Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 739 The main battlefield in the future is software

……

In the past 1987, China's gross national product increased by more than 10%, national income increased by more than 10%, industrial output value increased by more than 17%, agriculture increased by nearly 6%, and the retail price index of commodities increased by 7.3%.

Overall, the momentum of overheating economic development has been properly controlled,
At the same time, many problems were encountered during the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, especially the "dual price system" aggravated the contradictions and conflicts.

In this round of inflation cycle that began in 1986, the monthly CPI, or the consumer price index, exceeded 1987% in January 1, and increased by 5% year-on-year in January 1988. Prices continued to rise, and the common people responded strongly. "The question was directly moved to the press conference during the "two sessions" from March to April this year.

“The price of 1-pound Maotai liquor has jumped from 20 yuan per bottle to more than 300 yuan, Fenjiu liquor has increased from 8 yuan to 40 yuan, Gujing Gongjiu liquor has increased from 12 yuan to 70 yuan, and Chinese cigarettes have increased from 1.8 yuan per pack to more than ten yuan. ." Zhuang Xingtai, who travels across China due to work needs and thus is well-informed, said in detail to Tang Huan, who has completed his political mission: "People nowadays are simply crazy. They buy everything they see, regardless of whether they need it or not. , I don’t care about the quality, as long as the refrigerator is air-conditioned, and the TV shows pictures. I rush to buy sweaters and pants in the summer, and some people even bought 500 boxes of matches in one go.”

"There are no ready-made examples of reform and opening-up that can be copied, and the painful period is always inevitable..." Tang Huan sighed.

"Is there going to be no big problem?" Zhuang Xingtai asked anxiously.He and his wife have been living and working in the mainland for many years since they fled the disaster in Hong Kong. Even their children were born here. Their affection for this land has become stronger day by day, and they cannot help but worry about gains and losses.

"It's not a big deal. Let's see, as soon as the bank implements value-preserving savings, the atmosphere will calm down immediately." Tang Huan waved his hands in a dispirited manner.

At this time, little uncle Meng Qingguan walked in and handed Tang Huan an antique wooden box, "For you."

Tang Huan opened it and saw a pair of high-quality Hetian jade hand ornaments placed on the silk. He couldn't help but asked in doubt, "For no reason, why did you spend so much effort to give me such an exquisite thing?"

Meng Qingguan smiled slightly, "Everyone can see that you are hot in summer, you have a piece of good jade, take good care of it."

Tang Huan gently closed the box, and muttered, "Why don't you find me two walnuts and hold them in your hands."

"It's a small matter, I'll find you right now." Meng Qingguan immediately made a phone call, and then asked with concern, "I've only been here for a few days, why did you leave so soon?"

Tang Huan stretched his waist, and replied, "I'm efficient at work, and everything that should be done has already been done. Moreover, there is a very important product launch conference in the United States waiting to attend."

"You are living a fulfilling life. I can be free now, so as not to get involved with the 'officials' that everyone shouts and beats like a rat crossing the street." Meng Qingguan complained a little uncomfortable.

"You can go out for a walk." Tang Huan suggested casually: "Go to the United States to visit my little cousin, and then don't go to Funan's little uncle."

"It's not easy to go too far. The old people in the family are getting old, and your uncle works in the Special Economic Zone. I have to stay at home and be ready at any time." Meng Qingguan shook his head, and then asked curiously in a low voice, "I went to the hospital yesterday. When I was in the study, I happened to hear you telling the old man that the luck of the Soviet Union is about to run out, and the value of China's checks and balances in the United States will decrease accordingly. Is it true or not?"

"This time, taking advantage of the cooperation of the Arctic Scientific Expedition Program, I traveled in various European countries for more than two months, especially in the Soviet Union for a long time. After seeing and hearing with my own eyes, I came to this conclusion." Tang Huan replied leisurely: "As you can imagine, in the world's only second superpower, people in big cities will spend two hours a day queuing in long queues to buy edibles such as cheese, butter, etc. Is it?"

"The huge amount of money needed to deal with the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident made the Soviet Union's already difficult economy even worse, and even affected popular popularity; The troops who came here, in order to get rid of the responsibility of Geerbachev, feared that he would not even do the face project of even seeing condolences, and the middle and lower classes in the army are so chilled."

"Countless factors are added together. To describe it as undercurrents and dangers, it may not be possible to fully understand the subtleties."

"Aren't you being too sensitive? This is the political arena, not the shopping mall." Meng Qingguan muttered as he stroked the top of his middle-aged man's head, whose hair was beginning to thin out.

"Politics? Shopping? Is the boundary so clear?" Tang Huan laughed dumbly, "My little uncle, the high-tech crystallization you take for granted - Fangyuan personal computer, why are some models allowed to be sold to the Soviet Union? Because it is invisible and convenient The publication of texts has enhanced the freedom of speech, and it has become another means of attack. Uncle, don’t make excuses for being lazy, go out and hang around.”

Meng Qingguan yelled, "Let's talk about it after I practice English again. It was very inconvenient to go out before."

……

According to the original plan, after Tang Huan finished his trip to Europe, he returned to the United States to release studioOS1988, and then started his trip to Asia. However, he changed his plan at the last minute and went to China in advance to witness with his own eyes the private rush to buy under the inflation this summer. , I can't help but feel a little nervous about the schedule.

By the time Tang Huan returned to San Francisco, USA, it was already Sunday, August 8th, and tomorrow is the official release date of studioOS7, which has been postponed once.

Although the schedule is a bit rushed, but fortunately, the key things are all in Tang Huan's mind, and he only needs to spend a little time to read some sporadic additional materials.

In another day, the much-anticipated studioOS1988 was finally released at the San Francisco Municipal Auditorium.

This also means that following the opening of the OEM channel more than three months ago, ordinary users can finally get this product conveniently from retail channels at a cost ranging from US$149 to US$299 according to functional needs. The fourth generation Fangyuan PC or the fourth generation Fangyuan PC-MMX provides a new generation of graphical user interface experience.

There were more than 6000 people present, which shows how grand the press conference was.In addition to the essential media, all manufacturers, regardless of whether they belong to the Fangyuan computer ecosystem, have sent personnel to conduct a close-up evaluation in the first place.

In fact, with the holding of the Zheru Developer Conference in April this year, and the shipment of millions of units of the fourth generation Fangyuan PC and the fourth generation Fangyuan PC-MMX, as well as their compatible machines in the past few months, studioOS1988 For those who care, it's no secret.

There is no dispute that among the currently known commercial GUI operating systems, including Apple's MAC_System, Microsoft's Windows, NeXT's NeXTSTEP, Digital Research's GEM, Quarterdeck_Office_Systems' DESQview/X, etc., and studioOS1988 It pales in comparison.

The excellence and success of studioOS has made it a model for the industry to study and emulate.And a new patch added by studioOS1988 in the past three months made everyone have to think about it.

Gein, the two major series of CISC microprocessors used by personal computers at this stage - the Motorola MC68000 family and the Intel x86 family - have reached the threshold of updating.Samples of the latest generation of microprocessor MC68040 and Intel80486 have been sent to important companies in the industry such as Zheru, Fangyuan, IBM, Microsoft, Compaq, Apple, etc., and at the studioOS1988 conference, it is said that there will be a blower related demos.

Energetic Tang Huan stepped onto the stage, announced the official global release of studioOS1988 according to the established procedures, and introduced the features of studioOS1988. Finally, he said with a smile: "I got to know it privately, and found that everyone is familiar with the latest hardware of studioOS1988. The support is very curious. Therefore, I specially coordinated and brought two Fangyuan PC prototypes that are still in the research and development stage, running studioOS1988, so that friends can try something new, and it can be regarded as an exchange and discussion on industry trends.”

Hearing this, the people who came to spy on the business information were all lifted up, but then they couldn't help but cursed secretly. Tang Huan's apparent approachability was purely a gimmick—the two TV stations were MC68040 and Intel80486 model prototypes, the degree of strict defense is simply outrageous.

For the so-called demonstration, only one of the prototypes can be used at a time, and the selected candidates are limited to media reporters, and they are supervised by the staff and cannot take pictures on site, especially when the experience time ends at 11:45.

Under such harsh circumstances, many professionals with other purposes, including Gates, can only watch from a distance, not play close, don't worry too much.

Even so, some information can be determined on the spot.

For example, after Jobs was squeezed out of Apple in 1985, Jean-Louis Garcy, who took over the MAC department and was promoted to the development director, can confirm that the VCD of this summer's hit movie "Die Hard" is playing The CPU in the prototype is MC68040—no matter the operating system studioOS1988 or the system information interface of the third-party software Norton Doctor, it clearly shows this point.

Over there, Rod Kenyon, the CEO of Compaq, currently the largest IBM compatible machine manufacturer, also frowned and came to a similar conclusion - Fangyuan's prototype seems to make Intel80486 work quite well , no matter the traditional Zheru office software or the emerging multimedia player software XingPlay, they all run very smoothly.

You should know that these ace applications that have already become mainstream or are being promoted, when they are loaded into the memory for CPU execution, consume significant hardware resources, which can be described as a comprehensive test of the entire system.

Judging from the stable running state of the prototype, the development progress of the next-generation Fangyuan personal computer is obviously much faster than that of our own side - our own CompaqDeskPro486 still cannot make Windows2 start normally.

"The situation is not good. Originally, IBM compatible computers were caught in the cracks to survive and were at a disadvantage. If Fangyuan Computer Company was the first to launch the Intel 80486 personal computer, it would be even more passive." Rod Kenyon couldn't help but I sighed in my heart.

It is also ironic to say that Fangyuan personal computers are mainly divided into two branches according to the different microprocessors used - the Motorola series and the Intel series. It can be called a two-line battle, but the most representative products of the two schools - Apple Computer and IBM-PC are at a disadvantage, aren't they evil?
Fortunately, Rod Kenyon also confirmed a harvest, that is the actual performance of Intel80486.

According to Intel's technical specifications, from the software point of view, the instruction set of Intel80486 is very similar to Intel80386, with only a small number of new instructions; but from the perspective of hardware, the structure of Intel80486 has a great breakthrough.It moved the cache to the inside of the CPU, and notably integrated a floating-point processor.Under the most ideal conditions, the core of the Intel 80486 can process one instruction in one time cycle, thus providing about twice the performance of the Intel 80386 with the same clock frequency.

Of course, in reality, it is impossible for a new generation of CPU to improve performance by 20.00% compared to the previous generation of CPU.However, judging from the performance of the Fangyuan prototype, it is very possible to achieve a [-]% increase.

Thinking of this, Rod Kenyon glanced at Gates, who was also observing the prototype carefully not far away, and thought to himself: "This also requires Microsoft to be more powerful in the operating system. The current Windows is really not flattering."

At this moment, Gates, who was staring at the prototype monitor without blinking, was both excited and frightened. The powerful functions of studioOS1988 made him even more convinced that the main battlefield in the IT industry will shift to the software field in the future, which is just in line with his dream. It is my own wish to let Microsoft become the protagonist of the industry, but this will compete head-on with Tang Huan's philosophy.

(End of this chapter)