Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 239 The Protagonist of the Second COMDEX

Obviously, the last point is the real purpose, of course Tang Huan readily agreed.

After bidding farewell to Prince Fahd and getting into the car, Mr. Huo, who accompanied him, muttered jealously, "Brother, you are considered to be favored by a rich man in the Middle East. Why are you so many years older than you? Such an opportunity."

"You are already an enviable second-generation rich man. Why are you robbing me of this opportunity?" Tang Huan cut out contemptuously.

"People from the Middle East are really rich. Look at the current stock of Carrian Group, which has increased by more than ten times compared to the original one. It is said that they have caught the line of the Middle East." Mr. Huo is still full of emotion.

Tang Huan smiled and said nothing, the beautiful bubble created by Carrian Group has been blown to the maximum, and it will burst with a bang soon, but this has nothing to do with him anymore, Zhou Mi has completely withdrawn the funds After that, the profit is almost enough to buy a beautiful TV.

Deng Lijun had already gone back to the United States to visit her children, so Tang Huan stayed at Zhao Yazhi's place with confidence and boldness, dressed up his image, and then took the prepared documents and boarded the private plane Silicon Valley One, carrying Fahe Prince De, as well as Mr. Huo, who became more and more envious, went to Kuwait.

Now, Iraq and Iran are at war, and Kuwait, which supports the former, is not far away from the flames of war. Tang Huan even remembered that the danger of bombs would occasionally occur there in the original time and space.

The reason for such a disturbing situation is mainly due to Kuwait's location.

It is located in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and on the northwest coast of the Persian Gulf. It borders Saudi Arabia in the south, Iraq in the north, and faces Iran across the sea. It can be said that there is no barrier.

And its area is only more than 17000 square kilometers, and it does not have strategic depth.In the original time and space, it took Iraq just over a day to push its troops into the city of Tweet and achieved a decisive victory. At the same time, Prince Fahd died in battle before the palace, which is a good illustration.

Because of the difference in customs, after arriving at the destination, although Tang Huan was treated meticulously, he was very careful in every move, and even confirmed his memory from Mr. Huo.

Tang Huan couldn't help but secretly marvel at the luxury of the royal family after coming here.

The head of state of Kuwait is called the emir, and must be hereditary by the descendants of the Sabah family. According to tradition, the Jaber branch and the Salem branch take turns taking the throne.

The government cabinet is composed of the prime minister and ministers. The main members are: prime minister, first deputy prime minister and minister of interior and defense, deputy prime minister and foreign minister, deputy prime minister and minister of justice, deputy prime minister and minister of state for development affairs and housing affairs.

Important positions in the cabinet are usually held by members of the royal family, and the position of prime minister is held by the crown prince. The power of the royal family is self-evident.

Although it is well known that members of the royal family in the Middle East are not generally scattered, there must be high and low points. Prince Fahd is an important member of the royal family.

The current Emir, Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, is Jaber III. Ahmed Sabah, is the 13th Emir and belongs to the Jaber branch.

Jaber III is the tenth emir, the third son of Ahmed I, and Prince Fahd is the ninth son. The two are half-brothers.

The current Crown Prince and Prime Minister is Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, namely Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, who is the cousin of Jaber III and belongs to the Salim branch.

However, Saad suffers from bowel cancer, a health problem that has affected his work.

Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1963 and served as Deputy Prime Minister in 1978, is Sabah IV. Ahmed Jaber Sabah is the fourth son of King Ahmad I. Like Prince Fahd, he is the half-brother of the current Emir, Jaber III.

In the original time and space, Saad was the 14th Emir and only served as the monarch for 10 days. Sabah IV asked him to give up the throne due to his health reasons, and succeeded him as the 15th Emir.

Prince Fahd took Tang Huan to meet the important person, Sabah IV. Prior to this, Tang Huan had already submitted the introduction materials of the American company under his name.

After the pleasantries, the topic of the two sides quickly shifted to business.

Sabah IV was a little curious, "Do companies in the high-tech industry grow as fast as the Apple company that went public?"

"Generally speaking, the growth rate is indeed amazing, but Apple is one of the best." Tang Huan need not exaggerate in this regard, "The key depends on whether it can grasp the market demand, such as my spreadsheet software CGrid, regardless of Both ordinary financial personnel and high-end securities brokers will appreciate its functions, and naturally, it will provide rich financial returns."

"If I intend to invest in the high-tech field, which aspect would be more appropriate to choose as the entry point?" When Sabah IV asked, the meaning of consideration was obvious.

"That depends on the starting point." Tang Huan smiled lightly, "If you want short-term operations, then invest in the video game industry and plan for long-term development. Many industries centered on personal computers have unlimited potential. If you want to consider the national At the strategic level, it is involved in the most advanced semiconductor research and development and production, such as fabs and microprocessors."

Sabah IV's eyes lit up, "Mr. Tang knows these industries very well."

"Because I'm already in it." Tang Huan nodded, "However, the high-tech industry is also very risky. Apple's listing is also to raise funds and develop new products, so as to occupy the commanding heights of the industry."

"I saw from the information Mr. Tang brought that your company is also developing a lot of new products. Don't you need funds?" Sabah IV was finally brought to the topic of money by Tang Huan.

"Of course I need it, but I've always done my best. I can build as much booth as I have." Tang Huan was not pretentious, and instead asked directly, "Is the prince interested in investing? In Silicon Valley, the United States, this This kind of investment is called venture capital, and they have earned hundreds of times the return on Apple."

"I do have the idea of ​​testing the waters." Sabah IV nodded, "However, I also hope that my investment can play a role in other aspects. For example, this enterprise can get the attention and affirmation of the local officials. "

This is to earn both gold coins and reputation. Fortunately, I don't have to be more greedy to earn additional achievements.

"High technology has this advantage. It represents the future. No matter where, such projects are welcome to take root." Having understood the other party's mind, Tang Huan spoke with ease.

"It is really refreshing to talk to such a smart person like Mr. Tang." When they finally parted, Sabah IV laughed happily and asked Prince Fahd to arrange the next reception work.

Tang Huan did not experience the exotic customs in Kuwait for too long. After all, the second COMDEX was about to begin.

In the end, Tang Huan left with satisfaction with the investment promised by the other party, and Mr. Huo did not run away in vain. He and Prince Fahd reached a tacit agreement on the future position allocation of the Olympic Council of Asia.

……

Compared with last year's first COMDEX, the influence of this session is obviously greater, both the exhibitors and the number of visitors have risen a level.

After all, the West Coast Computer Festival has been held in San Francisco for several times, and the meaning of hip-hop is a little stronger. The industry needs a more professional exhibition, and COMDEX seized this opportunity.

Adelson, the future "Sands Gambling King", is very generous and arranged the best exhibition location for Zheru. Although Tang Huan paid for the exhibition fees for several years at one go, there is no need to take advantage of such advantages and take the initiative to make up for it. On the difference.

Undoubtedly, the focus of this exhibition is the second-generation Fangyuan computer, and the gimmick of the real 16-bit personal computer has also become the protagonist of this year's COMDEX.

Naturally, Tang Huan does not need to care about the specific operation of the exhibition. He has to personally deal with the industry-wide speeches organized by COMDEX.

This year's industry forum, Adelson and the entire organizer, did not spare no effort to invite bigwigs such as the president of IBM to upgrade the level like the previous one.

However, Tang Huan and Jobs, two relatively well-known young people who participated in COMDEX last year, have become billionaires now, enough to be the highlights of COMDEX this year.

Without seniority, Tang Huan was assigned the first position to give a speech. He was not polite, and pointed out Jiang Shan's author at the beginning of the article: "Everyone, I predict that next year, new personal computers will emerge in the industry one after another. Quantitative progress is not enough, the development of personal computers, it is time to enter the third generation, that is, products using 16-bit CPUs, Fangyuan second-generation computers are the first to make an attempt in this regard.”

It can be said that Tang Huan's speed in product development surprised his colleagues, especially when they saw the actual products on the booth, their scalps became numb.

Fortunately, the quotations revealed through unofficial channels made all competitors breathe a sigh of relief. The basic model starts at US$4000. This is obviously aimed at commercial use and will not have a huge impact on the industry for the time being.

"Needless to say, the application of new technologies often has some delays. 8-bit personal computers and 16-bit personal computers will coexist in the market for a period of time, but I believe that it will not be too long before they will all transition to 16-bit platforms. .”

After Tang Huan looked forward to the future of the industry and reminded his peers, he talked about the second-generation Fangyuan Computer’s plan to seek cooperation, “The design specification of the expansion slot circuit board in terms of hardware, and the programming interface of software will be made public later, so that Let third parties make more powerful function cards and write more creative programs.”

Tang Huan's series of combination punches dazzled everyone in the audience, but they all understood that the second generation Fangyuan Computer officially supports partners for third-party development.

This bureau seems to be very big and the plot is not small.

Compared with Tang Huan, who showed up with a new computer with something to say, Jobs' demagogic rhetoric obviously did not arouse everyone's interest.

Gates didn't get the opportunity to speak on stage this time, but he didn't want to show off the limelight. Microsoft just collected $100 million from IBM and officially started the cooperation. It can almost be said that it has entered a state of last stand.

As a representative of IBM, the new head of the chess project, Don Estridge, spoke later and made a promise, "The next generation of personal computers that IBM is developing also uses 16-bit CPUs. And it can be sold for less than $2000."

Perhaps because of the authorization, he can bypass IBM's original rules when doing things. Don Estridge has got rid of IBM's conservative and stable image. Speaking of it, he is full of offensive power. A satire and challenge to the second-generation Fangyuan computer.

Seeing this faintly gunpowder-smelling scene, Gates couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief. He was afraid that IBM would be persuaded. After all, from the current point of view, the chess plan can be said to be insignificant to IBM as a whole. If found unprofitable, it may be scrapped like countless other projects that have fallen by the wayside.

Don Estridge is so aggressive, probably for the sake of his own small collective interests. In order to keep the chess project, he has no longer cared about maintaining IBM's image of a gentleman.

Once the news of the price of 2000 US dollars spreads, people who plan to buy the second-generation Fangyuan computer may temporarily hold back the idea and wait for the more reliable IBM's cheap personal computer, which is regarded as sinister.

Seeing the still-growing Zheru and IBM, which is already a giant, had a grudge, Gates couldn't help gloating, and turned his eyes to Tang Huan, who was sitting in the audience after the speech, only to find that the other party didn't care, and was talking to Seagate Technology. The founder of technology, Alan Shugart, talks to Alan Shugart.

At present, for Fangyuan computers, including other types of personal computers, the external data storage system is mainly a 5.25-inch disk.Tape and paper tape have become uncommon on this platform for performance and price reasons.

But because of the application of database EBase and various information management systems, Fangyuan Computer also provides support for tapes. After all, this medium is cheap and reliable. Even after decades in the original time and space, it is still widely used to back up data. .

Knowing the development trend of personal computer technology, Tang Huan naturally hoped to incorporate the hard disk into the system architecture of Fangyuan Computer. Taking advantage of this exhibition, he met Alan Shugart, the president of Seagate.

It can be said that in the history of the development of hard disks and floppy disks, Alan Shugart has made great contributions.After graduating from college, he entered IBM to start his career, participated in the development of hard disks, and invented the floppy disk.

In 1973, Alan Shugart founded a company called Shugart Associates, which produced floppy disk drives, but was forced to resign as CEO by investors in 1974, and the company was later acquired by Xerox.

When the Apple II came out, although it was amazing, there were many competitors, and not all market problems could be solved by relying on technology alone.

Therefore, Markkula asked Woz to develop the floppy disk drive on the Apple II platform, and it was a great success, boosting the sales of Apple computers to the level of the time period when Tang Huan traveled.

Alan Shugart, who failed to start the company, saw a new opportunity from Apple's success, so he co-founded Shugart Technology with others, because the Shugart Associates company was bought by Xerox in order to avoid the law Risk, had to change the company name to Seagate Technology.

This year, Seagate Technology launched the first 5.25-inch hard drive, the ST-506, with a capacity of 5M. Tang Huanda was interested, so he asked Alan Shugart about the price. He was almost biting his tongue in surprise because it cost US$1500. , how much do most personal computers cost nowadays.

Seeing the strange expression on Tang Huan's face, Alan Shugart immediately understood that he was a little surprised by the price, and quickly remedied it: "ST-506 has only come out not long ago, and as the technology matures and optimizes, the cost will definitely come down. And it is not impossible to seek a compromise trading plan now."

This is the look of sincerity, Tang Huan nodded secretly, but he knows that the other party does not have many choices at present, and the customers who trust ST-506 and are willing to use this product are really gods, and the reason can be attributed to the fact that they come from Blue The competitive pressure of the color giant.

It is no exaggeration to say that without IBM, there would be no hard drives.

As early as 1956, the first hard disk storage Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (RAMAC) came out. It used 50 disks with a diameter of 24 inches and a capacity of 5MB. It was about the size of two refrigerators and was very simple. .

But this is not a problem. The point is that it marks the advent of the era of random access. The input and output of computers are no longer limited to punches and paper tapes of sequential access. This is a technological progress from 0 to 1. , is extremely significant.

After entering the 1960s, floppy disk storage was also born at IBM.

In 1973, the IBM 3340 nicknamed "Winchester" came out, and the basic structure of the hard disk was established.

Alan Shugart is a person who has personally experienced this technological evolution process. It can be said that he has profound qualifications, but now that he has run out to start a company to produce hard drives, he is undoubtedly competing with his old employer IBM. Naturally, he dare not sit back and relax.

(End of this chapter)