bloom america

Chapter 199 Windows Operating Systems

"Really... In other words, when only 16 colors can be used, the picture can be made colorful?"

Catherine told the story to Aniya, and she seemed to understand.

"That's it. Of course, you only need to be responsible for the interface design. I will let others help with the work on the computer."

Aniya seemed to understand somewhat.

"Then when will I go there?"

"anytime."

Aniya is in Los Angeles, so she can come over anytime.

"Then I'll go there tomorrow."

After the matter was settled, Catherine began to design her own Windows operating system.

Graphics are the future trend. What Catherine needs to do now is to create a graphical interface.

Catherine is referring to the "future" wind system and Apple's ios.

Catherine still remembers how amazing the wind was when it first appeared.

Of course, as the system is used for a long time, the novelty will disappear.

At this time, greater stimulation is needed.

As a result, wind7 was born, once again attracting people's attraction from wind to wind7.

However, there are also many people who are tired of the wind system itself, so they fall into the arms of Linux or iOS. For example, the later popular Ubuntu system.

Of course, there are only a few people who are disappointed with the brand itself, and wind has formed a monopoly. Most of the applications in computers are .exe, which are executable programs that can only run in wind.

After this monopoly has been formed, it is impossible to shake the market unless the company itself makes many serious decision-making mistakes in a row.

The graphical operating system is Catherine's trump card.

You know, if Apple hadn't licensed its graphics operating system to Microsoft in the "future", how could Microsoft have become the dominant player?

Due to cost considerations, Catherine decided to make a rom version now. That is, a read-only version.

After all, the current storage cost is very high. Unless a hard disk is developed, it will definitely not work.

But here's the problem.

IBM holds the patent for mechanical hard drives. Unless their patent expires or they are authorized, the hard drive is hopeless for the time being.

In Catherine's opinion, instead of looking forward to mechanical hard drives, it is better to look forward to flash memory.

Although the latter is also not very practical.

An advantage of an industry like Catherine's is that when a new hardware product appears, Catherine can quickly develop the corresponding software, and because they are all their own products, Catherine's staff know the product thoroughly, so they can completely implement it.

The potential of the hardware is tapped, rather than being constantly explored like a third party.

Catherine adopts the wind mode, with the taskbar below and the icon in the upper left corner of the screen.

Of course Catherine also wants to support changing the background, but obviously, this is not realistic - it will only take up the poor storage space, which is already far from enough.

For the first version of the graphical operating system, what Catherine had to think about was not the translucent and gorgeous interface like win7, but the need for convenient operation of the system.

Turn the storage medium into an icon. Double-click the mouse to enter and perform visual operations.

Left-click to enter the drive letter, and right-click to view the commands that can be performed on the system.

In order to facilitate editing, Catherine decided to use the kernel of the original phoenix operating system. And in this way, it can also be compatible with previous software to the maximum extent.

In Catherine's opinion, the work of rewriting the kernel should wait until the 32-bit CPU.

And at that time, it was not Catherine who was writing the kernel, but a whole team.

Even now, Catherine has only designed a framework. The specific work needs to be done by the team. There is no visual operation now. Step by step, you need to type out the code one by one on the text.

Catherine mainly thinks about the idea of ​​visualization. It is precisely because of this idea that the development of visualization can be smooth.

Since today's hard drives are very expensive and impractical, Catherine mainly uses read-only storage media.

For example, a CD-ROM drive.

When she thought of the CD-ROM drive, Catherine was suddenly stunned.

Could it be that... I can use a CD-ROM drive as the reading medium?

She thought that if an optical drive with a CD was built into the computer, it would be completely feasible because the life of the CD is more than 30 years.

Of course, there are many issues to consider when doing this.

In Catherine's consideration, the interior of such an optical drive should be sealed and vacuumed. If not, it should be isolated from the air to avoid oxidation and dust.

However, if you do this, one thing is very important, that is, the software must be green, that is, it will not cause any modifications to the system, and will not write information into the system like many programs in the "future" will do.

In the Microsoft II computer, Catherine used read-only memory, and she seems to still plan to use it in the Pentium computer.

"Forget it, this is fine."

The only disadvantage of this is that the user cannot set the system. Catherine must separate the user configuration file and let the system read the user's settings every time it is started.

That's probably enough, right?

Catherine thought so.

This is just a preliminary plan. The 16-bit CPU has just been successfully developed, and the technology is not yet mature. Moreover, a new generation of 2D graphics cards is under development. The emergence of the new machine will probably have to wait until 1968 or 1969, and the launch time will be,

It could be later, maybe even 1970.

In Catherine's opinion, the frequency of the CPU needs to be at least 8mhz or higher to meet her requirements.

But what Catherine dreams of is a computer that can play "StarCraft", but obviously, this is not possible for the time being.

StarCraft requires a minimum frequency of 100mhz and at least 4mb of memory - this can only be played in campaign mode. If you want to play smoothly, you need a higher configuration.

The next day, Aniya came over, and at this time, Catherine was already thinking about how to use 16 colors to make her pictures as colorful as possible.

"Oh, Aniya, you are finally here"

Catherine was obviously suffering from a severe headache, while Elsa on the side was evaluating the icons and system interface designed by Catherine as an audience.

Of course, this is on paper, not on a computer.

Catherine's computer also plans to provide a 320x240x256 color display mode, so it is necessary to design a 256-color icon display mode.

However, Catherine found that no matter what she did, she could not achieve the level that those Japanese artists in the 1980s could achieve.

"Is this the graphical operating interface?" Aniya picked up the drawing.

"No, this is just a conceptual interface. I'm thinking about how to use as few colors as possible to show the charm of this interface in my products."

Aniya nodded.

"I have also used a Microsoft II computer. It seems that this new computer is more exciting."

"Of course. This computer, I named it 'Pentium', is absolutely a good thing."

Catherine smiled.

"But to store so many pictures...is the disk capacity enough?"

Aniya has some problems.

"This is not a problem. I already have a solution, so just make the picture as refreshing, colorful and fashionable as possible."

Aniya nodded.

But for Aniya, this workload seems to be too much.

This is not just about designing an icon, Catherine also considers the "harmony" of the picture.

Although Catherine wants to make money, perhaps Catherine has also contracted a common problem among programmers in this era - striving for excellence.

Therefore, Catherine has been thinking about how to make the best of this system.

Because read-only memory is used, once a vulnerability occurs in the system, it will not be repairable, so the test time must be long to avoid any problems.

Fortunately, in this era, there have not been any hackers, otherwise, Catherine would have faced a huge problem.

In Catherine's opinion, there should be one 16-bit CPU, so there must be no mistakes.

"Maybe... I should really go to Japan and recruit some artists?"

Catherine tilted her head.

It's just that... Catherine is not sure whether the legendary "80s art" can be effective now.

With a better-than-nothing mentality, Catherine called Carter. Although he was discussing with Jin Yong about Catherine's original plot, after receiving Catherine's order, he started arranging the recruitment of employees in Japan non-stop.

.

Next, Catherine should name her operating system.

This was Catherine's first Windows operating system, and she decided to give it a more catchy name.

But, what should I call it?

After thinking for a long time, Catherine finally thought of - phoenix-stargate.

Phoenix is ​​the code name of its own operating system, just like wind.

The latter stargate corresponds to xp, vista and 7.

The meaning of stargate is "Stargate", which sounds very good.

It's just... In this case, wouldn't the abbreviation of my system be ps?

Although I find it a bit funny, phoenix-stargate is really good and Catherine doesn’t plan to change it.