I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Shen Kang didn't speak again, his gaze fixed on the now-blacked-out screen, his fingers unconsciously tapping the table.

He didn't know what he was remembering; it seemed like he was about to remember, but he just couldn't.

What exactly is it...?

Xiao Bonian looked at him and thought that Shen Kang had thought of Anjia Housekeeping, Huanhuanwang, or those plans that never end.

He knew this kid too well. Even after losing seven games in a row, he could still glean something from it and apply it to business, making improvements—that was his ability. While others rested during holidays, Shen Kang used his time off to use his brain in a different place.

Xiao Bonian was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke, his tone relaxed, as if chatting with a buddy: "Shen Kang, what's your typing speed per minute?"

Shen Kang looked up, a little confused: "Huh? About one hundred... one hundred and thirty words per minute."

Xiao Bonian praised, "That's fast! I'm almost there too. How about we have a race to see who's faster?"

Shen Kang was a little confused, but after thinking about it, he still said okay—anyway, he couldn't remember it no matter how hard he tried, so it would be good to clear his head.

Xiao Bonian then had him sit in front of the desktop computer, opened a document, and asked him to type it out.

"Shoot whatever comes to mind. Shoot whatever comes to mind."

Although Shen Kang was still a little confused, he breathed a sigh of relief: he thought he was going to be asked to write an article to fight, which would have made his boasting backfire. This "fighting casually" was pretty good; he could probably fight even faster than he claimed.

However, when Shen Kang switched to the Smart ABC input method, Xiao Bonian intervened and switched him to a specific input method.

"Use this input method, it's new."

Then, an all-English interface page opened.

This interface is very rudimentary, as if it was made casually as a joke.

With Shen Kang's English and computer skills, he could only understand the word "CPU" among the dense English letters and numbers on the interface.

Xiao Bonian adjusted some parameters on it and then returned the computer to Shen Kang.

"That's fine."

Shen Kang was even more confused.

But after trying to type a sentence, it didn't matter anymore—this input method called XinKu is similar to Smart ABC.

Then Shen Kang started typing at his fastest speed, but as he typed, he would frown from time to time.

After Shen Kang typed about five hundred words, Xiao Bonian called a stop.

"Not bad, not bad, about 150 words per minute."

After praising him, Xiao Bonian asked, "When you were typing just now, did you notice anything wrong?"

"It's a bit of a bottleneck."

Shen Kang spoke the truth.

Xiao Bonian nodded, then picked up the rudimentary all-English interface again, adjusted the parameters, and handed the computer back to Shen Kang.

"Let's try again this time."

Shen Kang typed another 500 words, and Xiao Bonian asked him how he felt.

"Still stuck."

Xiao Bonian nodded again, then picked up the device again. It was the same simple, all-English interface. After adjusting the parameters, he asked Shen Kang to type again.

This time, Shen Kang tapped a few times, his brows slowly relaxing. He typed more and more smoothly, the characters following his hand almost effortlessly. By the time Xiao Bonian called for a stop, he felt he hadn't typed enough.

Xiao Bonian asked, "And this time?"

"It went very smoothly," Shen Kang said. "Much more comfortable than before."

Xiao Bonian smiled, pushed the keyboard into the desk, picked up his water glass and took a sip.

"Do you know why you had bad luck the first two times, but a good hand the third time?"

Shen Kang shook his head.

Xiao Bonian said, "The first time, I set the power plan to 'high performance,' with the lowest processor state at 100%, and the CPU always running at the highest 3.2Hz without throttling. It seemed ready at all times, but it was just idling. Every time you typed a word, the system was struggling to suppress that excess force, resulting in high power consumption and a constantly strained bus. That's why you felt lag."

"The second time, I set it to 'power saving,' allowing the lowest frequency to drop to 400MHz. It was fine most of the time, but if you typed frequently, it couldn't keep up. The system would only slowly issue the frequency increase command after detecting the high load. By the time it climbed from 400MHz to 3.1MHz, the words you typed had already piled up in the buffer. So it still lagged."

Shen Kang asked, "And the third time?"

Xiao Bonian said, "The third time, I set it to 'balanced', with the lowest processor state at 20% to 30%, which is about 1 Hz."

Shen Kang didn't speak, waiting for him to continue.

"1Hz is the most comfortable frequency for handling frequent small tasks. When a keystroke comes, there's no need to increase the frequency; it can be processed immediately. When a big task comes, you can also take small, quick steps, jumping from 1 to 2, 2.5, and so on. This kind of small-range frequency jump is completed almost instantly, with no delay."

As he spoke, he looked at Shen Kang with gentle eyes: "You're like a computer locked on high performance right now. You want to do everything immediately and seize every opportunity right away. It's fast, but in the long run, it will overheat and become unresponsive."

Shen Kang slowly sat up straight.

"But you can't use power-saving mode either. How old are you? Lying down isn't something someone your age should be doing."

"So what I want to tell you is to find that 1Hz rhythm. Eat when you're supposed to eat, attend classes when you're supposed to attend classes, handle things when there's something to do, and rest when there's nothing to do. When the real heavy work comes, then rise up calmly. You don't have to force yourself to climb up from the lowest point every time, nor do you have to stubbornly hold on at the highest point."

Shen Kang didn't speak, but his Adam's apple bobbed.

Xiao Bonian looked at him: "Shen Kang, some things are not something you have to bear right now. You've already run fast enough. Occasionally, make yourself feel a little more comfortable."

Shen Kang lowered his head and smiled.

"Professor Xiao," he said, "it's a shame you're not using that kind of approach to sell courses."

Xiao Bonian laughed and said, "I'm not taking any money from you."

Shen Kang looked up at him.

"Thank you," Shen Kang said, his voice soft but earnest.

"What are you thanking me for? It's just typing." Xiao Bonian put down his water glass. "You lost to me seven times, so I'll teach you some computer basics. We're even."

He stood up and said, "Alright, let's change seats. I have an email coming in, I need to take care of it."

Shen Kang then stood up and switched seats with Xiao Bonian.

After sitting down at the desktop computer, Xiao Bonian pretended to process emails, but secretly cleaned up some loose ends, thinking to himself, "Luckily, Shen Kang is an amateur."

Can the power supply scheme really have such a big impact on typing smoothness? Xiao Bonian did adjust the power supply scheme a couple of times, but to be honest, the difference didn't have as much of an impact on typing as Shen Kang did.

Please bookmark the only official website for this novel: ".". This is the only website the site owner uses; other websites may stop updating at any time.

The key factor that truly affects "stuttering" and "smoothness" lies in the input method framework.

The current mainstream input method framework is the mm32 framework, which has a short and relatively simple path, and most input methods run on this framework.

Microsoft is currently pushing the TensorFlow framework. Compared to MM32, TensorFlow is much more complex, especially in terms of U-thread rendering latency, which can result in double-digit millisecond-level delays.

In addition, there are very few input methods based on the TensorFlow framework at present, and no one has much experience. The products are not well made, and the latency is even greater, which may even result in a latency of 50 milliseconds or higher.

For slow typists typing around 60 characters per second, the keystroke interval is about 250 milliseconds, which may not be very noticeable. However, as typing speed increases to 120 or even higher, the keystroke interval drops to below 100 milliseconds, and this delay becomes clearly perceptible.

The new Cool Input Method that Xiao Bonian just had Shen Kang use is an input method that has started working on the TF framework.

A friend asked Xiao Bonian to test it out when he had some free time and give him some feedback, which is why Xiao Bonian has this input method on his computer.

Meanwhile, the new Cool Input Method also has an older version mode with the mm32 framework.

That all-English interface was actually a deception.

Xiao Bonian actually only did two simple things:

The first two times, he set the new Cool Input Method to TF mode, so Shen Kang felt his hand was stuck.

Finally, he set the new Cool Input Method to mm32 mode, so Shen Kang felt it worked smoothly.

It's that simple.

It has nothing to do with the CPU.

……

It has nothing to do with the CPU.

As Shen Kang sat down in front of his laptop, his expression was calm, and he thought to himself.

Is it because of the input method framework?

Shen Kang thought to himself.

He didn't know much about computers, but coincidentally, he did know about the TF and MM32 frameworks.

That was back in 2023.

It felt like a past life.

……

Summer of 2023

Scorching sun

The air conditioner in the room was broken, and the repairman said he wouldn't be here until the day after tomorrow. Shen Kang was only wearing an old t-shirt, and his back felt sticky from the heat. The fan was oscillating near his feet, blowing only lukewarm air.

He had just sat down at his computer desk when his phone rang.

"Feed?"

"Shen Kang, it's me."

The partner's voice mingled with the sound of traffic, as if he were speaking from the roadside.

"Don't forget the meeting at 3 PM. Old Zhou from the distribution team is delaying payment again. He said he'd settle it by next Friday. I've heard him say next Friday three times already."

"Okay." Shen Kang held the phone between his ear and shoulder, then used his free hand to tug at the clothes sticking to his back. "I'm leaving at 2:30. You go first and print out last month's bank statements."

"I hit him, he's in my bag. Don't write that analysis report yet, get the accounts straight first. If this period's payments are delayed again, what are we going to use to stock up next quarter?"

I know what I'm doing.

"You always say that. Fine, I'm not going to argue with you anymore, I need to take this call."

It's over.

Shen Kang threw his phone on the table, screen down.

It got even hotter inside.

The air felt thickened by the afternoon sun, and it felt sticky when you breathed it in.

The fan was still oscillating, the wind brushing against my skin, lukewarm, like someone repeatedly rubbing my arm with a hot towel.

There wasn't a breath of wind outside the window, and all the leaves were drooping. Someone across the street was cooking; the sound of a spatula coming and going, and the smell of cooking oil seeped in through the gaps in the screen window.

Shen Kang picked up his cup and took a big gulp of ice water.

Most of the ice had melted, and when I drank it, only half of it was cool; the other half was bitter.

He exhaled, placed his hands on the keyboard, and typed a few words when his phone vibrated again.

It was a call from a friend.

"Mr. Shen, we're having crayfish tonight, wanna come?"

"We'll see." Shen Kang stared at the screen, his tone lazy. "The air conditioner at home is broken, it's so hot I feel like I'm going to die."

"Then you should definitely come out. The new place that just opened has air conditioning like a refrigerator, unlimited ice-cold beer, and most importantly," the other person lowered their voice, with a lewd laugh, "I've also booked two beauties, the really big kind."

"I'll go to the company to reconcile the accounts first, and then I'll see how it goes."

"Stop looking and come out. You've been like a missing person lately. If you don't come out soon, the rest of us will think you've been sold to a foreign land."

Shen Kang chuckled, "Alright, I'll do my best."

"Don't hesitate, you have to come. I'll send you the address at eight o'clock."

"Um."

Shen Kang didn't talk much, hung up the phone, and put his phone face down on the table again.

The air from the fan was still hot; it even made the tissues on the table flutter slightly before falling back down.

He sat there blankly for two seconds, then suddenly felt a little irritated.

The computer screen was lit, and the cursor blinked repeatedly after a line of text. He continued typing, but the more he typed, the worse it felt. The characters he typed seemed to be queuing up behind the screen; you pressed your button, it appeared, always a half-beat behind.

Shen Kang was at his wit's end with this broken computer.

This old computer from 2016 is one he recently bought.

He recently wanted to learn how to write some industry analysis articles and start a public account, hoping it might help him advance his career. This second-hand laptop is the "typewriter" he specifically found.

Shen Kang has a main computer, so why did he still get a "typewriter"? Who can concentrate on writing when using a main computer? There are too many distractions.

Therefore, it's more reliable to buy a dedicated "typewriter" to physically isolate yourself from everything that might distract you and allow you to focus on writing.

I just didn't expect that this broken computer had a fatal problem.

Typing is causing my hand to get stuck.

Shen Kang has been tinkering with a lot of things these past two days: at first, he suspected a problem with the graphics card, so he searched for information online, changed drivers, and even bound the input method to the dedicated graphics card, but nothing worked; as he searched, he began to suspect that the problem was with the external keyboard, so he tried a membrane keyboard and the keyboard that came with the laptop.

As it stands, it's still not working.

"Looks like it's not a keyboard problem."

Shen Kang took his hands off the keyboard, looked at the computer in front of him, and a thought flashed through his mind—why not sell it and buy a better one?

But he quickly suppressed that thought.

"I really don't believe I can't handle you!"

Shen Kang, full of fighting spirit, continued searching for information online.

This is no longer a matter of money or whether it's a new computer or not.

He couldn't believe he could be defeated by a computer!

A dozen minutes later

Shen Kang copied two documents from the internet, split the window into two sections, left and right.

The document on the left is about input methods, mentioning TF and MM32.

After examining it carefully for a while, Shen Kang felt it was unlikely—he had tried several different input methods, but all of them had the same hand-scratching problem. Could it be that all the input methods he was using were based on the TF framework? What a coincidence!

From a rational analysis perspective, Shen Kang felt that the possibility stated in the document on the right was more likely.

Shen Kang turned his gaze to the document on the right.

This is about CPUs, mentioning the impact of a security patch, or rather a series of security patches, on CPU performance. A significant drop in CPU performance, coupled with insufficient performance, makes it quite normal for input methods to lag.

How reasonable does that sound?

Shen Kang's eyes lit up, feeling that he had finally found the real reason! He hadn't even started yet, but he already had a sense of impending success, like the goods had been shipped out and he was just waiting to collect the final payment.

Shen Kang's gaze lingered for a moment on the name of the vulnerability that this series of security patches targeted.

That was a vulnerability that was disclosed in 2018.

"The name of this vulnerability sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?"

On the screen, wherever your eyes fall, is the name of the vulnerability that this, or rather, this series of security patches are all designed to address.

Ghost/Meltdown

……

2009

Shen Kang, who was sitting in front of his laptop, suddenly opened his eyes wide, his eyes which had been half-closed and he was lost in memories!

Like a gate being opened

Numerous memories flooded my mind.

"...According to multiple foreign media reports, the security vulnerability disclosed this time covers the vast majority of mainstream processor architectures worldwide, with Intel, AM, and AM3 all being affected, none spared..."

"...affected devices span billions of personal computers and servers shipped over the past two decades. Security experts say there is currently no evidence of the vulnerability being exploited on a large scale in actual attacks, but its potential harm is enough to warrant the highest level of alert in the industry's history..."

"...Apple has confirmed that all Mac computers and mobile devices are subject to the same risk, and a fix is ​​under development. Users need not panic..."

"...The LNU kernel community also submitted multiple patch versions within hours, and some server administrators said on social media that they were forced to remotely log in to handle the fault before their New Year holiday was over..."

"...After the Meizhou Bay market opened, Intel's stock price continued to decline, with an intraday drop of nearly 6%. AM and other semiconductor companies such as Nvidia also fell in tandem. The preliminary estimate of the global chip sector's single-day market capitalization loss exceeds 100 billion US dollars..."

"...An analyst stated in a live interview that this incident may trigger a repricing of underlying hardware security in the capital market, and chip stocks will still face significant selling pressure in the short term..."

"...Amazon stated in an email to customers that its cloud platform has begun phased hot migration and patching of affected hosts, and some users may experience performance degradation in the coming hours..."

"...Microsoft AZU and Google Cloud also released service status updates one after another, a rare occurrence for the three cloud giants to publicly respond to the same issue at the same time..."

"...Foreign media reports revealed that a leading cloud service provider had already performed a 'no-notice restart' on some core clusters a week before the vulnerability was officially announced. This news sparked outrage among many enterprise customers on forums and social media, who felt this 'fait accompli' approach seriously undermined their confidence in the transparency of cloud platforms..."

"...According to multiple security organizations, exploit code related to the vulnerability has begun to appear on the internet, and some PCs have even been publicly distributed on some technical forums. Although most of these PCs are still in the experimental verification stage, security personnel warn that once the attack tools mature, real attacks against cloud servers and browsers could increase rapidly..."

"...An Intel spokesperson responded that the vulnerability disclosed is not unique to Intel."

"The company is working closely with industry partners to develop a fix and believes that the actual performance impact of the update on ordinary users will vary depending on the workload, so there is no need to panic excessively. However, several hardware testing organizations have found that some processors experienced a performance drop of nearly 30% after installing the patch..."

"...Industry insiders told the media that after installing patches, the system response speed of office computers in some branches became significantly slower, causing a backlog of counter services. Some hospital IT departments also reported intermittent lag in their internal systems after the update and are urgently assessing whether to replace hardware ahead of schedule..."

"...After the vulnerability was made public, Intel executives were revealed to have received a preliminary report from external researchers as early as June of last year, but never provided any explanation to investors and the public..."

"Currently, several law firms have announced securities class-action lawsuits against Intel, accusing it of failing to disclose significant security risks in a timely manner, resulting in losses for shareholders..."