King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

Upon receiving the call from Beijing, Chen Jianghe's face instantly broke into a smile.

He spoke loudly into the microphone, "That's great! Lin Wei! Zhang Wei! And all the comrades in the task force! Thank you for your hard work!"

"You are the heroes of Tiangong! This report card is absolutely brilliant!"

"On behalf of the group, I thank you all! Once things are settled here, I'll fly to Beijing immediately to celebrate with everyone!"

However, the path of scientific research is not always smooth sailing.

A few days later, as Lin Wei's team was basking in the joy of their initial victory and preparing to conduct more comprehensive functional testing, an unexpected problem surfaced.

"Dr. Lin, look here..."

Zhang Wei pointed at the screen of the logic analyzer, his brows furrowing slightly.

The screen displays the data streams during the simultaneous running of the Linpack floating-point test and the simulated MPEG-1 audio decoding.

At a certain moment of high load, the waveform showed a noticeable spike and disorder.

"When floating-point operations and audio decoding both reach peak load simultaneously, the probability of system crashing... is close to 30% according to preliminary statistics."

"Bus conflict?" Lin Wei immediately became alert, leaning closer to the screen to carefully analyze the data flow and error logs. "Is there a problem with priority arbitration?"

"Hmm!" Zhang Wei nodded. "The initial assessment is that the bus arbiter encountered a conflict when processing high-priority requests from both the FPU and the audio module, causing signal corruption."

"Redesign the arbitrator?" Zhao Lin asked worriedly. "But there's only a month left until the final tape-out! Time is too tight!"

"Could we work around this at the software level?" a young technician suggested. "For example, by reducing the clock speed? Or temporarily disabling the audio function?"

"No!"

Lin Wei shook her head decisively, her tone firm, but no longer as aggressive as before.

"The core positioning of Pangu II is a multimedia coprocessor! Audio is a crucial element of the user experience!"

"Reducing the frequency to sacrifice performance or cutting out features would go against our original design intentions and would not meet the market's expectations for 'true multimedia'."

She looked at the team, her eyes asking for advice and encouragement, "Everyone, think about it, are there any other ideas?"

A brief moment of contemplation fell in the laboratory.

Everyone huddled together, discussing the various possibilities in hushed tones. The atmosphere was serious and focused, but not oppressively hopeless.

Just then, the laboratory door was gently pushed open.

Su Wanqing walked in.

She wore a simple dark suit, walked with a composed gait, and had her usual calm expression on her face.

"Engineer Su!"

Lin Wei and the others quickly greeted them.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with the test?"

Su Wanqing walked to the testing platform and glanced at the data and waveforms on the screen.

"Yes, Engineer Su. Bus conflict issue..." Lin Wei briefly reported the situation.

Su Wanqing didn't say anything, picked up a whiteboard marker, and walked to the whiteboard next to her.

With just a few strokes, a simplified structural diagram of the bus arbiter and related buffer modules is drawn.

Her movements were fluid and precise.

"The problem lies here." Her pen tip landed on a module labeled "isolation buffer."

"The response time margin of this buffer is insufficient."

"When the FPU and audio module simultaneously initiate high-priority, high-frequency burst requests, the buffer cannot complete the state switch in time, causing the signals to 'collide' on the bus."

She put down her pen and looked calmly at Lin Wei and Zhang Wei: "There's really no time to make hardware modifications. But we can try a hardware-software co-processing solution."

"Software and hardware synergy?" Lin Wei's eyes lit up.

"Yes." Su Wanqing wrote the key formula on the whiteboard.

"Add a dynamic priority adjustment algorithm at the driver level."

"Monitor the request queue depth and request frequency of the FPU and audio module in real time."

"When the algorithm detects that both are simultaneously under high load, it dynamically and briefly lowers the request priority of the audio module to prioritize the computing bandwidth of the FPU."

"Although it introduces a tiny audio delay, which is in the millisecond range and imperceptible to the human ear, it can effectively avoid conflicts and reduce the probability of system crashes to below 5%."

"We will completely fix this hardware defect in the next chip revision (Rev B)."

This is a classic example of using minimal force to achieve maximum effect!

Use sophisticated software algorithms to compensate for minor hardware shortcomings!

This idea is both ingenious and practical!

"Engineer Su! You're amazing!"

Zhao Lin sincerely praised it.

Lin Wei looked at the ideas on the whiteboard, her eyes filled with admiration and the excitement of sudden enlightenment.

"Understood, Mr. Su! This solution is fantastic! It solves the immediate problem while maximizing the user experience!"

"I'll immediately organize a team to modify the driver architecture! Zhang Wei, we need your cooperation to adjust the FPU driver interface!"

"No problem! Leave it to me!" Zhang Wei nodded emphatically.

In the days that followed, the lab remained busy, but the pace became more organized and the atmosphere more harmonious.

Lin Wei led the software team, immersing themselves in writing and debugging new driver algorithms.

Zhang Wei worked with the hardware team to adjust the interface.

Zhao Lin was responsible for testing and verification.

Everyone divided the work and cooperated. The previous anxiety was gone, replaced by a greater focus and tacit understanding in overcoming difficulties.

A week later, the modified driver loaded successfully.

The final integration test has been restarted!

Linpack floating-point testing and simulated MPEG-1 audio decoding are running at full speed simultaneously!

CPU load was instantly maxed out!

On the logic analyzer screen, the data stream surged like a mighty river!

Ten minutes…

Twenty minutes…

Thirty minutes…

The system is running smoothly!

FPU performance remained consistently high at 22 MFLOPS!

The simulated audio stream is also clear and smooth, without any stuttering or noise!

"Success! The hardware-software co-processing solution is a success!"

The laboratory erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers once again!

This time, it was pure joy and a sense of accomplishment!

When Chen Jianghe arrived at ACL from Shenzhen, travel-worn, he witnessed this vibrant scene.

He walked up to Lin Wei with a genuine smile and extended his hand: "Dr. Lin, thank you for your hard work! You and your team have made a great contribution this time!"

"The successful breakthrough in the FPU of [Pangu II] is a significant milestone in the history of Tiangong Technology's development!"

Lin Wei reached out and shook his hand, feeling the warmth and strength in his palm. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and her heart beat a little faster.

"Mr. Chen, you flatter me! It's the result of the team's joint efforts, especially Mr. Su's key guidance, which saved us from many detours."

As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily drifted to Su Wanqing, who was quietly conversing with Zhao Lin not far away…

His eyes were filled with respect, and also with a determination to surpass others.

The core barrier of [Pangu II] has been successfully breached!

The dawn of mass production is already clearly in sight!

Meanwhile, across the ocean, a multimedia storm, sparked by Microsoft's Windows 3.1 operating system, was quietly gathering strength and was about to sweep across the global PC market.

Tiangong is ready to welcome this grand feast for the tech pioneers!