Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 226

"Thank you for looking up to EA. After a full financial calendar year, it's not too late for us to discuss it." Tang Huan smiled and waved his hands, "Now, let's continue talking about Apple Computer."

Tang Huan scanned the audience confidently. This move was different from Jobs' provocation just now, but revealed a kind of persuasion, "No matter how much I say, it's not as good as you who often deal with money and figures. I bought an Apple computer, and I have a deep experience in using the spreadsheet software CGrid. If everyone here is reluctant to part with this investment, then there is a danger of being surpassed by their peers, because they can make reports more conveniently and win the favor of customers."

Speaking of this, Tang Huan snapped his fingers, "The reason why everyone needs Apple computers is so simple. Just think about how cars have become popular in middle-class families."

Seeing Tang Huan, who is good at dancing with long sleeves, flickering here and there on the stage, the people below can listen to it with gusto, Jobs almost got his nose crooked.

"Look at how Don pleases these bankers!" Markkula glared at Jobs angrily, "In the beginning, you obviously gave a good speech, but why did you have to turn around and offend these powerful people on Wall Street? .”

"I'm also thinking about the interests of the company. The subscription price is underestimated, so wouldn't the financing be less?" Jobs was a little unconvinced.

"Then discuss it with Morgan Stanley in private. Why are you putting pressure on these people in public?" A black line appeared on Markkula's forehead.

After the meeting ended perfectly, Tang Huan said to Markkula: "Mike, maybe we can make a small change to price Apple's stock through a reverse auction. At that time, we may increase the price and take to a higher financing amount.”

"Then let's discuss it with Humber and Quest first, and if feasible, we can bring Morgan Stanley to discuss it." Markkula readily accepted this suggestion.

As soon as they boarded the plane back to San Francisco from New York, they began to exchange ideas about this change. However, Tang Huan did not intend to get too involved in this. Markkula and Jobs, the founders of Apple, were obviously more motivated and came up with an idea on their own. It's interesting enough, don't worry about it so much.

What's more, now that IBM has released rumors that it is developing the next generation of personal computers, Tang Huan has to pay more attention to Project 386.

……

Sunnyvale, in the same Silicon Valley area as Cupertino, is the headquarters of Atari.

Gates had just finished negotiating a contract to develop BASIC for the Atari personal computer with Recasa, the CEO here.

As he walked out, he recalled the scene of receiving several visitors from IBM at the Microsoft headquarters a few days ago. The two sides spent more than three hours without discussing any substantive content. The other party only consulted Microsoft's Operations, as well as discussing computer development trends, and then concluded the visit.

This made Gates, Ballmer, and Allen very depressed. They could clearly guess that the other party must do something about personal computers, but they just scratched the surface, and there was no chance of cooperation at all.

Seeing that Apple is preparing to go public in full swing, the founders of Markkula, Jobs, and Woz are sure to make a fortune. Gates would be deluding himself if he said he was not envious.

Let's go to Apple and Zheru's headquarters in Cupertino to see if there is any business, Gates sighed to himself.

As soon as he walked to the entrance of the building, Gates suddenly heard someone calling him from behind, "Sir, your company's call is here, please come and answer it."

"What's the rush?" Gates wondered to himself.

"Bill, IBM is sending people to investigate again. I feel that there are articles in it. Come back quickly and let's prepare." Ballmer on the microphone was almost shouting.

"Okay, I'll return to Seattle right away." Gates lifted his spirits.

……

Sure enough, Gates was not disappointed this time. Sams, the chief representative of IBM, first took out a legal text and asked them to sign it seriously, because only in this way can we continue the following topic.

Gates and Ballmer looked at the document and saw that it was a non-disclosure contract that was obviously beneficial to IBM. The general requirement was that Microsoft must agree to keep everything IBM said confidential, and IBM had the right to use any signatures. information provided by the person.

In a word, a typical overlord clause.

Seeing that the guys from IBM are so serious, Gates and the others are even more curious. What's more, Microsoft is a small company now, far behind Apple and Zheru. Big opportunity.

After reading the signatures, the representatives of IBM put away the documents with satisfaction, and Sams finally revealed his intentions—the chess program under development required a programming language, and Microsoft's BASIC was selected.

It is really a great opportunity, and it is naturally desirable to be able to cooperate with a giant enterprise like IBM. Gates and Ballmer glanced at each other, unable to hide the joy on their brows.

So, when IBM's representative proposed the delivery time, Gates patted his chest and assured, no problem.

Seeing that these young people from Microsoft were so up-to-date, the representatives of IBM were very satisfied, so Sams asked whether Microsoft could provide software in three high-level languages: FORTRAN, PASCAL, and COBOL at the same time.

Gates nodded and pondered: "Microsoft's BASIC can run independently of the operating system, and it can be loaded directly through the read-only memory when it is turned on, but the software of the three high-level languages ​​​​such as FORTRAN, PASCAL, and COBOL requires an operating system , which is the CP/M cooperation of Digital Research Corporation.”

"Then there's no problem." Sams waved his hand and said with a smile, "Our next stop is going to Digital Research Corporation."

"Although CP/M is in a monopoly position in the operating system market, it can only run on Intel's 8-bit CPU." Gates' eyes flickered, and he seemed to remind him kindly, "However, I have a My friend, I also built a similar 16-bit operating system."

He did this because Microsoft was having trouble with Digital Research.

Originally, the relationship between Gates and Kildare, both natives of Seattle, was very strong. The two once drove a sports car on the highway together, and Gates even got a speeding ticket.

Therefore, they naturally reached a tacit understanding that Microsoft's programming tools and the digital research company's operating system do not cross-border and develop together.

Everyone did live in peace at first, but just last year, the digital research company actually added language tools to the directory of the operating system, so Microsoft retaliated by purchasing a Unix license from AT&T and came up with a program called Xenix. operating system to fight against.

"I'm sure Digital Research would be willing to modify its software," Sams replied, with IBM's characteristic arrogance.

……

The representatives of IBM did have the confidence to speak like this, but when they came to the headquarters of the digital research company in Pacific Grove, Monterey County, they did not meet the boss Kildare, and the other party was on a business trip.

Sams was a little displeased with this. Didn't we have contacted in advance? The chess plan is most afraid of needlessly delaying time.

Fortunately, Kildare's wife, Doluthy, the vice president of Digital Research, was in charge, and negotiations began.

As always, the representatives of IBM solemnly revealed their confidentiality terms, which immediately frightened Dolucy.

After consulting with the company's lawyers, she decided not to sign the document.

As a result, the two sides obviously had nothing to talk about, and Sams got up and left angrily.

However, Dolucy also knew how powerful IBM was, so she hurried to say something nice and mentioned that Kildare would be back soon.

Because CP/M is the most popular and mature operating system on the Intel 8080 platform, Sams could only endure it and decided to wait for Kildare.

However, when the two sides met again, Kildare did not immediately sign a non-disclosure agreement, but chatted casually first.

Although IBM representatives could not divulge the content of the chess project without authorization, Kildall had already guessed the intention of the other party. After all, the news that IBM was developing the next generation of personal computers was spreading more and more widely. up.

In fact, IBM was completely frightened by the anti-monopoly lawsuit, so it used legal provisions to protect itself in advance, but the side effects were also very obvious, and it was restrained in doing things and lacked flexibility.

Luckily Kildare wasn't too smart to know that these people probably wanted a 8086-bit version of CP/M that would run on the Intel 16, and that Digital Research was working on such an operating system.

So Kildall introduced his company, which made Sams overjoyed.

Look, without the damn overlord's confidentiality rules, the two sides have also achieved the goal of smooth communication.

However, when Sams proposed IBM's desired delivery time.Kildare hesitated.

There are many reasons for this, but in summary, nothing more than the following points.

First of all, developing the Intel 8086 version of CP/M is technically difficult, and the problem cannot be solved by simple code transplantation.

Secondly, relying on CP/M's market monopoly position, Kildare has already lived the life of a rich man. He has small private jets and other toys, and he is also happy to enjoy the comfort of the moment. I want him to live day and night It is difficult to work overtime.

In the end, Kildall is too real. His company is already busy with business. Many computer manufacturers are waiting in line for CP/M corresponding to their computer platforms. IBM's delivery time seems to be a bit difficult, even if Even jumping in the queue may not be able to finish on time. If Big Blue is annoyed and it goes to court, it will be a pain in the ass.

In this way, Kildare told the truth that the delivery time was too strict, and he was a little bit difficult.

Compared to the aggressive impression of young people at Microsoft, Sams was dissatisfied with Kildare's carelessness, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Before getting on the plane, Sams remembered that Gates had said that he had a way to get an operating system, so he called and asked.

At this time, Gates was excitedly discussing the cooperation with IBM with Ballmer and Allen. After hearing what Sams meant, Gates suppressed his excitement and said slowly: "Sir, if IBM If you agree to let Microsoft become the operating system supplier, I will naturally be willing to serve."

With little thought, Sams agreed.

It has to be said that the world is sometimes so wonderful. The greedy chess planning team, for the sake of the progress of the project, used the principle to the fullest, and the little Microsoft, which dared to take risks and speculate, took advantage of the opportunity and took advantage of this loophole , hugged him on his lap, and his destiny began to change.

"Guys, it's unbelievable that we have reached an intention to cooperate with IBM so easily." Gates, who put down the phone, roared loudly.

"It's really hard to imagine." Ballmer muttered to himself.

"Then quickly contact Seattle Computer Products Company and get that QDOS." Allen suggested.

The Seattle Computer Product he mentioned is also a small company, very close to Microsoft, about 20 minutes away by car, and a computer expert named Tim Paterson works there.

When Intel launched the Intel 8086, Tim Patterson developed the Intel 100 CPU interface card for the S8086 bus of the Altair computer of MITS. The company's headquarters moved back to Gates in his hometown of Seattle, trying to find a set of BASIC that could run on the Intel 8086 for testing.

At that time, Microsoft just used the Intel 8086 emulator on the DEC minicomputer PDP-II to develop BASIC suitable for Intel 8086, but there was no actual equipment to verify the quality of this version of BASIC.

Tim Patterson's visit is like someone sending a pillow when he is dozing off. The two sides hit it off immediately, cooperated with each other according to what they needed, and completed the verification work after a series of adjustments to their respective products.

During this contact process, the two parties were deeply impressed by each other, and Tim Patterson, who benefited a lot, began to consider developing an operating system suitable for Intel 8086, which is in a market monopoly position and can be called the industry's de facto standard CP. /M, naturally became the target of reference.

When Tim Patterson completed this crude operating system, he named it Quick and Dirty Operating System—QDOS, which roughly means "quick and evil operating system", but after the official commercial release, it was called 86-DOS .

Gates was not stunned by the pie falling from the sky. After hearing Allen's proposal, he took it seriously and decided to take immediate action to contact the Seattle Computer Products Company.

……

In the Chess Project R&D Center in Boca Raton Industrial Zone, Florida, Bill Lowell nodded in relief after hearing the information brought back by Sams, "Very good, I'm going to report the progress of the project to the management committee."

Speaking of this, Bill Lovo sighed, "I'm going to be transferred. Although I can't share the honor after the success of the chess project, I still have to make arrangements as far as possible before leaving."

It turned out that the general manager of IBM's 7000-employee factory in Rochester died of a heart attack. The management committee favored Bill Lovo to take over the position, compared to the current head of the chess program. , This is a big promotion, and Bill Lovo has no way to refuse it.

However, what Bill Lovo said made the members of the Xiangqi project team think differently. For example, people in the inner circle like the chief system designer Liu Gebrecht felt that they should have Eligible to fill the vacancy left by Bill Lovo.

Bill Lovo didn't know that he sent out his feelings, which caused some undercurrents to the project team. He hurriedly took the sorted materials and reported to the management committee.

In fact, the status of the chess project is still not stable, so Bill Lovo was once again bombarded with various questions.

When someone noticed that the project team actually handed over all the software development of the operating system and high-level language to a small company like Microsoft, they questioned it.

"Although Microsoft is small in scale, it already has many successful software application cases. The company's operation is very mature." Bill Lovo, who is excellent in eloquence, answered unhurriedly.

At this time, Bill Gates’ mother, Mary Gates, is a member of the national board of directors of United Way, the United Way of the United States, and will soon take over from Frank Cary. John Opel, who became the president, said, “Bill is not Mary His son?"

As a result, the doubts about this issue disappeared all of a sudden.

This is "the world is the same force, and the heroes are not free". Gates may not be able to play with his own deliberations. He also needs Kildare's lack of power, Tim Patterson's QDOS, and The nobleman John Oppel happened to interject.

It has to be said that Gates is a talented guy just because of the many coincidences in the dark.

At the end of the meeting, it was natural to talk about who would take over as the person in charge of the chess project team after Bill Lovo was promoted and left.

"There is no doubt that Don Ethridge is the most suitable successor." Bill Lovo firmly gave his recommendation.

Obviously, as the current project leader, Bill Lovo's opinion has a decisive role, and the chess plan that is allowed to bypass the company's rules is an alternative, so the appointment was easily passed.

(End of this chapter)