Rebirth of the Tech Madman

In terms of qualifications in the field of microprocessors, Bill Mensch is definitely a veteran figure. His career in designing CPUs can be traced back to the period when Motorola developed to compete with the Intel 8080 in the 1970s.

Because it also took the route of high-end microprocessors priced in the hundreds of dollars, the R\u0026D team planned to study a low-cost and energy-efficient product, but Motorola management rejected it.

In this way, after the success, the R\u0026D team was split, and some people switched to the company to continue their technological dreams, and Bill Mensch was one of them.

; It was established by some people from Texas Instruments. At the beginning, it was based on the opportunity of Texas Instruments' second supplier, which is somewhat similar to the relationship between amd and intel.

As a result, the team of Biermensch was really tough and successfully launched the ;6502, which was priced at only 25 dollars, which can be said to have slapped the face of the old club Motorola.

Coincidentally, Intel's cpu R\u0026D team also got into trouble. Federico Fagin was dissatisfied with Andy Grove's management philosophy, so he left Intel and created the z80, the performance king of 8-bit CPUs in the commercial market, only in terms of price. No; 6502 has more advantages, and the two have reached a tie.

These two cpus just caught up with the key nodes of the second stage of personal computer development, thus replacing Intel's intel 8080 and Motorola's respectively, thus becoming the most popular microprocessors on the market.

It has been acquired by Tang Huan; at that time, z80 was chosen as the CPU of Tangdy Computer trs80.

As for the 6502, it is even more straightforward, because the management is not good enough to cause an economic crisis, and it was directly acquired by Commodore, a dedicated cpu for the pet.

Woz took a fancy to; 6502's high quality and low price, so this microprocessor also took the express train of Apple's Apple.

These three companies have led the development of personal computers into a new stage, and the 6502 and z80 have contributed a lot.

;After the turmoil, the R\u0026D team of ;6502 broke up again. Bill Mensch founded weste to continue to develop an optimized version compatible with the 6502 microprocessor.

Because Commodore not only produces 6502, but also manufactures personal computers, and squeezes competitors in terms of price and cost according to this vertically integrated industrial advantage. So adopt; 6502 manufacturers try to purchase from the second supplier's channel. For example, Apple Atari buys from syek; 6502 compatible cpu.

Tang Huan is also a big user of 6502,

Of course, he will not suffer from Commodore's dumbness. Apart from finding a second supplier with better quality and lower price in Japan, he is also looking for targets in the United States.

Designed by Bill Mensch; not only eliminated; some bugs of 6502. It also further improved performance and reduced power consumption, which won Tang Huan's favor.

The use of Gein's low-power microprocessor is not limited to personal computers, electronic game consoles, but also broader embedded systems and other fields.

After cooperating for a period of time, Tang Huan decisively won the small company Weste, and entrusted Bill Mensch to develop a 16-bit CPU compatible with the 6502, the result of which he suggested for Apple to use.

At present, it is also in the stage of samples, and there are still some defects waiting to be eliminated.

Apple convened all technical forces to visit. In essence, it is to coordinate and solve these problems.

Apple's cpu is 16-bit, and the memory capacity is 256 kb.

Due to the adoption of the standard isa bus of the Fangyuan computer, Apple can directly use the expansion card function on the Fangyuan computer platform, such as the cdr drive, the Sony 35-inch floppy disk drive, the Epson printer, the Seagate hard disk, the sound card, the modem, and other external devices. Chance.

Invisibly, Apple's research and development progress will be much faster.

After discussing the issue almost, when everyone started to eat, Woz talked to Tang Huan about the music festival with great interest, Tang, you really managed to connect with the musicians from the Soviet Union. Then Our festival will definitely be more fun.

For this music festival, Tang Huan and Woz jointly invested 15 million US dollars, which can definitely be called a heavy investment, and it can be said that it is for their own personal hobbies. Take the prodigal to a new height.

But having said that, how could the event jointly organized by the two billionaires be so shabby.

At the beginning, Woz was just for the purpose of playing, but Tang Huan felt that with the energy of the two of them. It is entirely possible to operate this event as a permanent symbolic cultural feast in the San Francisco area every year.

This goal moved Woz at the time. After all, if a person has money, he wants to have a name. This is a manifestation of the value of life.

There is no doubt that this kind of activity will be very popular no matter where it is. Not only will someone pay for the funds, but it will also increase local attention and stimulate economic development. It is enthusiastic hype, and it will officially start next month.

Since the goal is to build it into an annual cultural event, it is very worthwhile to invest more funds in the first session and do some basic work well.

Woz spends money mainly for personal interest and fame, while Tang Huan has more goals.

First of all, Tang Huan will use the gimmick of combining technology and art to demonstrate the ability of Fangyuan Computer in audio processing. At that time, the electronic musical instruments driven by it will be a highlight that attracts people's attention.

Secondly. In the name of DreamWorks, Tang Huan invited some people from the Asian Chinese music scene to attend this event, which can be regarded as exchange and learning. Of course, Tang Huan had to pay for this expense himself.

I saw Tang Huan and Woz talking vigorously and spending a lot of money. Gates, who entered the industry earlier but respectfully accompanied him at the bottom, couldn't help feeling a little sour.

It's hard to be a younger brother, so Gates found an excuse, left the dinner table, and went out to get some air. I didn't want to meet Jobs outside who seemed to come here on purpose, and the other party asked pointedly, Apple's business, have you already won it?

Yeah. Even Jobs, the moody Gates, nodded cautiously.

It seems that you are very satisfied with getting such a trivial business, and you seem to be a little bit happy. Jobs teased unceremoniously.

This business shouldn't be too small. Gates, who was ridiculed and felt a little inexplicable, explained patiently: According to Apple's design goals, it will successfully introduce the Apple series of personal computers from the era of 8-bit CPUs to In the era of 16-bit CPUs, becoming the successor of Apple, the sales volume is very optimistic.

Then let me ask you, when will Apple be released? Jobs snorted, not caring about Gates' explanation at all.

According to the plan, next year. Gates answered honestly.

Next year? The Lisa computer will come out next year, and mine will also be on stage. Jobs muttered with disdain on his face, I don't know what Mike and the others think, but the Apple product is already a thing that is about to be eliminated. Why do you need to devote resources to tinkering and upgrading? It’s better to transfer it to the project team.”

The shrewd Gates finally understood what was going on. Jobs, who turned out to be the president of Apple, didn't want to see his next-generation Apple. This is so weird.

Because I think the consumer group that the product is facing is different. Gates, who didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble, agreed vaguely and casually.

Repetitive investment is a waste of resources. After Jobs finished his evaluation without any scruples, he stared at Gates and said, What's the point of developing for Apple? Come on, I'll lead you to open your eyes.

Upon hearing this. Gates, who had already reached the level of instinct to steal a teacher, couldn't help being moved, quickly followed in Jobs' footsteps, and tentatively asked, Where are we going?

When you arrive, you will know. Jobs raised his head and sold a trick.

Just pretend, besides the project, what else do you have to show me? I really think you are the only smart person. Gates could not help but slander.

...

As Gates guessed, Jobs led him into the tightly guarded project team.

Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and get ready to witness the miracle I'll show you. Jobs ordered mysteriously.

Enduring the extreme discomfort in his heart, Gates did it again, and then looked at the monitor of the computer along the direction of Jobs' finger.

The color of the screen is black on a white background, which is very close to the appearance of books in reality, but it seems a little dazzling.

Above is a document with a slider on the edge. Drag this thing with the mouse, and the lines of text will move smoothly in the vertical direction. The refresh speed is very fast, and the naked eye can hardly feel the flicker and pause.

This display method is quite different from the technical methods commonly used nowadays. When there are a lot of documents to be processed, the latter are all displayed in split screens, and you need to press the page turning key once to switch the content of each page.

It is undeniable that the display method is closer to the natural form in real life, which is definitely a pioneering work.

This is just one of many features. Seeing the surprised look on Gates' face, Jobs smiled with satisfaction, This is an epoch-making product, what do you think?

Gates hesitated for a moment, but nodded, agreeing with Jobs' statement;

In fact, Gates stole a lesson from Tang Huan, which really opened up a lot of horizons. He has already understood concepts such as graphical user interface.

At this stage, Zheru's various software has added many graphical interface elements. Its commercial promotion slogan in the market is menu-driven.

As the name suggests, the user does not need to memorize too many obscure commands, and then type the keyboard to send them to the CPU for execution, but to complete the daily work through the cooperation of the mouse, menus, and parameters.

Compared with the previous all-command-driven computer operation, menu-driven is much more visual and labor-saving. It is very popular with users and has become a major feature of the Fangyuan computer platform.

But that's not really a graphical user interface, the Xerox Star released last year is the real example.

On the Fangyuan personal computer platform, the operating system itself does not provide a graphical user interface mechanism from the inside to the outside. The friendly interface that the user sees is completed by each program independently. A shell is provided to help the command execute the shell program File Explorer is the most famous one.

Of course, these programs will use a common function library provided.

As for the more advanced product Fangyuan Personal Server, the operating system used by it is Vientiane, but it provides some interface programs that are closer to the graphical user interface effect of Xerox Star.

Gates has reason to believe that Zheru must also be researching the graphical user interface, but because of the current hardware performance, he has been acting conservatively.

Because Charles Simeone made no secret of his vigilance, Gates' plan to steal his teacher was repeatedly blocked, and naturally he was unable to pry into further information.

And in front of him, it can be said that he demonstrated to Gates vividly, guiding him to a clear direction for the development of graphical user interface.

In the field of innovation, Gates' performance from 0 to 1 is often lackluster; but from 1 to the next thing is his specialty.

While thinking about whether he would also like to do a GUI project, Gates suddenly heard Jobs say, Are you willing to develop software on such a great personal computer platform?

Of course it's a wish. Gates nodded with a smile.

Well, I will give you such an opportunity. Jobs bewitched condescendingly, I asked Microsoft to develop software such as spreadsheets, word processing databases. To be continued.

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