Rebirth in America

Carpenter Electronics' "first generation" transistor computer had a huge impact on many people. The most influential among them was William Shockley, who witnessed with his own eyes how Alex created this miracle.

In the computer industry, no one knows who designed this "first generation" computer. Even though there are various rumors, Carpenter Electronics has not come out to confirm it.

Some of the rumors are quite dramatic. For example, one rumor goes like this: "After Carpenter Electronics obtained the transistor invented by William Shockley, they packed the transistors into a warehouse and put them together with the electron tubes. There are A newly graduated engineer was responsible for assembling the computer. He didn't recognize transistors and electron tubes, so he used the transistor by mistake. Unexpectedly, this accidental transistor computer could actually run."

As soon as this rumor came out, someone immediately retorted: "How is that possible? Let's not talk about whether it can run. Just look at the brand-new design of the 'first generation', which has nothing to do with previous computers."

So someone came out to supplement this rumor. He said: "It's like this. After the fact that the transistor computer that was accidentally assembled could run was reported, they planned to redesign a transistor computer. But they didn't expect it. What’s interesting is that when only one part is replaced, all related things must be replaced, and more and more are replaced, and finally the machine we see now is formed.”

Shockley had also heard this rumor and thought it was completely nonsense. Computer experts who had seen the "first generation" were shocked by the machine's brand-new structural design. It was an epoch-making machine, a computer with a mature architecture. This computer alone allowed Carpenter Electronics to own hundreds of key patents. How could so many new patents be created by an engineer who doesn’t know anything?

"Do you really think that other scientists are dead?" When Shockley said this, Alex's face flashed in his mind. He has a deep understanding of Alex's abilities, and he doubts whether Alex designed this computer.

I had suspicions, but no evidence. However, he has been attracted by the huge development prospects of computers. In fact, it was the amazing profits of computers that aroused his entrepreneurial ambitions. Once Carpenter Electronics' "first generation" computer was launched, it dominated the market for other tube computers.

The huge profits made others feel unbearable, and many companies bought a "first-generation" computer. They plan to take the machine apart to see what's inside. They also want to make such a machine, and the Carpenters cannot monopolize this market.

It is not easy to copy an "early generation" computer. People in this era knew very little about such new things as transistor computers. Not to mention, Alex's computer used many things from later generations, including ROM, disks, buses, encrypted programs, etc.

Due to the limitations of the technology of the times, many things have been replaced by other devices. For example, the "disk" is not the disk that Alex is familiar with, but uses a record player structure, with a data storage component of a magnetic record and a magnetic read head, and is about the size of a wardrobe. These were all made by his engineers under the guidance of Alex.

It's okay to copy the "first generation" computer, but the important thing is that there must be a patent to get around it. Alex's machine has more than 120 invention patents. Other companies that wanted to produce transistor computers had to bypass these patents. One of the most powerful patents is the "integrated circuit board" patent. It is like a huge wall that blocks other companies out.

A company without an "integrated circuit board" patent would have no way to create a computer that could compete with the "first generation". They were completely helpless with this patent, so they wanted to obtain patent authorization through various methods, and even wanted the government to declare the patent invalid.

Faced with the onslaught of major companies, Bart and the others were helpless. After persisting for the first few years, they finally gave in and let the patent be licensed. No one had a monopoly on the computer market, not even Carpenter Electronics' powerful patents.

Since then, other companies that want to produce computers can also use integrated circuit boards, even if they have to pay a lot of patent fees. This is not a problem at all for computers that easily cost millions of dollars.

Of course, patents are not released all at once, but are authorized in a targeted manner. There are some companies that Carpenter Electronics will not authorize no matter how much fuss they make.

Shockley was the first to get it. He and the Carpenters were old friends. It didn't take much effort to get Bart to let go.

The reason why he wanted this patent was because he wanted to develop semiconductor products by himself. In other words, he also wanted to leave Bell Labs and go overseas to start an industry on his own. It's just that he currently lacks start-up capital, so he must find someone to invest some money for him to start it.

This time, Shockley didn't look for Bart again. He knew that Bart also had a research laboratory of the same nature. If he came to ask for money, it would be like a competitor coming to ask for funds. Bart would definitely refuse.

Shockley quickly thought of a way and found Alex.

"You mean, you want to sing about the Semiconductor Laboratory?" Alex felt a little surprised. He didn't expect that Shockley was also a person who couldn't stand loneliness.

"Yes, but I don't have the funds, so I want to ask you for some."

"A little? How much is it? What good do I get!"

"1 million U.S. dollars, 40% of the shares." Shockley replied quickly. He had thought about this sentence a long time ago.

Alex has money in his hands now, but the money didn't come from the strong wind. He only had 40% of the shares after giving him $1 million. Doesn't this make him a fool? He said bluntly: "Don't do it! Your heart is too dark!"

Shockley said quickly: "How many do you want?"

"How much does your research laboratory cost? Giving you US$400,000 is enough for you to work on for many years! US$400,000, 50% of the shares!" Alex replied.

Shockley thought for a while and said: "No, I can only give you 40% at most!"

Alex didn't want to get into any more trouble in this regard. He wasn't very optimistic about Shockley, so he said, "Okay, $400,000, 40% of the shares."

After receiving Alex's investment, Dr. Shockley happily left Bell Labs and returned to his hometown of Santa Clara. At this time, it was the period when Silicon Valley was emerging. Santa Clara is an important city in Silicon Valley.

For the development of Silicon Valley, one professor has to be mentioned, and this is the respected Professor Terman. In the late 1930s, he became the vice president of Stanford University. He made bold decisions, leasing land, attracting investment, transferring technology, and developing results!

Professor Terman is full of confidence and looks forward to the emergence of a high-tech "Stanford Industrial Park" among the trees in Palo Alto.

Dr. Shockley's return meets Professor Terman's purpose. He uses Shockley as a sign to recruit talents from all over the world.

At this time, electronic scientists all over the world were anxiously paying attention to Shockley's whereabouts. When the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was announced, application letters flew to Shockley's desk like snow flakes. The title "Father of the Transistor" is not a casual one. It can make many young people full of dreams come flying.

However, this has no effect on Alex. He had to ask Shockley to spend $200,000 to buy a large piece of land in Silicon Valley. At this time, land in Santa Clara was very cheap, and US$200,000 could buy tens of thousands of square meters.

"You're crazy!" Shockley felt very unhappy. He needed a place to stay, but he had never thought of buying such a large piece of land to build a house. At first, he thought he could just rent a small floor.

"Okay, you don't want to spend the $200,000. Then I'll pay the money! But in this case, the land will belong to me."

Alex wanted to buy this land in order to increase its value in the future. No matter how ignorant he was, he would still know the name "Silicon Valley". Now that there are preferential policies, we should quickly occupy the land first.

However, what he didn't expect was that as soon as he revealed his meaning, the people over there were overjoyed. They quickly asked if they wanted more land.

Can I buy more land? Alex was shocked. He didn't expect that the land in "Silicon Valley" would be so cheap. It was like something that couldn't be sold. Everyone wanted to sell the land in their hands.

In the end, Alex spent $1 million to buy land in Silicon Valley. These people were dumbfounded by this behavior of the nouveau riche. Shockley also looked at Alex with a strange look. He was wondering if Alex in front of him had been hit on the head. How can anyone spend so much money to buy such worthless land now?

But it was precisely because of this investment that Alex not only did not lose the money he invested in Shockley, but also made a huge profit.

Shockley's name was so resounding that he carefully selected eight young scientists in his many cover letters.

Eight young scientists, headed by N. Noyce and G. Moore, joined Shockley Laboratory one after another. They were all under 30 years old, in their prime, accomplished in their studies, and in their prime. At the peak of creative ability.

It was believed that Shockley would win the Nobel Prize sooner or later. Those young scientists also thought so. They were ambitious and wanted to make a career under the leadership of Shockley, the future Nobel Prize winner.

Alex also met these eight young people, and he also thought that there was a light in these people that could not be ignored.

When facing Alex, who was younger than them, those people didn't know what he did at first. They thought Alex was Shockley's son or relative, but they were surprised when they saw that Shockley also attached great importance to Alex's opinion.

After a while, they learned from the drunk Shockley that Alex was the investor in their laboratory. When they were the inventors of the bipolar transistor, they both felt that the world seemed unreal.

"Didn't you, Doctor, invent the transistor?" Noyce asked somewhat clearly.

Shockley shook his head and said, "I invented the transistor, but that kid was the first to come up with the bipolar transistor. Although I also applied for two patents for bipolar transistors, it was his inspiration It was made next time.”

The young people were shocked. They had never expected that there was someone who was even more genius than the genius in their mind. Shockley is undoubtedly the person they respect the most, and his genius is also praised by many people. If Shockley hadn't told them personally, they wouldn't have believed it even if he was beaten to death.

"Is that kid named Alex that powerful? Then why have we never heard of it?" Moore asked a key question.

Shockley suddenly came to his senses. He knew that he had said a few more words, and he would not say nonsense to others. Alex also asked him to keep it a secret and didn't want anyone else to know about it.

"Haha, drink! Drink, this wine has a lot of stamina!" Shockley was drinking, and UU Reading www.uukanshu.net suddenly fell down. Those young people looked at each other in confusion, not knowing whether what Shockley just said was true or false.

"Maybe the doctor is drunk and talking nonsense?" Someone put forward his guess.

This statement was the most acceptable to others, and they were relieved and no longer took this matter to their hearts. However, they also paid more attention to Alex's affairs, which was an eye-opener for them. They discovered that Alex turned out to be a famous writer, singer, etc.

Also outside, there are rumors that Alex invented the bipolar transistor, but not many people took it seriously.

After recruiting employees, Shockley ordered the laboratory to mass-produce transistors to reduce the cost to 5 cents each. He was ambitious and tried to occupy the transistor production market through low production costs and earn huge profits. It’s just that Alex thinks that he is a good scientist, but not necessarily a good business manager.

After settling the matter of Shocklila's investment, Alex turned his attention to filming "The Sound of Music". He had been preparing for this film for several years.

From persuading parents to obtain the first capital, to investing in hula hoops to make money, to acquiring film companies, setting up DreamWorks and so on. Over such a long period of time, he has done so many things with only one purpose, and that is to make his first movie.

Now that the goal is getting closer, he must concentrate on doing everything well, including the seemingly simple matter of casting. Unexpectedly, it was not difficult to choose the male and female protagonists of the movie, but the difficult part was choosing the supporting actress.