Rebirth of the Tech Madman

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Workstations in the true sense, benefiting from the introduction of the Motorola 32-bit microprocessor MC68000, combined with the various operating systems derived from Unix before AT\u0026T tightened its license, the two built together The most critical underlying architecture of the product.

The company that achieved commercial success earlier in this field is Apollo Computer Company, Inc., founded in Massachusetts in the east of the United States. It is even stronger than Fangyuan Computer Company, and everyone has many similarities .

For example, Motorola's mc68000 was chosen as the first cpu. In terms of operating system, the Fangyuan workstation adopts Vientiane from Zheru, and the Apollo workstation adopts aegis and its successor domain/os, all of which form a closed ecosystem.

However, Tang Huan quickly developed his own risc microprocessor holder in secret, and quickly became a big killer to help Fangyuan workstation stand out. Apollo workstation has developed a dual mc68000 solution in terms of cpu.

This kind of technology spread quickly, and even after Intel introduced the intel 80386, it was also used in workstations, and Sun Microsystems has such a product line.

Of course, Fangyuan Computer Company also has multi-cpu parallel technology, but the dual mc68000 architecture is only used in low-end workstations and high-end personal computer models, while Holder's symmetric multi-processor technology extends from Fangyuan workstations to Fangyuan servers, and even Fangyuan super computer.

Risc was founded by IBM, but Tang Huan was the first person who really opened up the road to commercial success. The great success of the Fangyuan workstation made the industry realize the power of risc, so they started to follow up.

IBM, belatedly, failed to catch up lately like the sql database db2. The workstation rt, which adopted multi-department research and development, ended in failure last year, and once again verified that bureaucracy kills people.

Of course, this small failure was not enough to blow Big Blue to stop. It learned from experience and started the research and development of new projects. Although Tang Huan has speculated, the specific situation still needs to be verified.

Hewlett-Packard is not so tragic. It successfully launched pa-risc and successfully applied it to the hp3000 series and hp9000 series computers. In the original time and space, pa-risc was finally replaced by Itanium jointly developed by HP and Intel.

Dec is not outdated in the research and development of risc, but its prism plan and the company's current main product vax have conflicts and infighting, and then like ibm, the project was destroyed by human factors. As a result, it does not have its own risc microprocessor for the time being.

Fortunately, dec is not dead-brained. The mips-r2000 chip, another risc product developed by the John Hennessy team of mips technology company, has a computing speed 6 times faster than intel80386, so it was taken by dec for emergency and used in its own workstation. .

It is foreseeable that although established computer manufacturers such as ibm and dec have temporarily encountered obstacles in the research and development of risc, with their solid background, it is not a problem to finally break out.

After all, small freshmen like Sun Microsystems have successfully launched their own RISC microprocessors, and the old-timers have no reason to lag behind.

The success of Sun Microsystems also shows from another angle that not only large companies are qualified to participate in the research and development of risc, but many small companies are gearing up and eager to try with the support of venture capital.

In the next few years, risc will inevitably form a more violent tide in the industry. While fiercely competing with each other, I am afraid that cisc manufacturers such as Motorola and Intel will not be able to stand alone.

Although the holder is in an absolute leading position at this stage,

However, in the competitive situation where almost everyone can participate, there may be a tragedy of punching the master to death.

For example, Sun Microsystems, after nfs-network file system, also adopts an open attitude on its own risc microprocessor sparc, allowing cooperative companies to produce compatible products to expand its ecosystem and influence.

This little thing is quite lively. Tang Huan, who never cared too much about Sun Microsystems, shook his head with a smile. The other one of the two workstation start-up companies he personally invested in, Silicon Valley Graphics, was relatively honest and specialized in graphics workstations.

Tang Huanzheng was looking at the series of names on the document, thinking about the countermeasures for the workstation market in the next few years, and the assistant who was debugging the teleconferencing system reported: Boss, it's ready.

Then let's start. Tang Huan nodded and pushed away the documents in front of him.

The content of this conference call is mainly to summarize the situation of the nearly three-month personal computer market war. Many participants are middle-level backbones who sit on the front line.

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The biggest feature of the current market is that 2mb memory has become the mainstream configuration of personal computers. Fangyuan personal computers and compatible machines have already occupied 66% of this range. In the low-end market, Fangyuan personal computers Compatible machines account for half of the share, and the high-end field is completely dominated by Fangyuan PCs.

Affected by the Japan-US semiconductor trade agreement, coupled with Intel's withdrawal from the memory market, the current supply of DRAM in the United States is tight, the price is soaring, and there is even a phenomenon of hoarding in distribution channels. The price of many common models of ibm-ps/2, Therefore, it has been raised to more than 5,000 US dollars, obviously it cannot be sold. However, our compatible machine partners are also a little bit unable to bear it.

Recently, the company launched a set of c-language development tools for the ibm personal computer platform, which is very popular because of its high quality and low price. If it attracts enough developers, it may have a positive impact on the sales of ibm personal computers. However, at the same time, a set of basic language development tools was launched, and the conflict with Microsoft became more and more intense.

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Listening to what your subordinates say, the chessboard in Tang Huan's mind keeps moving.

At the later high-level meeting, which was greatly reduced in scope, Tang Huan said: While maintaining the advantages, everyone can also notice the hidden crisis, which is very commendable.

The low-end market cannot be given up. Since the Fangyuan PC compatible partners in the United States are also suffering from excessive price fluctuations in DRAM, we will support them in proportion according to their shipments, and deploy them at a par price. A batch of memory sticks.

Regarding the situation of new products, the feedback has been good. After the short-term handover, the price war on pure hardware has begun to enter a stalemate stage. The next step is to see who provides the platform with greater added value. It is time for all kinds of killers to Software enters the battlefield and officially joins the battle.

At least in the first half of the year, it is difficult for IBM to adjust the purchase cost of DRAM. After John Chambers made a firm judgment, he turned to another matter, The Fangyuan handheld we launched last year Computers, after the novelty of the market, began to slow down, and now they are basically distributed as gifts to thank customers for their bulk purchases. The resulting book losses are estimated to reach 100 million US dollars, and attracted Wall Street Criticism by observers.

This result is not unexpected. It seems that the problem still lies in the function and portability. Tang Huan waved his hand indifferently, No director can guarantee that all his films will be a hit. The same reason, Fang Yuan It is impossible for a computer company to make a steady profit every time it invests. At least, from a technical point of view, this attempt is still very meaningful.”

Today, Fangyuan Computer Company is qualified to accept occasional business failures for the sake of ideals. John Chambers and others echoed with deep approval.

The strength and weakness of the personal computer market should not change in a short period of time. Let's discuss the workstations in the product line. Tang Huan pondered: I feel that this field is becoming more and more uneasy.

Everyone has already heard that the big boss is reviewing documents related to the workstation business recently, so they are all prepared for this topic.

Current workstation products, the main difference is reflected in two aspects, one is the cpu, and the other is the operating system. Our Fangyuan workstation is a combination of holder and Vientiane, while other products are a bit messy. The cpu includes risc microprocessors, and there are also mc68000, cisc microprocessors like intel80386, but risc microprocessors are the general trend; operating systems are dominated by various types of unix. John Chambers replied: hardware is inevitable, and we can't talk about it. Who is the mainstream and who is the niche in the world, but in terms of operating systems, Vientiane is inevitably alone. Those Unix-like operating systems can achieve compatibility with each other through public interfaces, and then in data exchange, network communication, and application software support etc., providing a convenience that cannot be ignored.”

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After listening to everyone's comments, Tang Huan slowly said: Since everyone has realized the turbulence of the workstation market and the subsequent escalation of risc competition, you must be prepared. The license mechanism has been changed, Fangyuan workstations can no longer monopolize certain special advantages as before.”

I heard that the 1-micron process has been successfully developed. I suggest that the chips manufactured with the most advanced technology should still be supplied to Fangyuan Computer Company first. John Chambers quickly requested.

Of course. Tang Huan nodded, It is impossible for us to be like Sun Microsystems, who is barefoot and not afraid to wear shoes, and is very liberal in terms of authorization. The first starting point is the game between the various camps.

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After the meeting was completely adjourned, Tang Huan left John Chambers alone, and talked about a private topic, I plan to create a situation to help the price of DRAM further increase.

A black line appeared on John Chambers' forehead, Now the procurement cost of DRAM has caused everyone to complain.

But we are more prepared than others, aren't we? Tang Huan smiled slightly.

If this is the case, I'm afraid Fangyuan Computer's profitability will be significantly affected, and Wall Street may have to exert pressure. John Chambers hesitated.

There is no need to worry too much. This is a battle of industry standards. After Fangyuan defeats IBM and becomes a real leader, it will generate greater monopoly benefits. Investors will not fail to see this. Tang Huan slapped his face confidently Desk, The market value of Fangyuan Computer Company is about to break through 100 billion US dollars. This is the support from Wall Street. Moreover, I am going to create good news in the most high-end field of supercomputers.

Seeing that the ruthless boss had comprehensive considerations, John Chambers no longer worried, but finally reminded: Now that IBM has complained sourly that we are affecting the supply and demand relationship in the DRAM market, we should be careful not to cause public anger. Good. After all, the price of DRAM can’t keep rising, and the day when the price suddenly drops, the interests of the industry may not be the only ones that suffer.”

Of course there will be no clues left. Tang Huan said leisurely: I will release a smoke bomb first. EA's third-generation Xiaobawang game console is about to be released. You just have to know it here, don't really follow others People panic together.” △≧miào△≧bi△≧gé△≧

John Chambers wiped the sweat off his forehead, nodded and said, Understood.

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In the next few days, Tang Huan took the time to inspect the progress of the fab's process research and development. The third-generation holder using a 1-micron process has been successfully taped out, and some products have come out.

Tang Huan's risc microprocessor, the original version is divided into two branches - Yi Peng and holder, the former stays in the East and is operated by Philosopher Xiangjiang, while the latter is placed in the United States, and begins to part ways with the former in the second version .

Now that the third-generation holder is available, Tang Huan asked the fab to increase the yield rate, and at the same time declared that the Fangyuan supercomputer with a computing capacity of 10gflops will be released by the end of the year.

The difference from the past is that in the specific manufacturing process, there will be a prototype and a Tai Chi in Stanford University, and a financial management model will be calculated to compare the performance improvement of the new and old products.

This comparison is a separate project, and it is expected to start actual operation this summer. In addition to hiring economic experts to guide, it also recruits college student volunteers from various famous business schools to participate. The ultimate goal is to try to explore how to use high-tech tools and mathematical models to protect your own income in various complex environments, such as sudden stock market crashes.