Rebirth of the Tech Madman

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Under the circumstances that most venture capitals are cold-faced, Ross Perot was fooled by Jobs to take away 20 million US dollars for a next company with no actual operating income. Is he stupid?

of course not!

At this level, Ross Perot's pursuit must be different from ordinary people.

He doesn't lack money; he doesn't feel bad about losses; what he really wants is adventure and a sense of accomplishment after a challenge. This can also be seen from his past experience.

The main customer of Electronic Data Systems is the US government, so its activities are quite extensive.

At the end of 1978, on the eve of the Iranian revolution, two executives of an electronic data system company working there were arrested by the local government on charges of bribery because they were implicated in an anti-corruption operation, and the bail was as high as 12.75 million US dollars.

At that time, Ross Perot was still the owner of the company, and he immediately asked a lawyer to rescue him. But the wave of revolution that broke out soon after brought the situation in Iran into chaos, and it was impossible to pay people for money.

Ross Perot's action was more decisive. He invited a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel to form a team and went to Iran to rescue him. Even he himself went to the front line to oversee the battle.

You know, Ross Perot at that time was already a real rich man, which shows the adventurous gene in his bones.

Fortunately, although the rescue process was tortuous, it finally succeeded. These people diverted to Turkey and returned to the United States safely.

Based on this incident, Ross Perot invited the famous British suspense novelist-Kenneth Martin Follett, and wrote a novel called onwingsofeagles-On the Eagle Wings, which was published in 1982 After that, it was extremely popular and once occupied the top position of bestseller list.

It is not difficult to imagine how this adventure brought Ross Perot a huge prestige return.

Now, everyone looks down on Jobs, and Ross Perot intends to gamble on this entrepreneurial star he admires to prove that he is different from ordinary people.

The mentality of this Texas billionaire is reflected in the declaration when he spent 20 million US dollars to join the business. He said to Jobs: I pick the jockeys, the jockeys pick the horses and ride them, and you are the jockeys I bet on, so you figure it out.

...

After chatting with Jobs for a while, Tang Huan understood the relationship here. He had to be convinced that Jobs was a man of great luck, just like a female star who dreamed of marrying into a wealthy family, he really caught a rich man.

With this fund and Ross Perot's attention, your next can survive for a while. Tang Huan finally commented on this financing affirmatively.

Hearing the teasing meaning in Tang Huan's words, Jobs unconvincedly let out a bold statement, The previous Mac is not necessarily inferior to your Fangyuan personal computer, but it was launched a little hastily at the beginning, which makes it appear that the performance Insufficient, after expanding the memory to 512kb and listing the hard disk as an optional configuration, it will be more than enough. Therefore, my next will definitely not be inferior to your Fangyuan workstation.

Judging from your performance in the next year's research and development process of the next project, which is still indiscriminate and free-wheeling, the development progress of next is likely to be as difficult as mac.

Tang Huan warned mercilessly with the attitude of an expert: Do you understand the true meaning of rapid technological development? Seeing that it will be 1987, when will your next be able to reach the level of real commercial use? No step It will take three or four years to follow in the footsteps of mac. If you really have to wait until the 1990s, it is hard to say whether the highlights of your next, including object-oriented, can still be regarded as leading the industry.

After so many years of fighting overtly and secretly, even though he refused to admit it, Jobs had already convinced Tang Huan in his heart. One of the major manifestations was that,

I can listen to Tang Huan's words in my heart.

Therefore, for Tang Huan's unfavorable words, Jobs did not become angry and angry, but nodded with an ugly face, You don't need to provoke me, the 3 million dollars can't be wasted. In another year, you just wait to see the next one. Let's make a stunning debut. At that time, the protagonist on comdex will only be next.

After making a powerful declaration, Jobs, who didn't want to listen to the lessons of Tang Huan, a special shareholder who only paid 3 million US dollars and took 10% of the shares, got up and left.

Tang Huan shook his head. Jobs is such a fool, at least half of his words are full of water. It is estimated that at least an additional 50% will be added to the one-year period he claimed.

However, none of this mattered. In Tang Huan's view, the $3 million was just a ticket. When Jobs makes any noteworthy move, he can use this to enter the market and influence it.

As for now, just let Jobs toss about it, and IBM is the most worthy of attention.

...

The opening time of this year's Las Vegas Autumn comdex was postponed to early December after being deliberately organized. The reason is naturally to provide more preparation time for the participants in the new round of PC standards war full of gunpowder - the harder the parties fight, the more exciting comdex will be.

Big Blue's new generation of personal computer ps/2 has naturally become a major focus of this exhibition.

John Akers, CEO of ibm, came to the scene in person and released more than a dozen models of ps/2 in one go. The momentum can be described as huge. Bill Lovo, director of IBM's personal computer department, even announced that the production cycle of the ibm-pc/at series of products is about to end, and the company's future focus on personal computer products will completely shift to ps/2.

Bill Lovo's decision is similar to that of his predecessor, Don Estridge.

At that time, after the ibm-pc/at using the intel80286 microprocessor was launched, don estridge declared that ibm would shut down the ibm-pc/xt production line using the intel8088 microprocessor, leaving this field completely to Rising ibm-pc compatible manufacturers compete with each other.

As a result, the strategy proved ill-conceived after its implementation. At that time, the market demand for ibm-pc/xt was still acceptable. Don Estrich's voluntary withdrawal allowed ibm-pc compatible machine manufacturers to take this opportunity to grow and develop ibm-pc/at compatible machines. Competing with Big Blue's genuine ibm-pc/at, the result was a big victory and a great harvest.

Now, Bill Lovo has copied Don Estridge's practice-after the launch of the new generation of personal computer ps/2, he has given up the continued production of the previous generation product ibm-pc/at.

But the biggest difference between the two is that Bill Lovo has learned from Don Estridge's experience and lessons, that is, although ibm-pc/at has withdrawn from the stage of history, the target customers targeted by ibm-pc/at The group has not been abandoned, and even the ibm-pc/xt market that was lost before is ready to recover.

The biggest reliance to support this ambitious plan is the ps/2 with a new architecture. Among the large number of models released, only one product has an intel80386 cpu, while the rest of the products use intel80286 and intel8086, which is not comparable to the shrunken version of intel8088.

It is obvious that while launching the ps/2 with strict authorization and a new design to distinguish it from those ibm-pc compatibles, it also intends to resist the outside world first and make ibm-pc compatible manufacturers rely on it for survival Get rid of the place where they grew up, and eliminate this group that sucked blood from themselves.

In other words, Tang Huan was facing the appearance of ps/2 like a formidable enemy, but ps/2 aimed the first attack target at the ibm-pc compatible machine.

A little green among thousands of flowers. Among the many product models announced as the first batch of ps/2, the only ps/2-8580 that uses a 32-bit microprocessor intel80386dx is particularly eye-catching.

This is currently the most high-end ibm personal computer product, the bus architecture is exactly the micro-channel architecture of the 32-bit bus.

It can be said that ps/2-8580 is the best evaluation platform if you want to fully understand the freshly baked micro-channel architecture.

...

The ps/2-8580 should be IBM's most powerful personal computer, but it still can't threaten the mid-range model of Fangyuan's personal computer. The operating frequency of the CPU alone is almost twice as bad. Charles Simeone, come to Tang Huan to report non-stop.

That's because we have the most advanced wafer factory in the world, and we can manufacture the most powerful microprocessor. Tang Huan commented with a smile while helping Charles Simeone pour coffee, And, I can be sure One point, in order to hit us in the early days, ibm used to play the game of dredging the bottom line, hoarding the microprocessors intel8086 and intel80286 used by ibm-pc, and it is estimated that it has not been processed yet.”

After taking a sip of coffee, Charles Simeone continued: Based on preliminary judgment, although the operating system OS/2 on ps/2 is powerful, its execution speed is obviously slow. The best memory capacity, You have to get to 2mb.

In this way, the marketing promotion of ps/2 still has a high threshold. Tang Huan laughed meaningfully.

...

Seeing that ps/2 came out, the ibm-pc camp couldn't calm down anymore.

Gein ibm's plan to encircle them is clearly revealed, the main system bus has been replaced with a newly designed micro-channel architecture, and even the small interface connecting the main chassis to the keyboard and mouse has become a completely different ps/2 Interface, this Nima has done a great job!

Now that the ps/2 new product release includes so many low-end products using intel80286 and intel8086 microprocessors, it is clear that we want to take back the previously abandoned territory, so how can everyone live a nourishing life?

The ibm-pc compatible camp, which has taken unauthorized imitation of ibm personal computers for granted, can be said to be full of resentment, especially the small group of six doors among them, which immediately fought back.

Because of the cost advantage that IBM, a big stupid elephant, can't have in many operation links including distribution channels, Compaq and other companies simply came up with a half-trick and lowered the price of the Intel 80386 model to attack it head-on. The intel80386 model in ps/2 crushed the intel80286 model in ps/2; and the competition for the remaining intel8086 models became a handover.

At the same time, ps/2 was analyzed by various slices, and it was only a matter of time before the new generation of ibm-pc compatible system bus was designed according to the advantages and disadvantages of the micro-channel architecture.

This tragic situation of white knives in and red knives out directly spread from Comdex to the subsequent Christmas sales season.

Of course, Tang Huan would not sit on the hills and watch tigers fight stupidly. Although the ibm-pc camp was fighting a civil war, the entire ibm-pc standard was expanding, and he couldn't tolerate it at all.

As the company with the highest market value in the world, Fangyuan Computer’s confrontation must at least be upright on the surface. The main positive means is to increase the intensity of promotions and discounts. After all, this is just the beginning. light up.

If anyone is the beneficiary in the new round of personal computer standard wars, it must be Microsoft, wordperfect and other software suppliers who are trying to take all hardware platforms. The disk is expanding rapidly.

…… ℃≡miào℃≡bi℃≡ge℃≡

Tang Huan, who was supervising the battle with tense nerves, was paying close attention to the changes in the market situation. There was another heavy news from Xiangjiang—Due to a heart attack, Hong Kong governor Youde passed away during his term of office.

The life and death of a Hong Kong governor certainly cannot be compared with the leaders of those countries, but for Hong Kong, which is a tiny place, it is definitely a top priority.

In particular, rumors began to circulate in Hong Kong that Hong Kong governor Youde suffered a heart attack because he was anxious about the Hong Kong social commotion caused by HSBC’s sudden withdrawal of Hong Kong Telecom’s franchise. , while the other party, Xiangjiang Telecom, made fierce opposition.

Hong Kong Telecom’s attitude is justified. Its contribution to the development of Hong Kong’s communications industry in the past few years is obvious to all. There is absolutely no fault at all. If the franchise is taken back, the Hong Kong government will be treacherous, and we will inevitably see it in the arbitration court.

Hong Kong Governor Youde once tested the feasibility of the Hong Kong government paying huge sums of money to redeem the franchise held by Hong Kong Telecom to the mainland. The answer he got was very simple. Its annex stipulates that the financial reserves of the Hong Kong government cannot be emptied.

In this dilemma, the pressure in the heart of Hong Kong Governor Youde, who was splinted, is conceivable.

This also made HSBC and Qinhe choke each other, and the rumors that the governor of Hong Kong was forced to death became widespread and believed by more and more people.