Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 318 Have a new idea about CD
Corina Menzelpoulos received an even bigger surprise later on with her attentive attitude. Among the business guests she allowed Tang Huan to entertain, one made her secretly call her generosity worthwhile.

In fact, Tang Huan called people from Sony and Philips together mainly for the Compact Disc-CD technology.

As for inviting Frits Philips, the fourth generation president of Philips Company, it was just a test. Unexpectedly, he came all the way despite his 76-year-old age.

The Philips family has a rich heritage as early as the last century. Karl Marx's mother was the aunt of Fritz Philips's grandfather.After Marx was exiled to London, England, he lived in embarrassment and often borrowed money from banker relatives in the family to make ends meet.

Fritz? Philips uncle Gerard Philips - Herald? Philips and grandfather Frederik Philips - Frederick? Philips, founded Philips in 1891, Herald? Philips became the first president.

Anton Philips, father of Fritz Philips - Anton Philips joined Philips in 1912, played an important role in its growth, and became the second president from 1922 to 1939.

After graduating from college, Fritz Philips worked for Philips Company and was appointed vice president and board member of Philips Company in 1935.

In 1940, Anton Philips fled to the United States with some of his business capital after he knew for certain that the German government would occupy the Netherlands.

At that time, Philips had transferred important production equipment, and the company's top management and other family members had also withdrawn from the Netherlands, while Fritz Philips made the opposite choice and stayed in the Netherlands with more than 1 employees of Philips. .

Through the efforts of Fritz Philips, Philips survived the war.

And during the occupation, he succeeded in convincing the Germans that more than 300 Jews at work were necessary for production, thereby saving their lives.

As a result of the workers' strike in 1943, Fritz Philips was imprisoned in the Vicht concentration camp.

It can be said that Fritz Philips is a very legendary figure. When Tang Huan saw him, his curiosity was not to be mentioned. After all, it is impossible to record all history in words, and the person involved is the first information carrier.

For a long time, Philips has been under the control of the Philips family. Fritz Philips' brother-in-law is the third president, he himself is the fourth president, and the fifth president is Fritz Philips' brother-in-law.

This practice did not begin to change until 1977, when Nico Rodenburg, who accompanied Fritz Philips, took office.

However, the first president from outside the Philips family did not perform well during his tenure. The home appliance industry, such as video recorders, has always been at a disadvantage in the competition with Japanese companies such as Sony.

Wisse Dekker, another Philips executive present at the scene—Wisse Dekker, has a very rich resume. He has developed business for Philips in the Far East for many years. It was not until 1979 that he returned to the Netherlands to join the board of directors.

There was an inexplicable smile in Tang Huan's eyes, and he thought that Philips' arrangement, whether it was intentional or unintentional, allowed Nico Rodenberg and Wise Decker to appear together.

You know, according to historical development, the latter will take over the former's position as president next year, and clean up the mess that was wiped out by Japanese companies.

The presence of a heavyweight like Fritz Philips can definitely be regarded as a veteran's support, which immediately suppressed the momentum of Sony's Morita Akio and Ohga Norio.

When sending out the invitation, Tang Huan already explained that the meeting arranged at Château Margaux this time is more casual, and you don't need to be so nervous, just treat it as me entertaining you to have fun and relax.

Therefore, everyone, including the Japanese who always insisted on wearing formal attire when attending official events, dressed casually and talked and laughed together while admiring the beautiful scenery of Chateau Margaux.

Such a poetic and picturesque arrangement really made the group of business elites, who are always in the eyes of money, very happy. Their eyes, accents, and steps all became soft and soothing.

In addition to the various wonderful introductions by the manager of the winery, everyone listened with great interest and nodded frequently to express their admiration.

As one of the top five wineries in France, the background of Château Margaux cannot be explained clearly in a few words.

For example, the general manager of the winery, the director of winemaking, etc., all have doctorate degrees, and their professional standards have been recognized on the spot by Tang Huan and other well-informed celebrities.

After cultivating sentiments, Tang Huan, the convener, finally started to talk about the topic, which made both Philips and Sony tense up from the slack just now.

Tang Huan's speed of accumulating wealth proved the precision of his vision.

Now, the CD technology jointly developed by the two companies has attracted Tang Huan's attention. Philips and Sony are not only excited about its potential value, but they can't help but worry that their original technology will become a wedding dress for others.

Driven by such complex emotions, the high-level executives of the two sides attached so much importance to this meeting. The heavyweights worked tirelessly and eagerly went to a small place like Château Margaux to be arty.

In fact, CD technology research and development began as early as 1974. The original purpose was to provide a solution for storing digital signals in addition to traditional compact discs that store analog signals. From Compact Disc-Digital Audio-digital music CD-DA is the name, we can see this application positioning.

Originally, Sony and Philips had made progress in this field, chasing after each other, which can be described as very lively, but the past never forgets the future. The fierce videotape format war left both sides with lingering fears, thinking that the two companies would merge. Let's hold this field together

Therefore, they joined together in 1979 and jointly established a project team to promote the research and development of technology.

Among them, Philips is headed by Kees Schouhamer Immink, and Sony is headed by Doi Toshichu.

Finally, in June 1980, the relevant specifications of the first version of CD-DA were formulated and released by Philips and Sony.

Because the cover of this specification document is red, it is commonly known as the Red Book.

Its content is very detailed, such as the length of playing time, Philips gave up its original idea of ​​60 minutes, and listened to Sony Ohga’s “Can’t let the opera be interrupted in the middle of the act, and it must be included in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, if it is not If the media can be accepted by the user, then it is meaningless", defined as 1951 minutes and 74 seconds according to the 74-minute version conducted by Ford Wangler in 42, the longest known performance.

This standard is not free, users must have a license issued by Philips, and each related order costs $5000.

The next job for Sony and Philips is to produce a full-fledged commercial CD player, which is naturally difficult for both parties.

And Philips also has a world record company like PolyGram under its name, so it is completely foreseeable that a new money tree will grow.

According to the plan, next year, that is, in 1982, CD players and supporting music albums will be fully launched on the market.

But now Tang Huan suddenly jumped out and said that I have new ideas in this field, and I definitely don't just sit and enjoy the benefits of picking peaches. Let's sit down and talk about it in detail, how about adding me to play together?
In this regard, Sony and Philips are inevitably a little depressed. You, an upstart like you, want to join in the fun. You really think that personal computers and video game consoles are omnipotent.

Although there is some disdain in my heart, the two companies dare not neglect, because the annual sales of the three major Silicon Valley companies under Tang Huan's name - Zheru, Fangyuan Computer, and EA are calculated in units of [-] million US dollars, just like myself. , the limelight is in full swing, completely showing the posture of a newborn calf not afraid of tigers.

Compared with Sony, which has a better understanding of Tang Huan's strength, Philips can personally experience the kingly spirit from Fangyuan Computer's style of attacking cities in Western European countries. For example, its own companies are willing to purchase Fangyuan Computer on a large scale , for office use.

This trend is unstoppable. If you don’t follow up, other peers using this system will take advantage of information technology.

Due to the fierce competition from Japan and the United States, Philips has been trying to deal with those departments and subsidiaries that have no hope of turning losses in recent years, so as to control costs, but it did not expect that now there are more procurement costs for Fangyuan Computer and Zheru software.

Everyone said that this system was worth the money, and Philips also found the benefits, so the value of Tang Huan naturally increased in a straight line.

Philips, who is not familiar with Tang Huan, has the same positive attitude as Sony. In addition to recognizing Tang Huan's strength, he is also worried about Sony's unilateral defection. After all, the cooperation between the two parties on CDs is completely based on interests, and they have to Be extremely vigilant.

Fritz Philips has always been paying attention to the situation of European companies losing ground in the face of competition from the United States and Japan. When they received the invitation from Tang Huan, a gold digger in Silicon Valley who has been known as the leader of the wind and rain recently, he agreed without hesitation. I came here to see what kind of rookie in the industry has appeared.

As a result, Fritz Philips' first impression of Tang Huan was that this young man was not as superficial as the nouveau riche described by some media, and he had excellent communication skills.

For example, during the chat, Tang Huan mentioned football and scratched Fritz Philips' itchy spot.

You know, in the original time and space, when Fritz Philips lived to be [-] years old, he went to watch the home games of his PSV Eindhoven football club.

Tang Huan was very accurate in terms of what he liked, and the two even discussed to find a time for Chelsea to play a friendly match with PSV Eindhoven Football Club.

Fritz Philips also noticed the intimacy between Tang Huan and Norio Ohga when they talked about music.

Obviously, these off-the-job efforts are all preparations for the upcoming negotiations.

Fritz Philips was not very surprised by this kind of long-sleeved dancing and exquisite skills. At the age of 35, in order to preserve the foundation of Philips, he chose to stay in the Netherlands and Germany. Skill.

Fritz Philips secretly lamented that it was a worthwhile trip to see this controversial figure with such titles as a genius, an upstart, and a marketing master who did not hesitate to go into battle in order to advertise himself.

"In 1963, Philips launched the cassette tape, which was a huge success. Later, this tape was used in the telephone answering machine, and the mass storage device of the personal computer in the 1970s, which was a remarkable innovation. "

Hearing Tang Huan's praise, Fritz Philips nodded and smiled. The time when the cassette tape came out happened to be during his tenure as president.

"Sony's success in videotape is also to maximize the storage capacity of this carrier."

Akio Morita bowed slightly to indicate that he would naturally do his part for Sony's success.

Tang Huan drank the red wine in the crystal glass, then shook it, "Just like this glass can hold all kinds of wine, tapes can record music, video, and computer data in an analog way, and provide digital records. Naturally, CDs in the same way can do the same. I am interested in these applications, and I want to use the existing architecture with Philips and Sony to jointly promote these standards."

The Dutch and Japanese present all had expressions of surprise on their faces. It turned out that this was what the billionaire had in mind.

Akio Morita smiled slightly, "Don, may I ask, why are you so keen on CDs?"

"Because CDs are digital, the computer can directly read and write operations." Tang Huan slid his finger on the wine glass to cooperate with the explanation, "Traditional tapes can only be operated sequentially, while CDs provide random read and write. ability."

"Reading and writing?" Nico Rodenberg questioned, "Did I hear correctly?"

"Of course. Isn't it normal for users to directly write the data they want to store on the CD, just like tapes?" Tang Huan asked rhetorically.

"I understand Tang's ambition." Akio Morita nodded, "A CD can store 74 minutes of digital music, but I really can't form a specific concept for CDs used to store images and computer data."

"The CD-DA standard specified in your Red Book does not provide data error correction and error detection functions, but it is required when CDs are used for computer storage. Under this premise, CDs should be able to provide a capacity of about 700MB. Two The hard disk used by the generation Fangyuan computer Ultra is 10MB, which is equivalent to 70 hard disks. This cost difference, you must be able to see through it.”

(End of this chapter)