing taste symphony can be transformed from soft glutinous to crispy to re-explain the joy of food. The passion for food, the anticipation of the diners, all of these emotions are all in the baking process to relieve and release, this is the magic of pizza, but also the legend of Fire and cooking.

So in the chip manufacturing process, who is to write such a legend?

7tsmc--the "Art of Fire" .

tsmc--the "Art of Fire".

We already have the people who decide the menu and the people who modify and redefine the ingredients to meet the different needs, and the next thing we're going to face is the cook who put it all into practice. The person who transforms the design into a reality is a semiconductor supplier with FAB.

This is the fab baked "pizza"--the wafer.

Whether it's fabless or the FAB chip vendor, after the modification of the arm IP core, it needs to turn these adjusted logic designs into true "chips", so the next thing they do is to publish the EDA rules according to their chosen fab (another rule , we will parse it in a subsequent article), or complete the actual layout of the chip by itself or in cooperation with the fab/third party, transforming the logic circuit into the actual transistor/semiconductor integrated circuit form.

Once the layout is complete, it's time for Fab to do its work. Taking TSMC as an example, it needs to make the first experimental fabrication of the chip design that has completed the EDA scheme, which is what we often call tape out (the flow sheet), a process that is like a chef who has just won recipes for the first time to try cooking. For the chip, the first production process of T is like baking a new menu and recipe pizza for the first time. If the "ingredients" are properly matched, the choice and control of the "baking" process is in place to determine whether the chip can have a good performance or even be made.

One of the culinary people in the semiconductor world: TSMC

Just like cooking and smashing, the process of the flow will not necessarily be 100% successful. After "Bake your first pizza," TSMC will work with chip manufacturers to test, gather information, and improve the program (tasting, tastings, and targeted modification menus) as every responsible cook. is the heat treatment process too high (the temperature of baking is reasonable)? Is the cleaning and doping process appropriate (is the use of sauces reasonable)? Should the HPM or HPL process be used (should the use of fully awake or tangmian be used)? These problems will affect the final performance and manufacturability of the chip. After further improvement of the process and design, the chip cooking process will be carried out again, retape out (again the film) chip will go through the previous series of processes and adjustments.

After a few revisions, the TSMC as a cook will eventually find a way to bake the new recipe, the flavor and connotation of the ingredients will eventually be released, and the TSMC will be baked in a batch format for this kind of chip. Through consumption, diners can enjoy the sensory benefits of the perfect chip loaded with the passion and natural gifts of the cooking fans.

8 The Universe in the Taste

The universe in the taste

Although it seems that there is no direct connection, but in this way, I believe that many people have discovered the mystery of our words-through the guidance of pizza, even if we secretly the semiconductor industry and cooking these two things mixed together, the sensory can produce a sense of vainly disobey is very limited. Although the art of the semiconductor industry and the kitchen is seemingly distant two areas, but as we wrote at the beginning of this article-nature in the gift of our food, but also the universal harmony to us, whether in the kitchen or elsewhere, no matter what we are making, As long as it is a work that needs to be done in a harmonious collocation, it is no different in nature.

Harmony is an important reason for the delicacy of pizza

Diet is not only a process that allows us to replenish calories and survive, but in the process of food contact, we not only enjoy the gift of nature, but also appreciate the sensual pleasure of the taste and the charm of harmonious change. The art of cooking, whether it's a combination of ups and downs or frying, has long linked humans to food, fire, and nature in the tens of millions of years. We taste food, enjoy the process of cooking, and feel the light from the various emotions and laws that are projected from it, which is the most essential enjoyment of our diet.

The rules in cooking not only allow us to better understand the origin of the aroma, but also help us to understand many of the seemingly obscure professional manufacturing processes. Today we are involved in the mobile chip design and manufacturing process of the various manufacturers of the relationship, contact and the basic process is very good embodiment.

Even the latest Tegra 4 is still a product of a variety of "taste" harmonies.

Whether it's arm with basic menu rules, a chip designer who modifies the menu according to customer tastes and their own understanding of food, or a semiconductor supplier who eventually turns all abstract logic into a tasty food, they incorporate their understanding of the logic chip implementation process into their own design and production behavior. The right understanding and harmonious deployment of logical structures, appropriate changes in demand, and the spirit of focusing on responding to needs and promoting progress are fundamental to the survival of these manufacturers and the semiconductor industry as a whole. Of course, the relationship between the cook, the diet, and the diners will be the same when you change the object a little bit and turn it into "the right understanding and harmony of the ingredients, the mastery of the needs of the diners and the culinary adjustment that is being made, and the spirit of serious treatment of the needs of diners and the refinement of the culinary Arts."

This pizza we baked with our own hands will be back in a minute.

A world of sand, a tree and a bodhi, the depth of our world is contained in a common ordinary. The small kitchen accommodates not only people's feelings of taste, but also the impetus to propel the whole world forward. To understand our world, sometimes we just need to savor the food we love. Because of this, we have planned the "tongue hardware" such a series of columns. Through the taste and experience of food, we can better understand a lot of hardware-related principles, connotations and even anecdotes, we need to prepare for this, in fact, is only a peaceful heart.

In the future "hardware of the Tongue" column, we will also from more food and cooking point of view, to give you a completely different about the hardware of the wonderful content. You'll be here to get more of the wonderful things you can't get elsewhere, so stay tuned.

The tongue hardware: Look at the mobile chip dealer in the oven