Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Although Andy Grove is famous for his stubborn temper, he can only pretend that his grandson is soft in front of Tang Huan, because Intel is really wrong on this point.

Since you have so many concerns, compared to the previous Intel 8086, Intel will continue to set up a second supplier for the Intel 80286. Andy Grove promised with a smile, I will still give you a license, Now you can rest assured. In addition, we have not slackened in increasing production capacity.

If this is the case, the development of a personal computer using the intel 80286 will save some serious worries. Tang Huan nodded with a calm expression.

However, with the increasing complexity of the CPU architecture, even if it is officially authorized, the research and development progress of third-party manufacturers will still lag behind.

In the original time and space, in the era before Intel launched the microprocessor, amd's similar counterfeit products often lag behind by about a year before they can be launched.

Therefore, in this time difference, passivity is still obvious, but we can only trust Intel's integrity.

In fact, in terms of business ethics, Intel during this period is still remarkable. For example, it sets a limit for itself, that is, not to enter the field that competes with customers.

The specific manifestation is the personal computer market. There is no shortage of processor manufacturers. They are jealous when they see customers take their own microprocessors and assemble products that are popular in the market and make a fortune.

After launching the extremely successful microprocessor 6502, it was acquired by Commodore due to financial difficulties.

As a result , the company has formed a complete vertical system from cpu , memory to personal computer increasingly aggressive.

Commodore released a new eight-bit PC 64 this year. The hardware configuration is not bad, but the price is only $595, and there are cheaper PCs on the product line. It is completely a posture to drive out other similar cheap and low-end computers.

Therefore, now Apple's apple does not directly purchase 6502 from there, but chooses the compatible cpu of the second supply source synertek company.

Another unkind cpu manufacturer is Texas Instruments, as early as the early 1970s when the calculator market was booming. It competed with users who used its own microprocessors for this market. While providing chip sales prices, it fought a price war with calculators, squeezing the living space of competitors, and the market collapsed as a result. All participants were out, and Commodore was one of the victims at the time.

Texas Instruments plays the same role in the personal computer field today, and it and Commodore are fighting to the death in the low-end market under $500.

And these two companies even coincidentally set the home video game consoles in this price range as the fire targets, and most of the CPUs used in such products are their products.

It is not difficult to guess, if Intel also takes advantage of the integrated vertical integration of CPU, memory and personal computer. If you join the battle group, what kind of chaos will the market be.

Tang Huan was very disdainful of the business strategy of Commodore and Texas Instruments. Relying on the advantages of industrial integration and shopping in the low-end market, apart from the seemingly considerable sales volume, how much actual profit can be said.

Moreover, limited by the current development level of the semiconductor industry, the low-end products at this time are far from the low-end products that can be evaluated as enough decades later in the original time and space. It's simply garbage to fool curious but uninformed consumers.

Thinking about the two cpu manufacturers that brought huge market pressure to his Xiaobawang game console, and looking at the submissive Andy Grove in front of him, Tang Huan didn't have that much resentment towards Intel.

Therefore, with the harmonious atmosphere of the talks. Tang Huan made a clear statement, Intel needs to solve the unavoidable bugs in the early days of intel 80286 as soon as possible. We are also starting to develop personal computers with intel 80286 processors. As for the compiler, we will naturally not forget it. .”

Having said that, Tang Huan smiled playfully. I'd like to see if mine is faster or IBM's is faster.

It doesn't matter which one of you is faster. Intel is the beneficiary of drought and flood. Andy Grove, who was smiling all over his face, was secretly thinking about it.

After Andy Grove left contentedly, Tang Huan called his cheap student Anders Helsberg over and gave instructions on the compiler.

After the release of , Anders Hailsberg established his own position despite being young. Seeing that he could convince the public, Tang Huan made him the director of the programming tool software department.

The support for intel 80286 is nothing more than the support for new instructions, especially the exception handling mechanism. You must know that this is a good thing. With it, the crash of the program will be obviously controllable.

But the difficulty is limited to this. After all, the structural changes of the intel 80286 are far from earth-shaking, and Anders Helsberg readily took the lead.

The research and development of personal computers using intel 80286 naturally has to be undertaken by the research and development center. Tang Huan just held a meeting in the past and solved it.

The reason why it is so light is because the system of the second-generation Fangyuan computer, that is, the standard, is not empty talk.

The focus of this upgrade is mainly reflected in the research and development of the north and south bridge chips supporting the intel 80286, and then follow up with the operating system. Other hardware architectures such as buses do not need to be changed for the time being.

Of course, there are not without thorny technical difficulties. The problem mainly lies in the biggest improvement of intel 80286-the two operating modes it provides: real mode and protected mode.

What Intel didn't realize was how ingrained software stickiness was, and compatibility with older versions of application code was increasingly important.

Although the intel 80286 still supports the real mode of the intel 8086, after switching to the unique protection mode of the intel 80286, it cannot be switched back, and the protection mode itself is not fully compatible with the real mode.

In the original time and space, Intel also realized that it took this upgrade transition for granted. So a virtual protection mode was added in the later intel 80386 to solve this problem.

The second-generation Fangyuan computer is far more advanced than the ibm-, for example, it does not define the use of the upper part of the memory address space in a fixed number like the latter, thus avoiding many shortcomings. Theoretically speaking, the standard of the second-generation Fangyuan computer can achieve no difference between real mode and protected mode.

But in terms of implementation, for the inherent characteristics of the CPU, such as the memory addressing method, the second-generation Fangyuan computer standard is still unavoidably restricted like ibm-, and some adjustments have to be made specific to Intel's CPU.

Fortunately, compared to the ibm- which is inherently deficient in design. It was much easier to solve these technical problems. After Tang Huan gave some pointers, he turned his attention to Fangyuan's personal workstation—the computer image function.

Specifically, visual effects processing, among many categories, and — computer animation.

Just as Tang Huan set up a satellite company to specialize in software products for CAD, he also set up another satellite company for this purpose - the digital field is d2.

Spielberg has finished filming e.t. Alien, the newly formed d2, and Lucas' industrial light and magic. Undertook the task of special effects together.

An e.t. Alien is not too much work for Spielberg, so he still has time to write and shoot a horror movie for MGM - Noisy Ghost, d2 gradually began to get on track, taking on more special effects tasks.

James Cameron, who is actively preparing for the filming of Terminator, has contributed a lot to the improvement of d2's business capabilities.

Besides visual effects, computer animation is also a big part of d2's business.

However, even if Tang Huan frequently opened the golden finger of a tech madman. However, the performance of Fangyuan's personal workstation is still insufficient in terms of computer graphics, and it cannot achieve the level of complete computer animation like the movie Toy Story released in 1995 in the original time and space.

This is the objective reality. No matter how powerful Tang Huan is, he cannot escape the shackles of the basic rules of the world.

then. Tang Huan’s goal for d2 is to first become an effective aid to traditional animation, stop-motion animation and other animation methods, and to find a breakthrough in computer animation short films, and finally to use the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit released in 1988 in the original time and space. The technical height of the two-dimensional animated characters and real actors working together is the goal of the first stage.

At present, d2 has completed two computer animation short films, both of which are commercials for EA.

The first one is the animation of Street Fighter, which mainly shows the splendor of Chinese Kung Fu. The effect played is naturally self-evident. Just like in the original time and space. Blizzard's amazing cg for Warcraft 3 is the same as the worldwide admiration it aroused.

Although the role of the monk cannot be fully realized in the game, the resemblance is there, and this advertising clip has greatly aroused the interest of the audience, making Street Fighter the most popular arcade game at the moment.

This may have something to do with the current economic situation in the United States. Because there is no improvement in sight, people subconsciously need a simple way to relieve stress, and the extremely shocking Street Fighter just in time became a A good choice, in the sound of dynamic music, the opponent escapes the reality for a short time.

The degree of popularity of Street Fighter can be seen from the fact that players on the Xiaobawang game console platform have repeatedly asked ea when it will launch a version for home video game consoles.

Of course, these players are destined to be disappointed. The graphics acceleration module of the current Xiaobawang game console is not as powerful as the Xiaobawang arcade machine, and it cannot provide the hardware performance required by Street Fighter for the time being.

And in Tang Huan's view, even if the home video game console version of Street Fighter can be released now, it may not be as effective as a rescue after the industry collapses in the entire North American market.

The second advertising video of d2 is to help Xiaobawang game consoles to fight against the low-end computers of Commodore and other companies, because of the marketing slogan of the other party, It is better to buy a game console than to buy a game console that can only play games. A personal computer that can play games and study is really disgusting.

This advertising video for counterattack is inspired by the Chinese allusion that painting a tiger is not an anti-dog. For a low-end computer like Commodore, it seems that both games and learning are taken into account, but in fact it is not both. It's a marketing method that fools the layman completely, and it's ridiculed.

The novel content production method of computer animation naturally once again attracted people's attention to a great extent, and EA slapped its competitors severely.

Commodore has no power to counter this, because the video effect of the 1982 version of the Xiaobawang game console has reached the level of the current general arcade machines—not including its own Xiaobawang arcade machine, of course. Compared with their low-end and cheap personal computers Next, it is indeed a lot of amateur.

However, Commodore showed aggressive marketing as always. It immediately announced that it would lower the price of the 64 released this year by US$100.

Seeing this situation, Texas Instruments immediately made a tit-for-tat response, and also lowered the price of the product corresponding to 64 by US$100.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the market where home video game consoles and low-end cheap personal computers coexist is bloodied and mourned. It depends on which one can not survive such an intense price war and get out first.

From this we can see how powerful this short advertising film in the form of computer animation triggered a chain reaction in the market.

Currently, d2 is carrying out another challenging task assigned by Tang Huan. (To be continued.)

...Easy. Look. Small. Say.