Chapter 558: The bud of a legend

October 31, 1982, 5 am.
Herman, whose eyes were red, woke up again Tan Zhenhua, who was lying on the table and slumbering asleep, said excitedly: "Eric, that's okay, we have completed all the plans based on the W6502C PC, and , We successfully controlled the estimated cost within 400 pounds!"
Tan Zhenhua is also delighted to hear this. This is the first step for Acorn to make a brilliant success, and he has witnessed this historic moment, although he seemed to have been sleeping just now...
"Herman, Chris, and all my colleagues, congratulations, now go to clean up, wash your face and sleep for a while, and later we will go to the BBB broadcasting company to submit this tender. Believe me, yours Hard work will definitely pay off."
Hearing this command from the boss, everyone showed a relieved expression. As for washing their faces or something, no one cared about them. They all fell asleep directly on the table.
Not all of them are like this. For example, Herman and Chris, the two of them walked in front of Tan Zhenhua and looked at him with a hesitant expression.
"Why? Is there anything else? You have been working continuously for more than 15 hours. I think the best thing you should do now is to relax yourself like them, knowing that we will have tasks later."
Tan Zhenhua said with a smile.
For all employees including the two founders of Acorn, he still agrees very much. At least, as he was fighting all night to achieve his goals like today, no one raised any objections to his satisfaction.
"Eric, through this incident, I found a problem." Herman ignored Tan Zhenhua's kindness, but frowned and said, "I found that although there are many CPUs on the market, I really want to When used, there are not many choices that meet our requirements."
"So, what's your opinion?" Tan Zhenhua felt that his heartbeat suddenly accelerated. Could this be the bud of a legend? he thinks.
He tried to make his expression calmer, and asked logically.
"I think we should develop a CPU ourselves." Herman said in a deep voice.
"Develop one by yourself? Is it necessary to do this? Or how sure are we?"
Tan Zhenhua resisted the excitement, and asked while holding his unworthy heart beating.
"You know, in order to meet the requirements of this tender, last night, we conducted demonstrations and tests on the mainstream 16-bit CPUs on the market, including Zilog Z8000, Motorola M68000, Intel 80286, and of course Our final choice-MOS's W6502C, in the process, we found a problem."
"what is the problem?"
"These CPUs that generally use CISC, which is the "complex instruction set" architecture, are actually not efficient because, in normal operations, we find that most programs are frequently used in the execution process. The set only occupies 20% of all available instruction sets, and the execution time of using these 20% instructions accounts for about 80% of the entire program running time. This means that the remaining 80% of the use time of unusually used instructions only accounts for 20% of the running time of the entire program. But in order to ensure the correct execution of these very used 80% instructions, the entire CISC architecture CPU is designed to be very large, which of course also leads to their high prices and huge energy consumption."
"That is to say, if the CPU we design can concentrate on optimizing and accelerating execution of these 20% of the commonly used instructions, and the remaining 80% of the instructions are executed by combining the commonly used instructions, it can greatly speed up the CPU. Execution efficiency can greatly reduce the price of the CPU, right?"
Tan Zhenhua said his deduction without hesitation.
And as soon as he said this inference, Herman and Chris who were on the other side's eyes widened.
Chris looked at Tan Zhenhua incredulously and said, "Oh, I can’t believe it. You can draw the conclusion immediately after hearing the opening paragraph that we said. Eric, you are the most I have ever seen. Smart genius!"
Tan Zhenhua pursed his lips and said in his heart that this is such a genius. The classic difference between CISC and RISC instruction sets is just the common sense that any science and engineering graduate who has a touch with electronics in his previous life knows-but in this time and space. , That is the most cutting-edge science.
"I accept your compliments." He said with a smile, "So should I think that you plan to design a completely different CPU architecture from now?"
"Yes, Eric, in fact, this is no longer our original. As early as 1979, Professor David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley proposed the idea of ​​the RISC instruction set, and we planned to start from the hardware To achieve it."
"RISC instruction set CPU? It sounds interesting, then, Herman and Chris, tell me, what do you need me to do?"
Herman, who was still talking just now, suddenly squeezed a little bit. After a long time of courage, he said: "Eric, I know that this request is not suitable now. After all, you just spent a lot of money to buy ours. Most of the shares, and also promised us a trip that will definitely cost a lot of money, but I really feel that now is a good time to develop this CPU, but if you want to develop a successful CPU, you need to spend a lot of money, and As far as the current personnel of our company are concerned, there is still a lack of ability..."
Tan Zhenhua laughed and said, "No, Herman, you probably don’t know how much money I have, let alone what I can pay to pursue the latest technological achievements. I can tell you frankly that you want to do it. Yes, that’s exactly what I want to do, or the ultimate goal for me to buy this company. As for the £8.6 million order, it’s just a fun for me."
"Really?" Herman's eyes widened in surprise.
Tan Zhenhua narrowed his smile and said with a serious face: "Of course it is true. Defeating Motorola and Intel and rubbing those arrogant Americans is what I want to do. How about? You will help me, right? My Dr. Hermann Hauser?"
Oh, I forgot to introduce, one of the founders of Acorn, the current CEO, Mr. Hermann Hauser, but an out-and-out student, a PhD in physics from Cambridge University!
Herman nodded without hesitation and said, "Of course, Eric, especially the Intel who shut our doors today, I must beat them!"
Chris also said: "Of course I have to count this kind of thing, and, Herman, think about it, from your classmates and friends, can we find a few reliable and effective helpers."
Tan Zhenhua is so satisfied, there is no need for him to remind him, someone is already thinking about growing his team.
Chris' words reminded Herman. He squeezed his chin and meditated for a moment. "There are so few classmates who are very good, such as Sophie Wilson and Steve Fogg, but how can I convince them? You know that they are all PhDs from Cambridge and have a brilliant future, and our barn is really shabby..."
Tan Zhenhua immediately retorted: "Hellman, who said we are staying in the barn to work? Tomorrow...No, it should be today. We are going to move to a comfortable and spacious office... Lisa, Eliza, are you still awake? I need a new office today, about 300...no, at least 1,000 square meters, with central air conditioning, carpets and elevators, and a garden downstairs And parking lot, and you don’t have to worry about rental prices at all. Can you do it?"
After getting Eliza’s affirmative answer, Tan Zhenhua spread his hands at Herman and said:
Look, I only need 1 minute for such a small problem. Oh, maybe 30 seconds can be solved, yes, By the way, all the employees in our barn today, including the two Ph.Ds you are about to invite, if they accept, will become the co-founders of our AcornRISCMachines company, and everyone will be rewarded with options. Our AcornRISCMachines will surely become a great company."
Herman looked at his new splurge boss in a daze, and didn't know what to say for a while, while Chris, who was standing by, asked thoughtfully: "Then Eric, are you planning to Change the name of our company to AcornRISCMachines?"
Tan Zhenhua nodded and said solemnly: "Yes, I have already decided, and I have already figured out a name for our upcoming CPU."
"What is it?"
"Of course it is the abbreviation of our company name-ARM."