After a long wait, my first book "The Great Chip" officially meets you today!
There is an unknown tortuous story behind any book. Here I would like to share with you my journey of writing this book. I hope my experience can be of some help to you, and I hope you like my work. I also applied for an exclusive offer for you all at the end of this article!
Why did you write this book?
This is an era when everyone is talking about chips.
As a practitioner in the chip industry, I have personally experienced the wave of domestic semiconductor development from 2016 to 2023.
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In 2016, the industry began to experience undercurrents.
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From 2018 to 2020, the development of the chip industry will enter the fast lane.
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It will reach its peak in 2021~2022.
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From 2023, it will gradually return to rationality.
During this period, many engineers ushered in a major turning point in their careers. They studied hard and worked hard day after day. After years of waiting, they finally ushered in the opportunity. Companies have sprung up from the ground, venture capital has been pouring in, and the entire industry is busy.
"Lithography machine", "job-hopping", "tape-out", "sanction"... for a while, the chip industry, which was once unknown, has become one of the most dazzling terms in the field of technology.
At the same time, chips have also become the darling of the media, and various chip-related news are flying like snowflakes, stimulating everyone's nerves. The chip has also become the talk of everyone after dinner.
There are not many books about chips on the market, and they are mainly divided into two categories:
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A kind of partial technology , suitable as a textbook for colleges and universities and a reference book for engineers;
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The other category is industry-oriented , suitable for industry consultants and investors.
Based on this background, I hope that there is a book that can introduce the chip to readers more comprehensively and deeply, show the industry more intuitively, and lead readers to walk through the turbulent development history of chips and understand the operation of chips from a unique perspective . The mechanism, understanding of China's chip industry, and more importantly, let everyone know how to enter this industry, stand on the shoulders of "semiconductor giants", and move forward...
I am a chip design engineer and a popular science writer. I have had a dream of being a writer since I was a child. Not only do I like writing, but I also like the weight and power of words, so the idea of "writing a book about chips" has long taken root in my heart, and the publication of "The Great Chip" It has become inevitable in the long river of time.
The competition in the future is the competition of technology, more precisely, the competition of chips. The advancement of chips is not only the responsibility of scientists and engineers, but also the responsibility of every ordinary person. When each of us realizes how closely related chips and life are, it may mean that the era of the full rise of domestic chips has come.
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What is written in the book?
This book is positioned as a popular science book on chips, and some chapters contain some professional content. Even so, readers with zero foundation don't have to worry about being too esoteric and incomprehensible. In the process of writing, I try my best to strip out the knowledge points, and constantly switch between the author's perspective and the reader's perspective, so that every reader can not only understand, but also have a deeper sense of gain.
The book is divided into four parts, with a total of 10 chapters.
Chapter 0 Introduction
This chapter begins with some questions, mainly highlighting why chips are called "the pinnacle of technology" from the details, telling how "great chips" change our lives, starting from daily life scenes, and emphasizing the connection between people and chips. In fact, we used to look at chips when buying mobile phones and computers, but now we also look at chips when buying cars and appliances. After reading this chapter, I believe that in your life, the word "chip" will be given a new meaning.
Part 1 The Past and Present of Chips
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Chapter 1 mainly introduces the history of semiconductor development. Compared with the boring narrative history, this chapter pays more attention to the experience in the reading process, emphasizing the sense of interaction and exploration. For example, chapters such as "Why Semiconductors are Suitable for Chips", "Is Moore's Law Really a Law?" and "The Semiconductor Industry Has No Sunset" will give you a new understanding of terms that you don't care about. The book is also accompanied by a large number of historical materials to assist reading, such as "Toshiba Incident" and "IBM Commercial Espionage Incident".
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Chapter 2 mainly popularizes the three major instruction sets (x86, ARM and RISC-V). Perhaps the story of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people that whenever a tripartite confrontation is formed, there are always soul-stirring stories that make people sound excited. In this chapter, we will enter the martial arts world of the three major instruction sets and uncover the mystery of the abstract concept of instruction set.
Part Two: The Birth of a Chip
This article contains three chapters, focusing on three parts - design, manufacturing and packaging and testing. Introduce each link and process in detail, and deeply popularize the operation mechanism of chips and computers, how artificial intelligence is applied to chip design, why CPUs are rarely damaged, how chips are factory tested, and various chip packages, etc. .
Part III China's "chip" road journey
This article is divided into two chapters, mainly about the development history of domestic semiconductor disciplines and industries, great figures in the semiconductor industry, the layout of the domestic semiconductor industry, and chip companies that follow the waves.
Part Four: Join Hands to Create the Future of "Chip"
This article is divided into two chapters:
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Chapter 8 shows the daily work of the chip engineer group, as well as the knowledge system, craftsman spirit, and learning and work experience required to become a chip engineer. At the same time, this chapter also introduces the direction of career development, providing reference for readers who are about to enter the chip industry and newcomers to the workplace.
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Chapter 9 mainly introduces the cutting-edge development direction of chips and looks forward to the future of chips.
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Features of this book
The features of this book can be described by several key words: in-depth science popularization and inspiration , professional perspective of engineers , relaxed, interesting and easy to understand .
▊In- depth science popularization and inspiration
The author advocates the life principle of deep thinking , and must dig deep into the mechanism of things, so as to see different scenery. It is a waste of time to taste it, it is better to enjoy the good spring.
Aiming at many important historical nodes, historical phenomena, company development, technology changes, engineers' advanced career development, etc. in the industry, I have given some in-depth personal thoughts in the book, and strive to inspire others and bring readers useful insights. meaning inspired.
For example, in section 3.6 "How does a computer calculate 1+1=2", aiming at this "simple problem" that we have never paid attention to, we analyze it from the micro-architecture level, logic gate level, transistor level, and basic physical level of the chip, layer by layer. Disassemble and build logic circuits to help readers reconstruct this concept, and see what happens in the microcosm behind simple calculations.
▊Professional perspective of engineers
The author advocates the spirit of craftsmanship , and he must do things to the extreme. As mentioned in Section 8.3 "Craftsmanship in the Chip Industry", the spiritual core of steadiness, focus, and skill study is a must-have quality for every chip engineer. Chapter 8 of this book introduces how engineers make trade-offs between power consumption, area and performance, how to improve power consumption through different means, and shows the difficulties engineers have to face. At the same time, it deeply introduces the daily life and development route of chip engineers, and the importance of deep work and lifelong learning to chip engineers. Let every reader have an immersive reading experience, and everyone is a "chip engineer".
This chapter seems to introduce the profession of chip engineer. In fact, many career concepts are also applicable to other industries. I hope this part of the content can resonate with everyone and bring inspiration.
▊ Easy, fun and easy to understand
The author hopes to convey this book to everyone who loves to read. This book pays attention to the expression of words in the process of writing, and at the same time, some chapters jump out of the seriousness of science and engineering, such as section 1.5 "Moore's Law: Is it really a law?" Interpreting familiar terms, Section 3.11 "Art in Chip Design", hopes to lead readers to examine chips from an artistic perspective. The book is rich in illustrations, whether it is primary and middle school students, people from all walks of life, or even professionals who have a certain understanding and foundation of chips, it is very suitable for this book as an extracurricular or pillow reading.
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What is the experience of writing a book?
The writer Shu Mingyue once said: "There are joys and sorrows, but it is difficult to resort to writing, and the heart is full of joy and hustle and bustle, but the writing is dead silent, how aggrieved it should be."
As an elegant way of expression, writing is a thing with a very low threshold and a very high ceiling.
For me, the process of writing is a process of learning, a process of sorting out thinking, a process of growth, and a process of dialogue with my own soul.
Writing a book is a big project, polishing the outline, sculpting the sentences, deliberating on the words, consulting the information, drawing repeatedly...everything is a gap that must be crossed when writing a book.
The outline is the starting point of a book and also determines the direction of writing.
At the beginning, I encountered a lot of obstacles when planning the outline, such as empty and boring content, which could not arouse readers' interest. Every item in the outline is a promise I made to the future, and if I fail to fulfill it, I will lose my promise.
When writing the "Early Domestic Semiconductor Industry" part, I consulted a lot of historical materials and conducted various researches on historical facts, such as buying some old books with a sense of age, asking my classmates to help me search for materials in the school library, etc.
It is also quite difficult to write the "chip manufacturing" part, because I lack chip manufacturing experience, so I can only discuss it with process engineers with the cheek. I had to check the books again to confirm it, and finally I asked a senior engineer to help review the manuscript to confirm that the content was safe.
The process of writing a book also improved my ability to draw. When I first wrote the book, my lack of experience led to confusion in picture management and my lack of skills in using drawing software, which took up a lot of time for drawing. Even to draw a picture, it takes more than 1 hour. As the writing of the book entered the second half, I summed up a lot of drawing experience, became more proficient in the use of drawing software, and the drawing efficiency doubled, and finally I learned a new skill.
The repeated modification of the content in the process of writing the book also exercised my patience and perseverance. Looking at the editor's full comments, although I had the idea of giving up many times: "I'm going to collapse!" "I can't finish this book!" "Why can't I think about writing a book!" Books are an extremely valuable thing, and I feel that any difficulties and obstacles encountered are not worth mentioning.
By writing this book, I feel more and more that the process of writing is a process of learning, and the experience of verification and learning makes the vague knowledge in my mind clearer! There are not many bright moments in a person's life. For me, writing this book is one of my bright moments!
In the process of writing the book, I am very grateful to editor Zhang Shuang for giving professional advice and giving me a lot of encouragement. The process of cooperating with her is also the process of my learning. I am also very honored that "The Great Chip" can be published by Electronic Industry Press.
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Recommended by experts
This book is honored to be recommended by Bao Yungang, deputy director and researcher of the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Di Zhixiong, deputy director and associate professor of the Department of Electronics, School of Information, Southwest Jiaotong University. The serious attitude of the two seniors towards academics and the selfless guidance to the juniors are all role models for us to learn from! In fact, I also learned a lot about chip design and computer architecture from the two teachers.
Many of the following big names in the industry have carefully written recommendations for this book.
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Sheng Yun, co-founder and CTO of Suzhou Nanocore Microelectronics Co., Ltd.
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Bi Jie, founder of EETOP
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Founder of Luke Verification Lu Sang
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Tang Rui, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy, Shanghai Kuixin Integrated Circuit Design Co., Ltd.
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Yao Hua, chip design director of a company
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Song Zhenyu, CTO of Guangzhou Hongbo Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.
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Xie Jianyou, CEO of Hunan Yuemo Advanced Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
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AMD Fellow Fei Jun
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Zhang Jingyang, founder and CEO of Moore Elite
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Dong Zhiwei, a veteran in the field of analog integrated circuit design
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Yu Yinan, Vice President of Horizon, President of Software Platform Product Line
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Shi Kan, an associate researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the manager of the self-media account "Lao Shi Tan Xin"
During the writing process, my two friends Wang Qin and Huang Ning provided many valuable suggestions for this book. Thank them all here!
I firmly believe that reading a book is like having a conversation with a friend, in which there will be an exchange of views and a collision of ideas...
I hope this book can become your "friend" and bring you a sense of enlightenment! Let's work together to become more amazing people!
