America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 315 Do you believe I can read minds? (3k)

MicroNova, California.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Vivian quickly reached out to stop Lin Lixin, who was still rambling on, with a strange expression. "Lin, do you really know what it means to build a 32-bit processor architecture from scratch?"

'

She suddenly felt a headache.

Since Lin Lixin brought this up, given his personality, he'll probably do it sooner or later.

But this is not as simple as it sounds.

Let alone the fact that they designed an entirely new processor architecture from scratch.

Even if you buy an ARM or MIPS license now and iterate and modify it on their architecture, it's not a project that can be implemented quickly.

Even if they did receive alien assistance and develop a new architecture, they would still need to completely reconstruct everything at the software level.

The sheer amount of work involved is already staggering.

"Let me be frank. Unless we can have a super AI that works 24/7 without needing to sleep, and it also needs to master computer organization, electrical engineering, automation, RTL code, Verilog writing, ISA architecture, top-level mathematics, graphics capabilities, and so on, it will take a lot of effort just to develop an ALU that can run the most basic 32-bit mathematical calculations."

Vivian mentally reviewed the technologies that this project might require.

Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

If they were to do this, the Micro-Nova R&D team could basically announce that they were abandoning all other projects for the next year or two.

"I know."

Although Lin Lixin neither confirmed nor denied Vivian's words, he remained calm. "That's why I came here specifically."

"?"

"Putting that aside for now, has the new equipment from Lam Research been delivered?"

He waved his hand and started talking about something else.

Whether this project can be successfully implemented depends on more than just personal talent; it's not enough for someone to have extraordinary abilities.

Therefore, the help of his brother, who also shares the same surname Lin and is a bit of a jerk, was indispensable.

"Why----"

Seeing that she couldn't persuade her otherwise, Vivian sighed helplessly, "It's been delivered, but the Level 1 cleanroom is still under construction, so Umbrella can't do this job."

Cleanrooms are the foundation of wafer fabs.

For a chip that is in the micrometer range, or even in the future in the nanometer range, any tiny particle could potentially destroy the entire wafer.

In the past, Lin Lixin simply spent money to buy Micron's existing production lines, so he didn't have much need for them.

Now that expansion is needed, the construction of the cleanroom has become a major problem.

A Class 1 cleanroom is the highest level that current technology can achieve.

According to the quote provided by the construction company, the cost of a cleanroom starts at tens of thousands of US dollars per square meter, not including the supporting ventilation system.

A simple estimate reveals just how staggering the construction costs of the new wafer fab are.

The cost of cleanrooms alone can easily reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

"So it seems—Sega is really cheap—"

Lin Lixin's lips twitched. With $2 million, he could easily obtain absolute control of Sega; with $4 million, he could take Sega away in one fell swoop.

However, if $4 million were poured into the semiconductor industry, it would only be enough to make a noise.

That's $88 million back in 4!

"Hurry up, without 0.5-micrometer-level photolithography, this thing will just be electronic waste."

"So you're really going to do it? Seriously, if we had the financial resources, wouldn't it be better to just buy MIPS and modify it?"

"The long way is the shortcut, Vivian."

Lin Lixin shook his head.

This was destined to be a losing proposition, and it would likely involve taking many unnecessary detours.

But it is indeed a project that will benefit future generations.

It can completely distinguish between "game consoles" and "general computing devices".

If it's a device for gaming, then it should be specifically designed for gaming.

"In short, don't worry about the design issues, I'll find a way to solve them."

"Your job is to ensure that the 0.5-micron CMOS production line can be put into production, and that at least 400 million transistors can be packed into an area of ​​100 mm^2. He Guoyuan and Huang Renxun are still in charge of the graphics project as usual. These projects are equally important and cannot be taken lightly."

After saying that, Lin Lixin brought up another matter, "By the way, what's the situation with the server room? We don't need a cleanroom here, do we?"

Since the recent success of several network projects, NEXUS's business needs have expanded exponentially.

The ever-increasing demand has now overwhelmed GAMENOVA's existing servers.

Not to mention that those devices were originally designed entirely for telephone line communication.

Server rooms only require constant temperature and humidity and uninterrupted power supply. Although the construction of such rooms is not easy, it is a piece of cake compared to cleanrooms.

"That's done. The handover should be completed in the next couple of days."

Vivian nodded. This project was much more practical than the chip project they had just discussed.

The demand for servers is undeniably growing rapidly.

"I still feel that these few phases of the computer room are not enough."

She made a casual joke, but Lin Lixin nodded in agreement.

"It's not enough. The upcoming new game projects will probably put a strain on bandwidth again."

"ha?"

'

Since the wafer fab has not yet been established, Lin Lixin has temporarily shelved the ATHENA project.

However, this trip was not entirely fruitless.

At least the completion of the new server room allowed him to unleash his creativity and develop some more elaborate online games.

GAMENOVA headquarters.

This new project is very simple, so simple that Lin Lixin only brought Will to the conference room for a brainstorming session.

"The widespread adoption of the Internet is key to our future industrial development."

Lin Lixin began, "Although the birth of the Global Information Network has facilitated this process to some extent, users' interest in the Internet is still not very high."

This isn't actually a big problem. Before the advent of scripting languages, the function of web pages was indeed very limited.

At least at this stage, Global Information Network is still only at the level of static web pages.

It can be used to display information and browse content, but apart from hyperlinks, it has virtually no interactive functionality.

Even the simplest button cannot be created using HTML.

In the original timeline, the solution to this problem was naturally JavaScript, a so-called simplified version of Java that, despite having Java in its name, had absolutely nothing to do with Java.

This thing has many problems and requires a lot of prerequisite technologies.

In addition, due to the still less-than-ideal internet penetration rate, Lin Lixin has never put it on the agenda.

"So, what is our mission this time—?"

Will was somewhat confused after listening to Lin Lixin's account.

Judging from his tone, it seems he plans to develop this scripting language today?

But shouldn't this kind of mission involve Carmack as well?

"Oh, don't get me wrong, we're actually making a new game this time."

Sensing that Will seemed to have misunderstood him, Lin Lixin explained, "However, this time it will be a cross-platform online game."

Lin Lixin went to the whiteboard and wrote down a word that had absolutely no meaning.

【Akinator】

"Ah—Akinette? What does that mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything, it just sounds nice to read."

Lin Lixin chuckled, then added a subtitle below the word.

TheWebGenius

This time there are elements of the internet, but Will still doesn't get it at all.

"In short, it's a guessing game."

Lin Lixin pondered how to explain how to use this thing.

Will had already thought of this thing back when he created the decision tree.

However, due to the lack of widespread adoption of the Internet in its early days, he shelved the project.

Scripting languages ​​are still in their infancy, and the Global Information Network is just beginning to pique the interest of ordinary people in the Internet. This is a great opportunity to give it another push.

"How about this, let's play a little game and you'll understand."

19

Lin Lixin grinned and said, "I recently learned mind reading. Now, think of any fruit in your mind, but don't tell me, I'll guess it right away using my mind reading ability."

"what?"

Will was completely dumbfounded and couldn't help but marvel at how Lin Lixin was truly omnipotent, even possessing superpowers like mind reading.

Although confused, he nodded and did as instructed.

"Next, I'm going to ask you a few questions. You just need to answer 'yes,' 'no,' or 'not sure.' Is it red?"

"----yes."

Are there seeds on the surface?

"Um."

total.

"Is it a strawberry?"

"yes----"

"Snap"

Lin Lixin clapped his hands, making a gesture as if to say, "There is only one truth."

"Isn't it amazing? I used mind-reading to guess that you were thinking of strawberries!"

."

Will fell silent, his lips twitching.

He really didn't know what to say.

After a long pause, seeing Lin Lixin's expectant expression, he finally spoke quietly: "Lin, isn't this—a binary tree?"

What kind of ridiculous mind-reading technology is this?!

Lin Lixin's past performances were so astonishing that Will thought he had actually obtained some secret technique and learned this move.

After all that, it turns out to be a binary tree!

The questioning process just now can actually be abstracted into a number guessing game using a binary tree.

If you think of an integer between 0 and 100, you can determine the answer in a maximum of 7 tries.

This is purely mathematical anecdotes, and has absolutely nothing to do with Buddhist mind-reading techniques.

"Tch, they have no sense of fun in life. I should have asked Sam to do this."

Lin Lixin pursed his lips. Will was good in every way, except he was too dull. "Never mind, anyway, that's how it is. We'll use decision trees to develop a puzzle game."

"Like when we were guessing the fruit?"

"Yes! It just can guess anything, and it makes the whole world guess together!"

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