Rebirth of the Tech Madman

The shrewd Gates is best at stealing lessons by climbing up and down. He quickly let go of unnecessary entanglements and tentatively said: I don't know how powerful the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer with 32-bit architecture will be. It would be nice to see the prototype. ∷∷,

You should be concerned about how to pass the certification. I'm just giving you a general strategy. The actual implementation requires your cooperation with the specific department in charge. Tang Huan changed the subject in a tight tone.

Although the 32-bit architecture concept of the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer was released early for media hype, the detailed progress is a commercial secret. Including partners, no matter what the source is, they must keep silent. How could Tang Huan disclose it to Gates in vain? The other party couldn't afford this price at all, and it would be almost the same if AT\u0026T existed.

It's a pity that AT\u0026T has a lot of airs, and Tang Huan still needs a lot of bargaining chips. However, compared with Bell Labs, which is constantly launching new commercial versions, the Western Electric Company under its command has not achieved much. Tang Huan, who expected it to become an important new force to promote Fangyuan's technical standards, was very disappointed.

This may have something to do with the dizzying changes in the personal computer industry. You must know that almost every month there are manufacturers in the market that withdraw sadly, or even if they keep the brand, they have changed their lineage and become a member of the two standard camps of Fangyuan personal computer and ibm.

The Fangyuan workstation and Fangyuan server, which have a direct inheritance relationship with Fangyuan PC in terms of technology system, seem to be updated faster than minicomputers, which makes it difficult for large enterprises with traditional business thinking.

In particular, the North American home video game console market collapsed last year. Personal computers played a role in fueling this. In the end, almost only the cheap computer manufacturer Commodore and the video game manufacturer EA remained. It really frightened the onlookers.

In short, Tang Huan uses dex as a symbol to launch a batch of new products every six months, which invisibly makes the competition in the microcomputer market extremely fierce. , even AT\u0026T was affected by this negative factor.

In Tang Huan's license structure, although there is a concept of priority for collaborators, it will never spread too much into the future roadmap. That is, unlike when companies such as Intel and amd share and cooperate in technology, there is no clear demarcation line drawn on the possible future achievements of x86 family processors.

In other words, the bargaining chips that AT\u0026T got from Tang Huan have the timeliness of being unused and expired. No matter how slow it is in the development of microcomputers, the cards in its hand will be completely outdated. up.

Tang Huan didn't bother to pay too much attention to AT\u0026T. After all, AT\u0026T still made a lot of money in the communication business, and entered the computer industry carelessly.

It is also the meaning of the title. If he has the time to worry about it, he might as well pay attention to the development progress of the fourth generation Fangyuan personal computer.

Industry observers are generally cautious about Tang Huan's plan to actively promote the 32-bit architecture of personal computers. The reason is that the concept of 32-bit is still taken for granted as a high-end application, which should be considered by mainframes and minicomputers.

I have to say that this is a matter of vision. Although they are all computers with 32-bit architecture, they can use technical means to increase data processing capabilities such as code parallelism and cache acceleration to differentiate products into high-end and low-end, commercial and personal use, and other market positioning.

Of course, bringing a 32-bit architecture to the PC was a lot of work and difficulty.

The realization of the plug-and-play of hardware devices, upgraded 32-bit bus, enhanced video processing performance, dma, etc., is a test of the manager's ability to control complex projects. If there is a slight mistake, it will be like Jobs' development. Procrastinating and wasting time for several years not only wastes resources, but also brings a heavy burden to the company, and may even become depressed because of it.

Fortunately, there is a help that can significantly speed up the progress of the project, that is, many technologies have been realized on Fangyuan workstations and Fangyuan servers. Learning from high-end to low-end is far better than groping from scratch.

The slightly troublesome place is the supply of cpu. Fangyuan PC has always insisted on walking on two legs, that is, the product line is divided into two series--Motorola models for mid-to-high end and Intel x86 models for mid-to-low end.

But now, Intel can't come up with 32-bit cpu. In order to fight against Motorola, it put its hopes on a microprocessor project with a more advanced architecture, and brought in Tang Huan and Siemens to help out.

However, judging from the information gathered so far, the structure of the chip is too complicated. The operating efficiency of the microprocessor manufactured by the existing semiconductor technology level is obviously behind that of the intel80286, let alone the competition from Motorola.

Perhaps, the only solution is to modify existing ideas, design and manufacture in a unique way. But this still doesn't help Intel launch 32-bit CPUs as soon as possible.

The old rival Motorola has launched a complete 32-bit architecture, and has successfully taped out.

Such research and development progress, of course, benefited from Tang Huan's promotion. Similar to IBM's ability to modify the internal structure of the intel80286, the authorization he obtained from Motorola is also very loose, and there is a lot of room for adjustment of the processor.

It is the first real 32-bit CPU in the family of microprocessors. The previous products only have 32-bit structures such as internal temporary registers and arithmetic units, and the external data bus and address bus are not 32-bit.

After all, the 16mb memory space supported by the previous 24-bit address bus is enough even on high-end Fangyuan workstations and Fangyuan servers.

With the continuous reduction of memory prices, computers in the high-end field. Greatly increased the possibility of configuring memory capacity above 16mb.

The prototype of the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer was placed in front of Tang Huan. The cpu inside is such a one.

On the surface it seems. This computer can already run smoothly, but in fact, there are still some details that need to be improved in terms of video, audio, network and other functions.

Tang Huan looked at the documents in his hand, and observed the actual operation effect of the prototype one by one according to each marked milestone.

That's right. Tang Huan nodded with satisfaction. According to this progress, it can be done around the time of dex this fall. Expand the scope of the test to the circle of professional computer media, and let them continue to help us build momentum.

John Chambers reminded with concern: I am a little worried that if the concept of the 32-bit fourth-generation Fangyuan PC is too successful, it may affect the existing sales of the third-generation Fangyuan PC and previous models. Performance.

Are you afraid that the failure of the Osborne effect will repeat itself here? Tang Huan laughed.

Due to the fierce competition of other companies in the portable personal computer market, they only occupy the first-mover advantage, while those surpassed in terms of quality and technology are increasingly in jeopardy.

So Adam? Osborn tried to regain the favor of consumers by releasing a series of new product plans. But unexpectedly, not only the goal was not achieved, but the existing users canceled their orders one after another. Enter the state of holding money to wait and see.

In the end, the poorly managed Osborne Computer Company had to enter bankruptcy protection, and survived the difficulties by switching to the Fangyuan personal computer camp and manufacturing low-end portable second-generation Fangyuan personal computers.

This commercial failure has become an analysis case of many business schools in the United States, and it is even called the Osborne effect.

However, Tang Huan obviously didn't think he would repeat the same mistakes, he had his own ideas.

Why did users stay on the sidelines after Adam Osborne released a new product plan? After the novelty of the first portable personal computer, consumers gradually lost confidence in Osborne Computer's technical strength , and our Fangyuan Computer Company will not have this problem of distrust.”

More importantly, from the first generation to the second generation, and from the second generation to the third generation of Fangyuan personal computer, every large-scale product upgrade process has made the continuity perfect. Most of the existing software of users can be directly, Or simply transition to a new hardware platform with minimal modification and enjoy new, more powerful features.

Users' existing investments are respected and preserved, so they naturally don't worry too much about buying existing products, which will be a loss. After all, when a new product is first launched, even if it is in every possible way, the price is certain. It is better to buy the current mainstream products to be more affordable than to be high above the ground without delaying your work.”

Speaking of this, Tang Huan smiled, Of course, the impact you are worried about is also reasonable, but this is also an excellent test for our marketing team.

At this time, the function demonstration process of the application software has reached the link of the database ebase, and a natural language artificial intelligence answering program called Q\u0026A starts to run.

Looking at Symantec in the list of cooperative companies in the copyright statement department, Tang Huan couldn't help being slightly taken aback.

This program has a good prospect. It will allow our Fangyuan computers to be placed in libraries, banks, airports, hotels and other places to provide people with simple consulting services. John Chambers nodded in affirmation.

In the field of natural language artificial intelligence response, Gary Hendricks, the founder of Symantec, has made a lot of achievements. The start-up capital of this company was funded by the National Science Foundation. It's just that it is not well managed. It’s not because of our cooperation, it’s going to close down. By the way, Symantec is located in Mountain View, just like Fangyuan Computer.” Charles Simeone introduced.

——The National Science Foundation or NSF is an independent agency of the US government that supports basic research and education in science and engineering in addition to the medical field. The projects funded by it account for 20% of the basic research projects in American universities funded by the US federal government. Especially in the fields of mathematics, computer science, economics, and social sciences, nsf is a major federal sponsor.

Gary Hendrix's artificial intelligence project can be seen and funded by nsf. It should have real materials. How come there is no money to make in the end? Tang Huan couldn't help asking curiously.

Symantec developed artificial intelligence on the platform of the minicomputer pdp-11, but after the results were obtained, it was discovered that compared with personal computers, pdp-11 no longer has any commendable advantages. Because Gary Hendrix had no money to migrate to the PC platform without a business that could bring stable profits for a long time.

After Charles Simeone finished his answer, he began to sigh again, The industry changes brought about by personal computers are really great. I remember how popular PDP-11 was when I was still working. I didn't expect that it would be so popular so soon. eliminated.

Pdp-11 was indeed all the rage in the 1970s. Bell Labs' operating system first ran on pdp-7 and was written in assembly language. When pdp-11 appeared, Dennis Rich and Ken Thompson began to transplant it to the new platform of pdp-11, and then the c language that supports data types was born.

This shows how popular pdp-11 is. However, the rapid rise of personal computers directly knocked this type of minicomputer off the altar.

The specific realization of the hardware architecture of minicomputers and personal computers is very different. As far as the processors used are concerned, the general-purpose CPUs of Motorola and Intel are popular on the personal computer platform, while the entire processor of pdp-11 contains four A large integrated circuit chip manufactured by Western Digital, which was originally famous for its hard drives in time and space.

In terms of memory utilization, the short board of pdp-11 with 16-bit architecture is even more obvious. All applications are limited to a 16-bit virtual address space, so only 64kb of memory can be used, which is directly used by the 640kb user of ibm- The program memory space is thrown out a block, and it is even more incomparable with Fangyuan PC.

Symantec has now transplanted its natural language artificial intelligence response program to the Fangyuan computer platform, especially using ebase as the background database, which is definitely a good time to embrace the thigh.

This artificial intelligence looks really good. Tang Huan also affirmed, Invite the main people of Symantec to come over and let me see it.

?(to be continued.)u