Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 507 Lost Intel
Seeing that this meeting turned out to be non-speculative, Andy Grove resolutely said goodbye, "Don, we will be waiting for your visit tomorrow to see the results of the Intel iAPX 432 project."

"Definitely, definitely." With a gentle smile on his face, Tang Huan sent the Big Three out of Intel, but after turning around, he coldly ordered his assistants to mobilize the most senior professionals and go to Intel to smash the scene tomorrow.

……

After getting into the car, Gordon Moore said slowly: "It seems that this road will not work. The cooperation between Tang and the six major semiconductor manufacturers in Japan has been going on for a long time, at least three years, and the interests have been entangled too deeply. .”

Robert Noyce nodded, but did not speak.

"At present, the memory business's contribution to the company's profit has dropped to one-third. In stark contrast, the processor business has grown rapidly. I think Intel must make up its mind and consider how to transform. "Andy Grove interjected: "We have the option of the processor business, why should we keep clinging to the memory business with ever-smaller profit margins?"

This time, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore kept silent at the same time, and Andy Grove was so depressed that he almost vomited blood, but there was nothing he could do.

Although he holds the position of CEO, he is still a manager in essence. Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, the two founders who have gained a fortune of over [-] million US dollars through the appreciation of Intel stock, have always been insurmountable existences .

Intel, which has lost its direction, is so stubborn to hang on the memory business tree. It may seem incredible to the outside world, but this is a corporate culture.

When Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor, raised funds, and founded Intel, they launched the first product in 1970 - 1 KB of dynamic random access memory, which brought about an industry change .

Computer manufacturers began to replace the original magnetic core memory with DRAM, which quickly became the preferred solution for computer main memory, and the latter was completely eliminated.

The huge market demand has promoted the rapid development of the semiconductor memory industry. Intel, whose market share was once as high as 90.00%, can be said to be prosperous and making money every day. Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore have also gained lofty personal prestige.

But when Intel launched 1972 KB dynamic random access memory in mid-4, Intel had quality problems. As a result, Mostek, a company founded by a group of people who left Texas Instruments, caught up and quickly occupied the 4 KB dynamic random access memory market and was the first to launch it. 16 KB dynamic random access memory chip.

Since then, Intel's DRAM market share has not exceeded 40.00%.

Fortunately, semiconductor memory products are not only DRAM, but also SRAM and ROM, as well as other general-purpose microprocessors and peripheral chips.

Intel has made great achievements in these popular fields, but it will not lose its position as a pioneer in the industry.

Since the 1 KB and 4 KB stages of dynamic random access memory are all controlled by American companies alone, although the competition in the industry is fierce, Intel's small life is still very moist, and it ranked among the ranks of the Fortune 1970 in the late 500s .

But when the DRAM developed to the 16 KB stage, the situation was different. With the support of the state, major Japanese consortiums invested a lot of money and manpower, and frantically poured into the semiconductor industry.

American semiconductor companies did not take the Japanese to visit and study like a lantern. In their view, the Japanese could hardly do anything, let alone compete for their own jobs, so they issued licenses one after another. It is allowed to use American technology to manufacture semiconductor chips.

The proud and conceited Americans did not realize what kind of wild heart hidden under the humble appearance of the Japanese "Hai Ha Yi".

The result soon began to turn around. The Japanese caught up with the Americans in the research and development of 16 KB DRAM, and at the end of the 1970s, they occupied a 40.00% market share.

Against this backdrop where U.S. semiconductor companies only retain 60.00% of the market share, Intel is inevitably affected.

But Intel is still optimistic that as long as it develops 64 KB of dynamic random access memory, with this unique skill, the good days will come back.

But reality cruelly shows that the United States can no longer dominate the development roadmap of dynamic random access memory. Japanese semiconductor companies have launched 64 KB dynamic random access memory and occupied 1981% of the market share in 50.00. The United States has retreated to 40.00% four.

If the indicator of market share is too macro and not vivid enough, then the price of each piece of 64 KB dynamic random access memory dropped sharply from US$1981 in 50 to US$1982 in 5, which is enough to illustrate the bloody competition in the market. wind.

Focusing only on the price war, Japanese semiconductor companies that have received state support seem to be unable to win. However, the actual situation is that the Japanese, who have always focused on quality control and process optimization, have improved the yield rate of their dynamic random access memories. to 80.00%, compared with 50.00% for their American counterparts.

Tang Huan likes to purchase memory chips from Japan's six major semiconductor companies because they have won in terms of price and technology, and American companies are not competitive.

As for the 64 KB dynamic random access memory that Intel invested huge resources in research and development, it is not original at all, and naturally it does not bring the expected benefits to the company. The entire memory business continues to shrink, which further highlights the prosperity of the processor business.

However, the memory business has almost become Intel's gene. If you want to abandon it and turn to the processor business, the difficulty is equivalent to reborn and a new man.

To put it bluntly, once the transformation of the enterprise is started, a large number of people will lose their current positions and interests, start from scratch, or even be laid off altogether. The resulting resistance can be imagined.

Andy Grove is determined to reform, but without the strong support of Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, it will be difficult to move forward.

After hurriedly returning to the Intel headquarters, Andy Grove personally inquired about the preparations for Tang Huan's visit tomorrow, and went to the Intel iAPX 432 project team for a tour.

His plan is simple. Since Intel is still unable to turn around the memory business that is obsessed with making a fortune, it should try its best to make the processor business shine. When the time comes, it will naturally make a decision.

But the actual performance of Intel iAPX 432 compared to Intel 80286 made Andy Grove very entangled, especially after Tang Huan came and went straight to the crux of the problem.

……

PS: Khan, the calculation rules of the starting point are so complicated. There are few things to change in November. I thought it was just the perfect attendance bonus for that month, but it turned out that even the half-year bonus was gone. Wow, what a painful realization ^_^.

(End of this chapter)