Rebirth in America

The computer laboratory of CPT Company (Carpenter Electronics Company) was brightly lit. It was already past ten o'clock in the evening, and there were still many people who had not returned.

Usually they would automatically work overtime until 9pm before going back, but now it has been extended to 11pm or 12pm. For a workaholic like Seymour Clay, work is life and the laboratory is home. It doesn't matter to him whether he's at work or off work. Most of Seymour's men are similar to him. After all, people flock together and birds of a feather flock together.

Originally, Alex was a free man, able to come and leave whenever he wanted. Ever since he felt the pressure from IBM, he began to change his past lazy habits and slowly lived and ate with Seymour and the others. Alex exerted his full strength, which not only impressed others, but even Seymour was secretly frightened.

On this day, Alex was tinkering with a tin box that was larger than his hand. He was so focused that Seymour didn't even know he was walking up to him.

Seymour looked at the iron box which was a bit strange. There were some circuit boards, motors, magnetic heads and magnetic head positioners inside. He secretly guessed that the circuit board should belong to the control module, which was used to control the operation of the motor, the movement of the magnetic head and the magnetic head positioner.

As for what the other parts were used for, he was a little confused. He initially thought that Alex was working on a disk drive, but they already had that thing, and it had been improved, and it was no longer as big as it was before. From the size of a wardrobe to the size of a cardboard box, the data that can be stored has also doubled.

"What is this little thing of yours used for?" Seymour finally asked.

Only then did Alex realize that the person standing next to him was Seymour. He knew there was someone beside him, but he just didn't know who it was. He replied: "It's the floppy disk drive I mentioned to you. Didn't I ask you to reserve an interface when writing the operating system?"

"A floppy drive? How is this different from the disk drives we already have?"

"The difference is huge. Strictly speaking, ours is called a hard drive and cannot be moved at will. The floppy drive is different. When data interaction is required, it can be used as a medium."

"Where is the data on the floppy disk drive stored? I only saw the structure of reading and writing data. Why didn't I see your storage media?"

After hearing this, Alex took out a card with a plastic shell from the drawer. Although it is said to be a card, it is actually thicker and larger than a card. It looks like it should be about 3 inches in size, or a little larger than that. The color of the plastic is dark blue, and there are some metal pieces clamped on one side.

"This is the medium on which data is stored. I call it a 'floppy disk'!"

Alex handed the floppy disk to Seymour, and then took out another floppy disk from the drawer. The shell of this floppy disk was red, and there was a label on it that read "Test Disk" . He inserted the floppy disk into the floppy disk drive, pressed a button on it, and heard the floppy disk drive making a "squeaking" sound.

Seymour glanced at the floppy disk drive. It was not connected to the computer at this time. Of course, nothing would be displayed. It should still be in the testing stage. He touched the blue floppy disk in his hand and looked carefully. He found that there was a black disk wrapped in the plastic. It should be coated with magnetic material to show the color and luster. He also found a small square on it that he could move with his hands.

"What is this little square for?" asked Seymour.

Alex took a look and then explained: "This is used for write protection. Opening the square hole is write protection. At this time, data can only be read but not written. Closing the square hole is to enable write protection. This You can write data into it at any time.”

It was the first time Seymour had heard of such a function, but he was very smart and immediately understood how important this little thing was. He nodded and praised: "This write protection function is really good. It can prevent accidental writing operations and protect some important data."

In fact, the structure of Alex's floppy disk drive is very simple, and it has been used by people for a long time. They also use this disk to store data and the magnetic head to read and write data. Both IBM and CPT have used similar methods to store data, which can be regarded as a type of disk drive.

However, their disk drives were too bulky. They were the size of a wardrobe at first, but now they are the size of a box after improvements. When exchanging data, it is very inconvenient. It is often necessary to remove the disk inside and install it into another disk drive. Sometimes, they have to go to war for a little bit of data, which is very troublesome.

After seeing the floppy disk and floppy drive, Seymour immediately understood how useful this thing was. In the future, when they want to exchange data, they no longer have to disassemble the disk drive and remove the disk media from it.

"How much data can be stored on a floppy disk?" This is what Seymour is most concerned about. In his opinion, such a small disk cannot store much.

"This is a 3.5-inch floppy disk that can store 1.44M of data."

"What? Can you store so much data?"

Seymour was stunned by Alex's words. You know, a few years ago, a wardrobe-sized disk drive could only store 10M of data. There were dozens of record-sized disks inside, but the palm-sized disk in front of him could store 1.44M of data. How could this not surprise him.

"Yes, at the beginning, I was not able to store so much data. Later, I found that a lot of space was wasted when storing data. As long as the storage format is changed, that space can be utilized."

Hearing this, Seymour immediately became interested. He has always been curious about such technical issues: "How did you do it? Tell me."

"To achieve this effect, you must first format the disk and divide it into several tracks. Each track is divided into several sectors. Each sector can store 512 bytes."

As Alex spoke, he took out a piece of paper, drew a circle on it, and continued: "We know that the disk is circular, so its tracks are also concentric circles. One track is about a few tenths millimeters wide, and the data is stored on these tracks."

Seymour understood as soon as he heard that the disk formatted in this way can indeed utilize the disk space to a large extent. The record-mode storage format they used before wasted so much space because the magnetic head was too large.

"A floppy disk has 80 tracks, and each track has 18 sectors. Data can be stored on both sides. If you do the calculation, you will know that a floppy disk can store 1.44M of data."

"You are really a genius! You can actually come up with such a method. Our hard drive also needs to change the storage format."

After hearing this, Alex smiled and said: "Don't worry, I have already changed it. You have been focusing on writing the operating system before, and I didn't want to disturb you so I didn't say anything. Now our computer hard drive can store about 500M .”

"It's really great. With such a large storage space, I don't think IBM360 can compete with us."

"You can't say that. If their computer is developed earlier than ours, we will still be greatly impacted. But don't worry, I have already prepared a trump card. The floppy disk is just one of them, and I have more awesome."

Alex smiled at him mysteriously, and one could tell from his expression that he was already confident.

"If you have any other good stuff, take it out and see."

"No, this kind of thing cannot be exposed at will. If IBM discovers it and imitates it directly, our advantage will be gone."

"You're so secretive from me?" Seymour was dissatisfied. He didn't think Alex had anything good to offer, but his curiosity had been aroused and he couldn't suppress it no matter what.

Alex looked left and right, stood up and said, "Okay, come with me, I've hidden the things."

Under his leadership, the two came to a storage room, which was a place where parts needed for research and development were placed. Alex opened the door, turned on the light and walked in. They passed through the shelves and came to a door, which was locked. Alex took out a key and opened the door. Inside was a small room with no ventilation, which was once the residence of the storage room manager.

Now this is Alex's secret research and development base, and no one knows what he is doing inside. Only he has the key, and no one else can enter the room.

Under the incandescent light, Alex took out a long black plastic board with various buttons and a long black wire on it. In addition, there is something like a shuttle, which is also connected to a black line. The shuttle is also made of plastic and has two buttons on it.

Seymour recognized what the long strip was at a glance. UU Reading www.uukanshu.net He said: "Isn't this just a keyboard? We already have a mechanical keyboard, so there is no need to make another plastic keyboard. Mechanical keyboard Isn’t it more durable than a plastic keyboard?”

Keyboards have a long history. As early as 1714, various forms of typewriters began to appear. The earliest keyboards were used on typewriters whose technology was not yet mature at that time. Early keyboards had a fully mechanical structure, and if you typed too fast, the keys might get stuck. However, this problem has been solved very well, and computers also use this "QWERTY" keyboard.

"Of course this keyboard is very different from the previous keyboards. You can tell just by looking at it."

After hearing this, Seymour took a closer look and found some differences. The keyboard in Alex's hand is composed of 83 keys, and there are some special keyboards on it that Seymour has never seen before.

Seymour still shook his head and said: "No matter how you modify the keyboard, it can only be used to enter data. They also have keyboards. This doesn't have much advantage for our computers. Let's take a look at your other little thing. It can be used." What are you here for?"

"This is called a 'mouse'. It is used to replace the tedious commands on the keyboard and make computer operation easier." Alex said, handing the mouse to Seymour.

"What are the two buttons on top and the rolling ball on the bottom used for?"

Seymour held the mouse in his hand and used his other hand to fiddle with the rubber ball exposed on the lower body of the mouse. He couldn't figure out what this thing could be used for. In his opinion, a keyboard is enough to operate a computer. Adding an extra mouse will not only waste resources but also complicate operations.