bloom america

Chapter 175: Overthrow the Pip-Boy and come back again

CIA seemed to have no intention of looking for a scapegoat, which made Catherine relieved that the video communication could be set up soon.

Although it is said to be a video call, in fact, it uses the principle of live television and places the camera on top of the screen.

But the results were pretty good, at least not long after, the third batch of budgets came out, this time with a total budget of US$50 million.

Although Catherine's company is already very large, in front of traditional consortiums, it is just a "small business" and cannot even enter their sight.

Most of Catherine's companies are in the "seeding" stage, and most of their projects are under research. At this time, almost all of their profits are invested in research and development and expanding production. As long as they reach the "harvest" stage

,Catherine believes that her company will be able to soar into the sky

The matter of Soviet spies seemed to be still being discussed at the top, but Catherine chose to return to California.

Intercom's network requirements are not as high as Skycom's, at least there were no problems at all during the trial.

But at this time, Catherine suddenly realized that she had forgotten something...

After thinking for a long time, Catherine suddenly realized that she didn't seem to be filming a movie this year?

"Forget it, let's take pictures again when we have time..."

Back at home, Catherine picked up the "Forbes".

In 1965, General Motors' second-largest company in terms of total revenue was Exxon Mobil's 10.8 billion.

The 500th place is DFJ's 97 million.

Catherine's income last year was probably around $50 million - assuming the budget allocated by the Pentagon is not included.

The most profitable industries these days are automobiles first, and then oil. Catherine's market has not yet fully developed.

However, this year's format is different. The supercomputer developed by Seymour Cray can be purchased for only US$9.98 million - Catherine specially lowered the price by US$10,000.

Catherine named this supercomputer "Celeron", a Celeron supercomputer, which is a good name.

The annual output of the Celeron series is currently only 10 to 20 units, because workers are not familiar with it yet. The core used is the z80, which has mature technology and is relatively cheap. The initial research and development cost was 8 million US dollars, and the cost was also around 8 million US dollars.

, if it is produced in Taiwan and mass production is achieved, the net profit of this supercomputer will be about 2 million US dollars. Compared with IBM, the profit is not large at all, but Catherine knows very well that she is now going to seize the opportunity.

When it comes to the market, caring about this little profit will only make it more difficult to occupy the market.

The Celeron supercomputer, which can perform up to 1,200 operations per second, was launched on the market in August. As soon as it was launched, it was welcomed. Orders came in one after another, and soon it exceeded 8 - don't underestimate it, it is only "8"

Such a small number, but it represents a net profit of US$16 million.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, computers with z80+ as the core and 1,600 operations per second began to be launched on the market. The price was US$12.99 million, and the net profit was about US$3 million. Soon, this computer also received orders for 4 units.

.

But what makes Catherine happy is not just this one, but another thing - Pip-Boy.

Naturally, Pip-Boy still cannot be used as personal equipment, both in terms of size and battery life. It is currently unfeasible.

So the first thing Pip-Boy needs to develop is a car version.

Pip Boy uses the military version of the z80. Although the basic data is the same as the regular version of the z80, the military version has lower energy consumption and more stable performance.

Since it is for use by the military, it does not matter if the software development is more complicated.

"The prototype of the car-mounted version of Pip-Boy, which Kate, Intel and Apple collaborated on, has been completed."

Not long after she came back, Elsa told Catherine the good news.

"real?"

Catherine was very happy.

Then, when Catherine saw the real thing, she was so surprised that she was speechless.

Regarding this car-mounted version of Pip-Boy, it is both annoying and funny.

This is a computer with eight z80 cores. This computer has a large amount of memory, is equipped with a cassette reading device and a tape copying device, and costs up to $100,000.

It seems inappropriate to describe it as a vehicle-mounted version. It is more like a vehicle-mounted mobile workstation.

Because eight CPUs are used, the programming requirements are very high.

The Phoenix operating system and office software developed for this computer also need to be tailor-made.

Such a version made the so-called Pip-Boy bigger than Catherine's Microsoft Model II computer. In fact, Catherine wanted a very small and light Pip-Boy.

The technician's direction was completely wrong, which made Catherine almost feel like banging her head.

"Redo everything from scratch"

Catherine shook her head.

"But... this is a vehicle-mounted computer developed for the military. If we want to achieve the functions we need, this is the only way..." the technician defended.

"It's not completely unnecessary. Since it is for military use, there is no need to consider compatibility issues because there is no third party here. At the same time, we don't have to think about some large-scale software. What is the purpose of putting that kind of thing in a car? Playing games? Well, this thing

Who designed it?"

Catherine finally couldn't bear it anymore.

"Kenneth Blue Thompson." A voice came from somewhere.

Catherine thought the name sounded familiar.

"Call him over to me."

Soon, a slovenly young man trotted over.

"Are you Ken Thompson?" Catherine asked.

"Yes, miss." He didn't seem to react, still smiling.

"This... Pip-Boy was designed by you?" Catherine asked.

He nodded, and then smiled: "Actually, Dennis and I came up with this together. At that time, everyone just didn't have a clue, so we came up with an idea."

"Dennis?"

"Dennis McAllister Rich."

he said.

"Dennis Ritchie?"

Ken Thompson nodded.

But Catherine was stunned for a moment...

Designer of C language?

It can't be such a coincidence, right?

"Wait a minute, how did you come up with the idea of ​​developing a computer like this? By the way, where is Dennis?" Catherine felt a little confused.

"I am, Miss." A technician raised his hand and walked over.

"The truth is, I wrote a space travel game, and found that today's computers are a bit slow, so we..."

"So you just dictate the configuration of the computer you want?" Catherine finally understood what was going on.

The two looked at each other awkwardly, then nodded helplessly.

Catherine walked over and turned on the computer, only to find that a strange operating system was installed inside, which was completely different from her own Phoenix.

"This is?"

"Oh, I wrote this, because to bring out the performance of 8 CPUs, phoenix is ​​not suitable. They can only support two cores, so I wrote an operating system."

"What's this thing called?"

"Brian said the system was too bad, so he just called it unics, so that's what we called it."

"Brian? Who?"

At this time, another programmer came out.

"I'm Brian Kernihan, miss."

At this time, Catherine was already certain and certain that the three people in front of her, even the three who invented the C language...

That's right, it's them

"You guys... you guys come to my office tomorrow morning and I'll tell you something."

The three of them were all shocked. Could it be that they were going to fire themselves?

For them, Intel is a holy place. If they are fired, there is nothing worse in the world.

"But, miss..."

"Okay, let's talk about it tomorrow, okay?" Catherine still scared them.

of memory?

This is all money. This is such a waste.

It is necessary to scare them.

As for Pip-Boy...

There was no other way, so in the end it was left to Catherine to fight in person.

Eight-core processor? Remove it and replace it with a single core.

memory? Just replace 64kb.

The current vehicle-mounted version does not require real-time depiction of the terrain, nor does it require complex calculations.

The main function of such a computer is to use computers to communicate with each other, transmit data, and perform basic data processing and communication.

Motorola will soon solve the wireless transmission of digital signals. This is not a problem.

With a 7-inch small screen, you don’t even need to use the Phoenix operating system.

The main functions of this kind of computer are completely different from Microsoft computers

In the paper that Catherine submitted, one of the most important functions of such a vehicle-mounted Pip-Boy is in terrain depiction.

Use ground radar and computers to draw maps in the system in real time.

Unlike cameras, such equipment requires depicting terrain that cannot be seen by the naked eye, and at the same time, it must be able to scan enemies and forward them with radar. Therefore, the graphics requirements for computers are very high, and it is basically impossible to do it now.

So, Catherine now focuses her attention on other aspects.

Replacing those cluttered instruments with flat-screen images will greatly simplify work. Catherine believes that such a superior product will easily be popular.

It is completely feasible to turn the original instrument panel into a digital display.

Of course, the operating system needed a complete rewrite.

However, it seems that the eight cores of the researchers are not useless?

While planning, Catherine suddenly had an idea...

For example, used in fire control systems?

It would seem good if such a computer was installed in a tank or helicopter?