I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

The space shuttle restart of the FATS program did not go smoothly, and the same went for SLS.

After a month of overtime efforts, the new core stage of the SLS rocket has been designed and delivered for manufacturing, but the SLS rocket still has many problems.

This time, its enemy is cost.

As the successor of the space shuttle, the SLS rocket aims to be cheaper than the space shuttle. Initially, the cost of each launch of the space shuttle was about 500 million US dollars. The purpose of the SLS plan is to have a greater transport capacity than the space shuttle, expanding from more than 30 tons. To 130 tons, one shot costs about 2 billion US dollars, which is more cost-effective and can go to the moon.

Ideal is full, the reality is very skinny.

The price of each of the four RS25 engines used in the SLS core stage is US$75 million, plus the extremely expensive five-stage SRB (solid rocket booster). Claire recently estimated the cost of launching the first SLS by the end of the year. The cost of R\u0026D improvement will never be only US$2 billion.

At least double, more likely more than double, around $5.5 billion.

5.5 billion US dollars, just to fire a rocket?

In other words, the three SLS rockets in the early stage of the Artemis program will cost US$16.5 billion?

The price of two rockets is more than the entire moon landing budget of China's Dawn Plan!

When Director Claire discovered this fact and the Endeavor renovation budget, he quickly suppressed the news and could not let it out.

Only by pretending not to know, and waiting until the thing is built that it cannot be stopped, can Congress have to invest and continue to invest in order to maintain the entire project.

This kind of experience NACA has a lot of, don't be afraid.

…

"EDA software design is also provided by Xinyuan."

On the fifth day of the Semiconductor Summit, July 26, Wang Minjiang once again said the words that made everyone's scalp numb.

The 2016 Semiconductor Summit has only one main purpose: to transform the ternary system and transcend tradition.

On the first and second days of the meeting, Huanghe Semiconductor mainly introduced the state of the ternary technology currently mastered by Xinyuan.

Except for a few semiconductor manufacturers who had already begun OEM work and had some speculation, everyone else was shocked that Xinyuan had silently advanced ternary technology to such an extent.

Regarding chip design, Xinyuan's B-level base automated silicon carbide production line is equipped with dedicated EDA design software, which is very mature and stable.

In order to adapt to traditional silicon wafers and analog field effect transistors, Xinyuan Microelectronics Department made a lot of improvements to this type of EDA software at that time. Later, Huaxin International used the mask produced by this EDA for photo ops when foundry. carve.

The basic environment is, yes, from SC09 the microelectronics department has launched a set of high-level language systems belonging to the ternary system, which is internally named X language.

Language X is different from the current popular languages ​​in that it is a mixture of Chinese and English.

From a low-level logic, the

If you are used to English codes, you can also use them. Since it is based on ternary field effect transistors, for ternary computers, there is no problem that Chinese characters take up more space than English letters.

One word and one letter each occupy 1 byte in the ternary computer.

At that time, Wang Minjiang also brought two laptops using X32115 chips. They were satellite Internet laptops equipped by the company for engineers on business trips. They looked much bulkier than mainstream laptops, but their main functions were only to surf the Internet and modify documents, and their performance was completely adequate. use.

In fact, the X32115 is comparable to the current mainstream CPUs, and it can also have graphics computing functions. However, there is too little software, and the system is relatively average, so one of them can only be used.

The main components of these two notebooks, including CPU, memory, and storage chips, are all made in China. They are also equipped with the ternary programming software used internally by Xinyuan and are used as demonstrations.

During the demonstration, Wang Minjiang first briefly explained the X language, and then invited several participants to try out the compiler program on the spot.

This kind of programming that combines both Chinese and English makes them feel amazing. Although the codes written during the experience are just small tools for entry-level learning, they can still feel the maturity of the X language.

The high efficiency has not been clearly understood for the time being, but it is obvious that X language programming is not complicated, at least it is not bad compared with the mainstream C series languages ​​​​and pyhton, etc. It is relatively easy to get started and it is fast to learn.

On the contrary, Yi Language has been unable to keep up with the times for many years because of the founder's insularity. It does not even support the X64 architecture. Who is still using that old thing.

Xinyuan removed the simplified operating system from SC09. Although the performance is very average, it is smooth and has no bugs. It just lacks the software ecosystem, which is also very surprising.

After five days, the confidence of the companies participating in the summit gradually grew stronger and even began to expand.

Originally they thought the ternary system was very unreliable, but Xinyuan has mastered the basic set of processes of chip design, underlying logic, operating system, and program compilation, which is just relatively monotonous.

Although their most attractive XW series equipped with AI system does not reveal any information, it is enough to let people know the potential inside.

Wherever there are difficulties, Huanghe Semiconductor, which has been granted a large number of patents by Xinyuan, can only say: "We have it."

This is not about technical research, it is about setting up a platform and waiting for them to perform on it.

After a few days of the summit, Modu Huahong stated that it will focus on ternary memory and storage particle manufacturing. Unisplendour and Zhongke Loongson decided to develop desktop and mobile CPUs with ternary architecture. Jiangcheng Digital Engineering Research Institute plans to immediately study ternary architecture. Graphics processor and AI processor with binary architecture.

Huaxin International... Huaxin International looked at Modu Microelectronics, or in other words, everyone present looked at Modu Microelectronics.

He Yuming, the general manager of Modu Microelectronics, was a little embarrassed because if this summit was a shot of encouragement for integrated circuit manufacturing and design companies, it would be a life-threatening talisman for Modu Microelectronics.

After five consecutive days of rigorous discussions, everyone came to the unanimous conclusion that even if the advantages of the ternary system are fully utilized, the difficulties of backward manufacturing processes can only be avoided on a small scale.

Now the 28nm ternary system is approximately equal to the 14nm binary system. If the world mainstream enters the era of less than 10nm, the ternary system will at least enter 20nm or 18nm.

In other words, it is now 2016, and by 2020, the minimum processing process of domestic photolithography machines will be within 20nm.

If not, then turning to the ternary system is a failure and still cannot reverse the backward situation.

The current 90nm lithography machine is not good, nor is the upcoming 65nm lithography machine. What is needed is a 40nm or 40nm++ lithography machine to barely reach the 14nm process.

However, can He Yuming dare to guarantee that 40nm lithography machines will be delivered before 2020?

Not only for photolithography machines, but also for processes within 20nm, the requirements for chemical raw materials have also increased significantly. Can the country keep up?