Rebirth of the Tech Madman

The three major personal computer software developed by Tang Huan, spreadsheet, word processing and database, are able to perform various practical functions on the second-generation Apple machine like a fish in water, mainly due to the openness left by Woz at the beginning of the design. type expansion slot.

Through this interface, the enhanced card integrating microprocessor, memory and special circuit can significantly improve the data processing efficiency of the computer, and maximize the power of the combination of software and hardware.

The solution of this mode has been prosperous for a long time. For example, in the early 1990s, if users wanted to watch videos smoothly on their personal computers, they had to configure special accelerated decompression card hardware and other devices besides sound cards and graphics cards. Matching player software.

In addition, this model is also effective against piracy.

Most importantly, this model caters to today's fetishization of tangible hardware. After all, in the habitual thinking of many people, the invisible software on the disk is worthless and unreliable, and only the physical hardware installed in the main computer box is worth buying.

In the original time and space in 1984, Apple's annual sales reached 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, while Microsoft's sales in the same period were 100 million U.S. dollars. This fact goes some way towards explaining the prevalence of such phenomena.

No matter how you look at it, Tang Huan's products need this model to be ahead of competitors in the current era.

But then there is a problem that is more troublesome, that is, the read-only memory where the program code is placed, and it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to update its content.

In the history of the development of semiconductor read-only memory, programmable read-only memory (PROM) was widely used in the early stage. There are determinant fuses inside, which can be blown by current according to the needs of users, so as to write the required material.

Once the fuse is blown, it cannot be restored, which means that the data cannot be changed. This is a read-only memory in the true sense.

What came next is the erasable and programmable read-only memory EPROM, which uses high voltage to write data, and can be irradiated with ultraviolet rays for a period of time through the reserved transparent window of quartz glass, thereby clearing the original data for reuse.

EPROM is the widely used read-only memory at present. The trouble is that the process of clearing the memory by ultraviolet light often takes half an hour to complete, and the efficiency is really not flattering. When Kildall wrote CP/M, he suffered from it.

According to Tang Huan's memory, the successor of EPROM, the technology of electronic erasable programmable read-only memory EEPROM has appeared in Intel in 1978.

The principle of EEPROM is similar to that of EPROM, but the way of erasing and writing is done using a high electric field, so it is much more convenient and faster than using ultraviolet light through a transparent window.

The application of new technology products must mean not low cost, but Tang Huan believes that if Intel's EEPROM is practical, it is worth listing it as a procurement target.

This is the main reason why he took the time to visit Intel before going to Taiwan for the second time.

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Now Intel can be called rich and handsome. The document Tang Huan is looking at shows that just last year, when Intel celebrated its 10th anniversary, its annual sales reached 400.6 million U.S. dollars, with a profit of 44.3 million U.S. dollars. 10,900, entering the Global Fortune 500 for the first time.

Intel has become synonymous with memory, yes, don't look at it developed CPU4004, 8008, 8080,

Also released the 16-bit CPU8086 last year, but its main business is DRAM, SRAM and ROM. In the 1970s, Intel was the market leader in all three products.

Speaking of Intel’s background, it can be said that its roots are strong. Its founder is a master of integrated circuit technology, so that with only a few pages of simple proposals, it took 5 minutes to win one of the four giants of Silicon Valley venture capital. Arthur Locke's favor, raising $2.5 million in startup funding.

In 1955, William Shockley, the father of the transistor, left Bell Labs and came to Silicon Valley, where he founded the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory and attracted many talented young scientists to join.

But soon, Shockley's management methods and weird behavior caused dissatisfaction among employees. Among them, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Julius Blank, Eugene Clare, Kim Herney, Jay Last, Sheldon, who Shockley called the Eight Rebels Roberts and Victor Greenik jointly resigned and co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in October 1957.

Due to the rapid development of Fairchild Semiconductor, its internal organizational management and product issues have become increasingly unbalanced.

In July 1968, two of the co-founders of Fairchild Semiconductor, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, resigned and founded Intel in the same year. After Jerry Sanders left Fairchild Semiconductor, Founded AMD.

The relationship between the two companies was once close, but since the mid-1980s, they have turned against each other, and staged a good show of competition between you and me in the processor market.

After the car arrived at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, Tang Huan put down Intel's relevant materials, walked into Intel's office area with Simonyi, and inadvertently saw Intel's current slogan, IntelDelivers.

Tang Huan suddenly wanted to laugh, intelinside has been cut out by himself with a click of a scissors. I don't know what slogan Intel will use to fool users in the future Pentium CPU era.

There is no personal exclusive office in Intel. An open floor is separated by various partitions, and employees work in it, and executives are no exception.

Boss Tang Huan is now a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, so he was easily interviewed by Andy Grove, who was promoted to president this year.

Grove and Simeone are fellow villagers, born in 1936 in a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary.

Because of the complicated situation and painful experience brought about by World War II, Grove fled to the United States when he was 20 years old and went to his uncle and aunt.

In 1960, Grove nearly graduated from CUNY with straight honors. However, he is still the leader among his classmates. When he graduated, the New York Times featured his academic success, lavishing praise and predicting that he would be a future star in science.

After that, Grove entered the University of California, Berkeley to study for a doctorate. As always, he excelled academically and became a star among the PhDs.

In 1963, at Moore's invitation, Grove joined Fairchild Semiconductor.

In 1968, Grove followed Moore and became Intel's third employee, and has been working until now.

Tang Huan sized up Grove in front of him. Despite his short stature and unattractive appearance, he was full of momentum.

Tang Huan knew very well that Grove's work style was extremely tough, and he would be named the toughest boss in the future.

Grove is said to have yelled at a female employee: If you're a man, I'll break your legs.

Among the current Intel executives, if Noyce and Moore sang red faces, then Grove sang bad faces.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two sides directly talked about the purpose of this meeting - EEPROM.

Grove led Tang Huan and Simeone to watch the product demonstration, and then said bluntly: At present, this technology is only available to Intel, and the manufacturing process is not small, so the product price will not be low.

Tang Huan nodded, I am mentally prepared for this situation. You guys should produce a batch of samples for me first, so that I can evaluate the actual application effect.

Grove nodded in agreement. Although the business is not big, it has great prospects. A new star company like Zheru came to do experiments on the initiative of a guinea pig. Intel really wanted it.

Strictly speaking, EEPROM technology is unintentional.

In 1978, when Intel engineer ePerlegos developed Intel2816, on the basis of EPROM technology, he switched to a thin gate oxide layer so that the chip could electrically erase its own bits without ultraviolet light, so the model was developed. 16KB EEPROM for 2816.

As far as Tang Huan knows, Perlegos and some colleagues later left Intel and founded Seeq Technology to produce EEPROM.

After Seeq's infighting, Perlegos and a Chinese founded the well-known ATMEL company, namely Atmel.

It can be seen that Perlegos, the inventor of EEPROM, is not a loyal minister of Intel, and he can take advantage of this opportunity to enter the semiconductor industry.

I want to talk to the EEPROM R\u0026D engineers about the problem of the interface circuit. Can I meet them? Tang Huan asked Grove calmly.