King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

Chen Jianghe then pointed to Su Wanqing's records: "Let's look at the register status again..."

"Among the garbled characters, I noticed a meaningless value: 0xDEAD!"

"Repeatedly appearing near certain internal status register addresses in the bus arbitration control logic unit of the 68000..."

He picked up a pencil and drew a simple prototype of a logic state diagram on the paper:

"Initial state # → [Arbitration request triggered] → System enters waiting for response state → [Response received] → System gains control of the bus..."

"This is a normal chained state transition."

"But the problem lies in the timing of the coprocessor's special bus request release in a multiprocessor environment..."

Chen Jianghe pressed his pen down heavily, "When the coprocessor releases the bus license signal..."

"If the manual's requirement to maintain a bus idle time of at least several clock cycles after a signal release is not strictly followed..."

"If the arbitrator state machine inside the main CPU does not reset completely..."

"In certain extreme cases, the state machine might accidentally enter an undefined state..."

"It's like falling into a trap with no way out!"

"And 0xDEAD is very likely the entry address identifier for this trap!"

Chen Jianghe's deduction seems far-fetched...

However, it has a solid theoretical basis and is supported by key observational evidence!

It points directly to the deepest-level state transition logic error in the system design!

Su Wanqing's gaze froze instantly.

She stared at the simple yet crucial diagram that Chen Jianghe had drawn…

He quickly compared his observation records with the oscilloscope graph.

The requirement for "bus idle time" pointed out by Chen Jianghe is written in the manual.

However, during the debugging process, we only focused on the request and response signals themselves.

The extremely brief silent window after the release was ignored!

"good!"

Su Wanqing's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement, "Let's verify it together!"

"Old Wang, stop messing with the hardware!"

She directly instructed an elderly technician in overalls who was silently operating the logic analyzer next to her.

"Use a logic analyzer! Instead of focusing on timing, focus on the internal state!"

"Pay close attention to the state changes of the relevant control pins of the BCU and the relevant pins of the coprocessor within a few cycles after the coprocessor releases the bus license signal!"

"Especially the reset signal and the internal latch signal!"

"Use continuous tracking mode, set trigger conditions, and release the bus authorization signal to the coprocessor!"

"Do it dozens of times, and dig out the state machine transition path for me!"

"It's deadlocked, so force a reset and re-capture!"

Su Wanqing's orders were decisive, clear, and highly targeted!

This is precisely the logical deduction Chen Jianghe needs, the only way to see the changes in the internal state.

The atmosphere in the lab heated up again!

Su Wanqing walked up to Chen Jianghe and looked at the fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

And those eyes, which appeared exceptionally bright due to intense concentration.

He handed her a white handkerchief.

His tone carried a hint of warmth.

"The 'potential' behind a chip is sometimes not the physical circuitry, but the invisible 'chain' between the program logic and the hardware!"

"You've found the link in the chain that broke. Now, let's use the wires together and get into position!"

Chen Jianghe took the handkerchief, his heart fluttering slightly, and nodded vigorously: "Yes, Engineer Su!"

He immediately picked up a thin, gold-plated wire and walked toward the 68000 platform.

Verifying the logic conflict of the "Spark" bus state machine was a suffocating tug-of-war.

Flying wire, snapping, deadlock, forced reset, snapping again...

It is extremely tedious, repetitive, and has a very high failure rate.

For more than 30 hours, the three of them stayed glued to the experimental table without sleep or rest.

Surrounding the "spark" that symbolizes the barrier of cutting-edge technology, capture the logical ghost hidden at the nanosecond level that is related to the life and death of the system!

Every deadlock moment captured by the logic analyzer, and those bizarre combinations of state transitions…

Chen Jianghe's theory—

Insufficient bus idle time can cause the state machine to fall into a trap...

This provides strong evidence!

On the morning of the third day.

When dozens of pages of logical state trajectory data are printed out…

When Su Wanqing and Chen Jianghe held up the clear jump path diagram they had drawn together, pointing to an undefined state...

The air in the entire laboratory froze!

This path diagram is the first key to unlocking the door to "Spark's" anti-analysis!

This is the strongest evidence presented at this afternoon's project briefing!

Su Wanqing's brows finally relaxed!

Looking at the chart that embodied so much effort and ingenuity, his eyes held a complex expression.

There is a sense of relief after a successful experience...

There is a sense of helplessness in the face of stringent foreign technological barriers…

Even more so, a firm determination to break down barriers!

Her gaze fell on Chen Jianghe, who was exhausted and almost collapsed, but whose eyes were still frighteningly bright.

"Well done, Jiang He."

This is the first time she has used this name; it is no longer "Chen Jianghe".

"I will put this credit at the very beginning of the report."

Chen Jianghe felt a surge of warmth in his heart, realizing he had become part of Su Wanqing's inner circle...

Su Wanqing paused for a moment, then softened her tone: "You'll also be attending the briefing this afternoon."

"Oh, right, the cafeteria serves stewed meat for lunch..."

She took two special red meal tickets from the drawer and handed them to Chen Jianghe, saying, "Take good care of your brain."

Chen Jianghe took the meal ticket, still warm from her fingertips, and the fatigue of the past few days vanished instantly.

The afternoon briefing was held in the large conference room of a Soviet-style building.

In addition to core project team members such as Su Wanqing and Chen Jianghe, engineers Li and Wang from the microcomputer laboratory also came.

Sun Yuanchao sat in the back corner, glancing at Chen Jianghe from time to time.

The meeting was chaired by the institute's deputy director in charge of business operations.

There were also several experts from Department D dressed in cadre uniforms with serious expressions.

Su Wanqing stood in front of the projector, her voice still cool, yet full of power.

She began by emphasizing the urgency of the project and the importance of the "spark".

Then, getting straight to the point, he raised the core problem that had just been solved last night—

Bus state machine deadlock!

Su Wanqing took out dozens of pages of logical state trajectory data.

And then clearly project that navigation path diagram...

The eyes of the experts from Department D and everyone present lit up instantly!

Engineer Li and Engineer Wang looked at Chen Jianghe with expressions of shock!

"This key breakthrough was achieved by Chen Jianghe, a new member of our project team, who accurately proposed a logical deduction direction by discerning the essence from the complex and chaotic data..."

As soon as Su Wanqing finished speaking, all eyes in the conference room instantly focused on the back corner…

Chen Jianghe, dressed in his circuit board workshop uniform, was sitting there.

The experts from Department D looked at them with scrutiny, curiosity, and admiration…

Sun Yuanchao's face instantly turned extremely ugly...

Deputy Director Gao adjusted his glasses and looked at Chen Jianghe meaningfully…

...

Chen Jianghe, however, was unusually clear-headed!

This is just the beginning; he's still a long way from his "ambition"!