Rebirth in America

The idea of ​​a personal computer was rejected by Seymour when it first sprouted. Alex didn't feel angry or annoyed about this result, and he wouldn't go against the situation and get a personal computer.

Since the time is not ripe and there is no talent on hand that is qualified to do this, Alex plans to put it aside and talk about it when there is a chance.

On the other side, IBM's dragon-slaying plan is in full swing, and their $5 billion is no joke. When Watson Jr. said he would spend 5 billion, he was really prepared to spend that much money.

Learson, Brooks, Amdahl and others have discussed system technical issues of DS computers many times. Finally, they put forward a new idea, IBMDs computer must be a "compatibility" product.

Compatibility will mean that even though DS computers vary greatly in model size, they must all be able to process the same instructions in the same way, use the same software, have the same disk drives, tape drives, and printers, and be able to interact with each other. Connect and work together.

This idea is wonderful and a major breakthrough in the history of computer research and development. When this concept was proposed, everyone was excited about it.

"It will definitely work. If our Dragon Slaying Plan has this compatible system, it will be equivalent to retaining old users. Once it reaches scale, it will be like stabbing the dragon!" Brooks said excitedly. He knew that compatibility would be the key to success. It means continuation. Once users develop a habit, they will not easily abandon IBM and turn to CPT.

Learson and Amdahl were also quick to immediately see the greatness of "compatible" machines, and one of them was from a marketing perspective. The other is to look at it from a technical perspective.

"Yes! Yes, compatibility can make users stick to our platform." Leerson was also excited. He seemed to have seen a glimmer of hope now, and the dragon-slaying plan finally had some hope of success.

Amdahl also nodded in praise and said: "This can also save research and development costs, make technology upgrading more convenient and faster, and the research and development cycle is also greatly shortened."

However, there is still a big problem in front of them, that is, it is not easy to achieve true compatibility.

At that time, IBM's transistor computers alone had 7 categories and more than 20 models. Neither software nor external devices are used interchangeably. Bringing great inconvenience to users.

If they want to achieve compatibility, they have to take into account the problems left over from previous models, and pass on both the shortcomings and advantages. This may result in their computers not being able to match the performance of cpt's computers, and they will have to spend a lot of effort to integrate them.

"There is still a big problem!" Watson Jr. said seriously.

Learson, Amdahl and Brooks all nodded. They knew what problem Watson was referring to. That is the integrated circuit board invented by Alex. Although this patent has been opened. However, the integrated circuit boards of other companies are all products from cpt.

Regarding its competitors, CPT is certainly not so stupid as to sell its best products to IBM. But there is no integrated circuit board in the Dragon Slaying Plan. Their so-called dragon-slaying idea is just a castle in the air.

"Can our technicians develop the most advanced inheritance circuit board based on the existing technology?" Watson asked worriedly. He was already very worried about this weakness.

The integrated circuit board that Alex created was actually very simple. A few components were soldered on a copper plate. It was a simple patent. As a result, many people do not see the great use of this small copper plate, and everyone does not take it seriously.

The cpt, a crude integrated circuit board, was used in the first transistor radio and made the Carpenter family a lot of money. Originally, everyone thought that the so-called integrated circuit boards were only used in electrical products such as radios.

Unexpectedly, this is just the beginning. Alex soon developed a more complex integrated circuit board based on the original and improved the manufacturing process. At this time, integrated circuit boards were no longer simple, and many companies still couldn’t figure out how to produce them after getting them.

At the same time, the "first generation" computer was born, which was more than ten times more powerful than the fastest computer at the time, and quickly attracted people's attention.

The role of integrated circuit boards has been seen for the first time. Unfortunately, it has not yet reached the level of attention, and not many people are willing to spend money to study it. After all, the most important patents are still tightly held by cpt company. Even if the products developed by others can be sold, they still have to get a share of the pie.

After years of research, integrated circuit boards have become more and more complex, and there are more and more related patents. It is like an iron wall that keeps out those who are eager to make money from the Carpenter family. As for those who wanted to get around it, they found that there was no way around it.

It was too late for IBM and other companies to know this fact. At least IBM paid a great price to know that it had no way to circumvent the relevant patents on integrated circuit boards.

In order to successfully develop a DS computer, their first problem was unavoidable. IBM has to make its own integrated circuits because they can't buy off-the-shelf CPU chips.

In the past, building a new factory was not a problem for IBM. However, when building a new integrated circuit manufacturing plant, the production environment is extremely demanding. There must be no dust in the workshop. It is like building a large surgical operating room, and the cost is four or five times more than that of an ordinary factory.

With psychological preparation, IBM plans to build its own factory to produce integrated circuit board chips. Although they have to pay patent fees to CPT for every chip they manufacture, they think it is very worthwhile.

In addition, there is another problem. The biggest obstacle to developing a dragon-slaying computer is software.

In order for the software to work on all computers, millions of computer instructions must be programmed. More and more software engineers were invested in writing programs, eventually as many as 2,000, making the cost of software development more than the hardware, that is, the computer machine itself.

They did not expect such a situation. But in order to achieve the compatibility effect they want, the software problem must be completely solved, and so many software engineers must be hired to work together.

"It's all worth it. Once the compatibility problem is solved, our dragon-slaying plan will definitely succeed!" Brooks said to everyone. In fact, he was also a little shaken in his heart, but he couldn't show it.

The huge expenditure shocked even young Watson. "Fortunately, the software was eventually released, otherwise we would have had to sell bare metal to users," he joked at an evening meeting.

All joking aside, IBM spent a huge amount of money on software for DS computers, totaling more than $500 million. If it were done by a cpt company, I'm afraid it really wouldn't be able to hold on.

The dragon-slaying plan was carried out in an intense and orderly manner, and cpt company was not idle either. After they announced the Cray I computer, they quickly held a celebration party. What followed was a series of bonus payments and personnel transfers. In order to compete with IBM, CPT also began to expand its staff.

"We may not be as wealthy as IBM, but we cannot sit still and wait for death." Alex said at the mobilization meeting: "They spent 5 billion US dollars to slay the dragon, so we must spend at least 500 million US dollars to develop the next generation computer. research and development.”

The difference between US$500 million and US$5 billion is 10 times, but for cpt company, this is already a large investment. If it hadn't been for the Cray I computer order and huge profits, it would have been really difficult for CPT Company to come up with 500 million.

I think back then, when the first generation of computers was developed, the total investment was less than US$1 million. Even when researching the Cray I computer, the total research and development cost was only about US$10 million.

"As for the naming of the new generation of computers, I think it can still be based on the Cray series, Cray 2?" When Alex said this, he looked at Seymour Cray with a smile. He knew that the other party had a strong desire to The idea of ​​leaving a lasting name in history.

Seymour Clay laughed, and he immediately said: "Clay 2 sounds good, you can consider it!"

Alex shrugged, unconvinced. He did not dwell too much on this issue and continued: "In addition to the supercomputer, I plan to allocate some additional personnel to work on another project. As for the name and research direction of the project, it has not been determined yet."

These words immediately aroused everyone's discussion. The establishment of a new project team means that there are a large number of leadership positions waiting for them. Seymour didn't know what Alex wanted to do at first, but he soon realized that this was the time to start developing personal computers.

IBM has its own plan to slay the dragon, and Alex also has his own plan.

As for the supercomputer, he planned to leave it to Seymour completely. He knew what Seymour was capable of. With Seymour conducting research at CPT, IBM has no choice but to follow suit and eat dust. As long as it maintains its lead and is not overtaken, cpt company will not be suppressed by the other party.

No matter how strong IBM's foundation is, after failing so many times, they should take a breather. Without the pressure from IBM, CPT will have time to make some small moves underneath.

These small actions are Alex's personal computer research and development plan. He wants to produce a personal computer before the 1970s. This is as important to him as IBM's dragon-slaying plan. By then, IBM will sadly find that its mainframe computer market share cannot increase, and personal computers are far behind CPT.

In this way, Alex's PC plan was basically successful. At least until 2000, he was confident that he had the computer cake firmly in his hands, and others were only jealous. (To be continued...)