Giant of the times

Apple-ll is already a classic in the field of personal computers, and it is difficult to surpass it.

When IBM enters the personal computer market, it must first face Apple-ll.

Therefore, IBM is not easy.

A big company has the dignity of a big company, especially a dominant player in the computer industry like IBM, who can do nothing but make a big splash. If the computer it develops is worse than Apple-ll, IBM cannot afford to lose face! Therefore, before developing a personal computer, a very detailed market research and analysis will be done, and then countless solutions will be designed, and then we will discuss which solution is suitable, and then carry out design and development. If we encounter some special circumstances during the development process, maybe it will happen again. It is necessary to overthrow the previous design and start over, so the development cycle of a product is usually much longer than that of ordinary companies!

In addition, larger companies have more processes and slower work efficiency. On the contrary, small companies are not as responsive as small companies, unless things have reached an urgent point. Obviously, IBM's personal computer business has not yet reached this level of urgency. It's almost December, which is IBM's busiest period. Therefore, its personal computer business planning will not officially start until next year.

No matter how efficient IBM is, Apple is undoubtedly in big trouble.

However, Li Zetian is not afraid of IBM. He will fight if he wants. He just wants to use IBM as a stepping stone to reach the top of the computer industry!

…

If the personal computer market is constantly changing, then the microprocessor market is even more volatile!

Intel officially launched a new low-cost version of the microprocessor - Intel-8085 on November 20, which is forward compatible with Intel-8080. It has lower hardware support requirements, so manufacturers can produce Cheaper and simpler PCs. In addition, the price is also very cheap, $50 a piece.

Intel hopes that Intel-8085 can save Intel's PC microprocessor market, but the reality is cruel. When Li Zetian learned of this situation, he immediately authorized Mos-6502 to more manufacturers and lowered the price. The microprocessor sells for $25.

House seemingly endless rain.

The price reduction of Mos6502 has just caused great harm to Intel8085. In early December, a company called Zilog launched the Z80 microprocessor chip. The price is also very cheap, $30 a piece, and its performance is even more powerful than Mos6502.

Zilog was founded in 1974 by two engineers who resigned from Intel. The Z80 microprocessor can be said to be an improved product of Intel8080. It supports 158 assembly instructions and is very flexible in application, while Intel8080 only supports 72 assembly instructions!

Mos6502 is designed based on Motorala6800, and Z80 is designed based on Intel8080. These two microprocessors can be regarded as the best microprocessors currently.

Some people are accustomed to using Motorala bus, so they like Mos6502.

Some people prefer the Intel bus, so they like the Z80.

Intel8085 is embarrassing. It is also based on Intel8080, but it is crushed by Z80 in terms of price and performance! ! !

They are born from the same roots, so there is no need to rush into each other!

Li Zetian couldn't help but feel sad for Intel!

However, Intel is Intel and has a strong foundation. The 16-bit microprocessor Intel8086, which is currently under development, is very impressive. It is the originator of the x86 architecture. Its market share has swept all 16-bit microprocessors in one fell swoop. Send Intel to the Fortune Global 500! "Fortune" magazine named Intel one of the "most successful companies of the 1970s"!

Li Zetian was sitting in the office, a strange light flashed in his eyes. After this blow, Intel Corporation, I wonder if it will give up the Intel microprocessor department?

…

As Christmas approaches, Sunbird Company begins to make big moves. On December 24th, Sunbird Company held a product launch conference and announced the Game-Watch handheld game console. For a while, the entire gaming industry couldn't help but be shocked!

His genius creativity makes everyone stunned!

On Christmas Day the next day, Game-Watch was launched in the United States. Early in the morning, queues of tens of meters lined up outside the store, causing countless players to rush to buy it!

Among them, the "Chinese Cube" version of Game-Watch was the most popular, with 200,000 units sold on that day.

The sales of the other three Game-Watch consoles are all over 50,000. Among them, "Pac-Man" sold 95,000 units, "Super Arkanoid" sold 77,000 units, and "Donkey Kong" sold 77,000 units. 55,000 units were sold.

That night, Sunbird announced its sales, and all game companies were shocked!

Although they speculated that Game-Watch would be very popular, they never expected it to be so popular!

In fact, this is unexpected and reasonable.

There were very few games in this era, and they were rubbish. Yes, they were rubbish!

Imagine that a simple and rough game like the table tennis game console developed by Atari could become popular all over the world, let alone such phenomenal games as "Chinese Cube" and "Pac-Man"! In particular, "Chinese Cube" is very suitable for porting to handheld phones. To be precise, it was born for handheld phones! ! !

"Los Angeles Times" said: "If you are a senior game player, you may not know Atari or Sunbird, but it is impossible for you not to know "Chinese Cube"! Because it is really It’s so hot!!!”

"New York Daily News" said: "Sunbird Company's Game-Watch is a shock. "Chinese Cube" sells 200,000 units a day, becoming the most popular game in the world's history!!!"

A gamer said excitedly when being interviewed by an ABC TV reporter: "The Game-Watch developed by Sunbird has created a new game mode, which can be called a milestone in the history of world games! I played "Chinese Cube" on Apple-ll ", I was deeply fascinated by it at the time, but when it was transplanted to Game-Watch, I discovered that I was not fascinated enough at the time..."

Apple-ll is too expensive, and copies of "Chinese Cube" are also very expensive, so many people have never been exposed to "Chinese Cube", resulting in "Chinese Cube" not being as popular as Li Zetian imagined. The price of Game-Watch is only US$150, which is still affordable by many families in the United States. In addition, playing "Chinese Cube" on a handheld phone is more exciting and exciting, and some easter eggs are added to attract players. , thus making "Chinese Cube" popular all over the United States and even the world at a rocket speed!

At this moment, even the Chinese media has reported on "China Cube".

"Sunbird Company launched a game called "Chinese Cube". The game became popular all over the world. It sold 200,000 units on the day of its release, breaking the record in the history of world games. This game was developed by Chinese-American Chronos Li. , this is the pride of all us Chinese!!!”

Chinese people all over the world, whether poor or rich, can't help but feel sincerely proud when they see reports about "Chinese Cube"!