Rebirth in America

In major cities such as New York, exciting scenes are taking place.

It is common to see people of all kinds taking to the streets for parades, speeches, parties, and camping. Among them are soldiers, blacks, hippies, social idlers, etc. In this way, they tell the dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction of their respective classes with society and politics. Opinion.

This is a society full of passion and impetuosity.

The civil rights movement in the 1960s was in full swing, affecting all aspects of American society and even radiating to European countries. Under the deliberate promotion of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and others, the country and the world were undergoing drastic changes, and countless people devoted themselves to this great struggle and movement regardless of their own safety.

For this kind of thing, Alex would at most stand aside and watch indifferently, without any idea of ​​getting involved. At most, he would reach out to intervene when he saw something unpleasant, and he was not stuck in the quagmire and unable to escape. .

What concerns him most is not the various movements, violence, peaceful demonstrations and other incidents that occur in society. It refers to the progress of technological research in the scientific community, especially in the fields of rockets and satellites, electronic appliances, and computers.

Today, he happened to find something in this regard. It was a research report conducted by Noyce, Moore and others of Ark Company. After several years of hard work, the computers launched by Ark Company have become popular. The performance of computers in this era was already at the level of the early Apple computers of later generations, the Apple 2, and in some aspects even far exceeded it.

For example, computers in this era have long adopted graphical interface operating systems, which not only use simple mosquito display functions, but also include image display functions, even color pictures, audio processing functions, etc.

This product is produced by Ark Company. The computer named Noah series has launched its third generation, with a total of tens of millions of machines produced. The Noah series of computers became a hot commodity as soon as they came out, with sales exceeding one million units in the first year. Then new models are launched every three years. Each model sold like hotcakes, and the original model was not withdrawn from the market but sold at a reduced price.

As a one-stop computer company with research, production and sales. There is no doubt that Ark is extremely successful. Its emergence not only changed the life trajectory of the Eight Rebels, but also changed the world, allowing many computer products to appear in advance.

Nowadays, although most of Noyce and More are only in their thirties and less than forty. But they have achieved achievements that most people have not been able to achieve. They look so high-spirited and live a very knowledgeable and interesting life.

However, they also need to be responsible to others. For example, Alex is one of them. In normal times, there will be someone to supervise and check the progress of their work.

In the conference room. Everyone was watching a very steady-looking middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses narrating. He was the talented and insightful Noyce. As a child, Noyce was an adventurous man who loved crafts. He will use every spare minute to build his own motorized sled, and even dare to make an airplane model and fly it himself.

Now, Noyce, who has made great achievements, stands in front of Alex and others with the manuscript of his speech in his hand. He said eloquently: "Our Ark Company's production and sales in the past few years have just been reported. Now let's talk about the personal computer network technology we are researching..."

Hearing this, Alex immediately cheered up. He had been paying attention to this aspect for a long time. Since the establishment of Ark Company, he has mentioned this matter to the Eight Rebels and arranged related research tasks.

It is not until today that network technology has seen a glimmer of light.

It is not difficult to connect to a LAN. What is difficult is to create an Internet out of nothing. The emergence of a new technology always requires many failures and efforts to achieve success.

Fortunately, there is Alex in this world. Otherwise, even if someone thought of the concept of the Internet, they would not come up with it so quickly.

"The software problems of the Internet have long been solved by Alex. As for the hardware, the server can be replaced by a supercomputer. The key is the networking method. We have developed and experimented with several networking methods in total, two of which are through existing Telephone lines are used to connect to the network, that is, dial-up Internet access directly through modem and Internet access through adsl. Their advantages and disadvantages have been listed in the document. "

"Generally speaking, the first way to access the Internet has low cost and slow speed. The second way is just the opposite, but the cost of transformation is still relatively moderate and within the range of affordability. The last way to connect to the Internet is to access the network through optical fiber. It’s the fastest, but the investment cost is also the highest.”

Noyce's words caused a lot of discussion among the people present. They are all computer talents of this era, and of course they can see the huge value of the Internet. I strongly agree with Alex's ideas, and they are both pioneers who resolutely promote Internet technology.

But they still have many differences on how to implement networking and how to maximize benefits. In particular, there is a lot of controversy over the introduction of optical fiber with high investment and low return. Today's optical fiber technology is not perfect, is expensive and prone to failure.

"As for fiber optics, I don't think we need to take it into consideration. After all, technical and financial conditions are limited. It would be too expensive to get this phone." One of the senior managers expressed his opinion. He said eloquently: "Now the only option is The two options of dial-up and adsl, as long as they can be connected to the network, it doesn't matter even if the speed is slower, they can be developed slowly."

As soon as he finished saying this, someone disagreed: "That's all networking based on AT\u0026T's infrastructure. If someone doesn't cooperate with us, or insists on taking the big share, we can only deal with Tang Shui." If so, what should we do?”

AT\u0026T is the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, an American telecommunications company founded in 1877 that has long monopolized the U.S. long-distance and local telephone market. Its predecessor was the Bell Company, an American telephone company founded by Bell, the inventor of the telephone. In 1899, AT\u0026T integrated the business and assets of Bell in the United States and became the parent company of the Bell System.

If it develops according to history. The company was not broken up until 1984, when the U.S. Department of Justice split it into eight companies based on the Antitrust Act, including a new AT\u0026T company that inherited the name of the parent company, and seven local telephone companies. Also known as the Seven Bell Brothers.

From then on. The U.S. telecommunications business has truly entered the era of competition, otherwise. The telecommunications business in the United States has always been monopolized by AT\u0026T. No one can challenge it in this field. As long as there are companies that dare to go against it, they will go bankrupt or be acquired without exception.

If Ark Company does not adopt a fiber optic solution, it will definitely not be able to bypass AT\u0026T. There must be no way to gain great benefits from cooperation with the other party.

When someone raised this issue, someone immediately objected strongly: "Our Ark Company has invested so much manpower, material resources and time costs, not to become someone else's wage earner! If we cooperate with AT\u0026T Company, there is no way for us to get rid of this situation." status."

"Yes, AT\u0026T is too powerful and cannot tolerate us making money in their user market. If they see a profit, they can wait until we develop the market and develop another set of things. , and then throw us aside. That’s the end of the game!”

Such remarks were recognized by many people present. It is not that they have never seen what AT\u0026T did. Otherwise, this company would not have been able to monopolize the US telephone market until now. Almost all are over a century old.

Only Noyce didn't think so. He said: "With AT\u0026T's infrastructure, funds and manpower, our Internet can develop at the fastest speed."

"As long as we firmly grasp the key technologies of the Internet, we are not afraid of not being able to share the benefits! In my opinion, only choosing to cooperate with AT\u0026T is in the best interest of our Ark company."

He is already in his early forties, and he is very lucky to be able to reach one of the top positions in Ark Company. After so many years of hard work, he has long been accustomed to a steady and steady way of doing things. He is not only proficient in business skills, but also understands corporate politics well, and has the patience to deal with non-technical people.

Noyce’s statement is actually quite correct. If Ark Company can continue to lead the development of Internet technology, and at the same time be able to grasp some basic hardware and technologies, such as root domain name services, etc., it can make money while sitting still. Get rich.

It's just that some people don't think so, especially Moore. Although he has a good personal relationship with Noyce, he has completely different views on this aspect.

Moore retorted with some excitement: "Judging from the current development speed of computer hardware, Internet technology will definitely develop faster and faster in the future. If we adopt a conservative attitude to deal with this field, we will inevitably be eliminated by the times. Even if we can make money in the future, this field will not belong to us, and the times will not be led by us!"

Suddenly, the entire conference room was noisy, but Alex watched them speak and argue without saying a word.

No matter what they thought, Alex had to make the final decision. When they had almost reached the point of discussion, they all stared at Alex, wanting him to make an idea.

Alex smiled slightly, and he slowly said to everyone: "You don't have to think too much about cooperation with AT\u0026T and how to cooperate. I think we can only consider it further after sending someone to contact them first. "

After a pause, he continued to ask: "In terms of technology patents, have we completed the procedures? Several Internet access methods, UUkanshuwww.uukanshu.net, optical fiber network technology, optical fiber manufacturing technology, etc., are there no problems? ?”

Noyce was taken aback for a moment and quickly replied: "No problem, we have already applied for these patents. Although I heard that some people are also studying optical fiber technology, they are much later than us. Unless they can There are inventions that are ahead of the times, otherwise we will definitely not be able to get around our patent barriers."

After hearing this, Alex and the others felt relieved. These patents were important bargaining chips in their hands. After a while, Alex continued: "My opinion is to continue to improve optical fiber network technology, manufacturing processes, etc., to reduce failure rates and costs. Even if we can't use optical fiber networks now, we will definitely use them in the future. After all, society is moving forward and technology will continue to be updated, and fiber optic technology may also be used in the near future."

This statement was well recognized by everyone, and they all nodded in agreement. This set a tone, that is, to be prepared.

On the one hand, it sent people to discuss cooperation with AT\u0026T, and on the other hand, it did not relax the research and development of fiber optic technology. As for Ark Company, they had to build a prototype network in the shortest possible time so that negotiators would have leverage to prevent AT\u0026T from not paying attention to them.