Rebirth in America

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IBM Corporation.

The conference room was filled with smoke, and many people were accustomed to smoking during meetings. People in this era have insufficient awareness of the dangers of cigarettes. Not only men smoke, but women also smoke.

When they talked about Ark's plans to develop a personal computer, no one believed it was true.

"This must be a smoke bomb! If I could afford a personal computer, wouldn't the per capita income by then be over a million dollars?"

"Haha! Personal computer? I think it's absolutely impossible!"

"Maybe you want to mislead us?"

"The manufacturing cost of a computer must be hundreds of thousands. Even if someone buys it back, there won't be anywhere to put it!"

There was constant noise, and everyone agreed that the news was a joke, and laughed at Ark Company for taking the wrong direction.

But there was only one person at the scene who didn't think so. This person was Little Watson, and he just asked gently.

"You think he's joking?"

No one answered his words, and Watson Jr. continued: "This investment of 100 million is just to make us laugh here?"

Little Watson's words immediately stopped everyone's laughter. He looked around at the people present, feeling an indescribable sullenness in his heart. Since he took over IBM, he has done well in other fields and has achieved good results. However, he suffered continuous failures in the computer field, especially after the establishment of cpt company. The repeated blows made him wary. For him, Alex is already his number one enemy and IBM's number one enemy.

"Now we are not just chatting, but we need to analyze why the other party is doing this. If he just wants to confuse us, why would he release such outrageous news. If it is true, then we need to figure out the other party's strategy. Is there anything we ourselves have not done yet, and can we learn from the other party’s development direction?”

These words made others start to think calmly. After a while, Watson continued: "I know that the concept of personal computers is too outrageous, but it cannot be ignored easily. We must be cautious and cautious. People dare to invest 100 million. Go in. We dare to invest 1 billion. I’m afraid that people don’t understand the format clearly and don’t seize the opportunity.”

The people at IBM are not fools. After analyzing this so-called "personal computer" one by one, they found out a lot of tricks. They also believe that in the future, every family may have a computer, but it is difficult to say when.

Some people think it should be after twenty or thirty years, others think it should be after forty or fifty years, and most people think it should be at least sixty or seventy years. If you are not someone who has traveled through time, it would not be surprising to have such a view. After all, computers nowadays can easily cost millions of dollars. Bulky and expensive.

Watson Jr.'s father, Watson Sr., once told reporters: "Only five computers are enough in this world!"

Of course this is impossible. Now more than five computers are produced every month. However, there is no indication that one will be available to everyone.

Computers in this era were still a rarity, and not many people had actually seen one.

It would be an unimaginable era for everyone to have a computer. It would take enough time for technology to develop to that level.

"The concept of a personal computer may be attractive. But it is completely impossible to realize at present. This kind of computer will not be possible until decades later." Experts concluded after analysis.

Little Watson believed in the experts' analysis. He just didn't believe that Alex was investing hundreds of millions of dollars to plan for the market decades later. How much determination and courage is required to do this? Another person would never and would not dare to do this.

"Then we will follow them and try to research in the direction of personal computers?"

Someone so proposed, and his opinion immediately elicited a variety of reactions.

Most people think it's a no-brainer if PCs really have anything to do with it. It will take at least several decades to see the results. Now that IBM is making every effort to achieve results in its Dragon Slaying Plan, it will inevitably have no more energy to do other things.

"Perhaps Ark's so-called news of 100 million funds to develop personal computers is just the other party deliberately releasing it to confuse us so that we can follow him in doing this. In this case, the Dragon Slaying Plan will definitely have to redeploy manpower. At least it will be a mess."

There are not a few people who have such thoughts. They are conservative and cautious. At least in their opinion, one more thing is worse than one less thing. Getting a personal computer at this time is simply out of the question. It will take at least decades for personal computers to pay off. How can we have the energy to think about such long-term things when the time is right now?

There are also some people who believe that we should compete with Ark in the area of ​​personal computers, not to gain any results, but to show a gesture. At least I'm not inferior to others in terms of battle formation. As the saying goes, if you do it, I'll do it too, let's do it together. Even if you don't become famous, it will still make you nervous and worried.

"As long as the computer field is involved, we must not give in. Now everyone is looking at IBM and CPT. If we retreat at this time, won't others think that we can't compete with them?"

There is also a small group of people who believe that we should wait and see the situation clearly before proceeding. It's okay to fight, but you have to understand what you want to fight for. In a situation like this, it would be foolish to rush forward regardless.

All said and done, most people don't want to add extraneous ramifications and stop by staying calm. There was nothing Watson could do about this situation. Looking at the engineers in front of him, most of whom were in their forties, he understood one thing. That is that IBM has lost the passion to move forward courageously, and it is more than successful enough to make progress.

If IBM had been able to take the lead and gain computer dominance from the beginning, the current situation might not have occurred. But the "first generation" transistor computer developed by Alex gave them a fatal blow. IBM is still affected and has not fully recovered.

Next, the Cray I computer developed by Seymour Cray continued to make IBM, the blue giant, continue to bleed. Now if the dragon-slaying plan fails, it is estimated that IBM will no longer have anything to do with the computer market.

At this time, a series of information flashed through Watson's mind, and he discovered that Alex was not only young and passionate, but the people he found were also very young scientific research talents. For example, Seymour Clay, when Alex recruited the company. Seymour had just graduated from college with a master's degree and was a young man full of fighting spirit.

As for the main R\u0026D personnel of Ark Company, I heard that they are mainly young people, and they are also young scientific research talents who have just come out of Shockley Laboratory. Of course, Alex did not use all those young people. He also hired some experienced engineers from cpt company to assist in the work.

In this way, the new and the old combine to make up for each other's shortcomings and bring out their own advantages. I believe Ark will be able to come up with research results soon and surprise people.

When I think of this. Little Watson was already covered in cold sweat. I feel very bad. I felt very uneasy. But he can't do what Alex did. IBM is a company with a long history, and even Watson himself can't act arbitrarily.

The Carpenter family has recently emerged, and most of the companies it controls are less than ten years old. The personnel relationship is simple and can be adjusted at will. For example, Alex can transfer a small number of people from CPT to Ark. If this was done by IBM, it would probably cause a big backlash.

"Unless..." Little Watson thought secretly in his heart. He suddenly thought of an idea from Alex's approach: "Unless another company is formed to be responsible for the research and development of personal computers."

This is exactly what Alex did. CPT was not suitable for developing personal computers, so he started a new business and established an ark company. In the eyes of others, Alex just found a group of people. Then take out a sum of money and throw it away and forget about it.

Of course, the problem is not that simple. People must find the right person, and money cannot be given randomly. Little Watson hasn't seen these problems yet. He feels that he has found a feasible way, so he excitedly went to raise money.

With the Watson family’s connections. Pulling investment or something is just a small matter.

Soon, after preparing hundreds of millions of funds, Watson sadly discovered that he could not find anyone available. It's just that at this time, he was already riding a tiger and couldn't keep the investment he had attracted. So he thought about it again and again, and finally found a company in Silicon Valley that seemed more reliable to invest in.

IBM got involved in the research and development of personal computers, and the news quickly spread throughout the industry. People are confused by such actions. When there is no finished product and no prospects for something, there are already two major companies competing for it.

Is this era already developing so fast? When will personal computers come out?

The current personal computers, for people of this era, are completely like things described in science fiction novels.

Various popular science magazines have also reported related articles, analyzing the impact of personal computers on people's future lives from various angles. Soon even the mainstream media began to make noises. After all, computers have always been a symbol of high-tech products, second only to the atomic bomb.

For ordinary people, buying a personal computer at home feels like buying a rocket, satellite or atomic bomb. Various concepts have been speculated around, creating a lot of free publicity for personal computers to a great extent.

Alex also noticed IBM's actions. UU Reading www.uukanshu.net He felt a little strange: "Why did it take them so long to do this? No wonder people say that IBM is a dinosaur in the history of computers. It is huge and moves slow."

He had long expected IBM to join the personal computer industry. When he becomes the number one enemy in Watson's eyes, it is impossible to hide any big moves. So he simply didn't hide it and let IBM people see clearly.

He believes that in order for technology to achieve leapfrog development, in addition to accurate direction and sufficient funds, it must also have certain competitive pressure. For example, rocket and satellite technology has made great progress in the environment where the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for hegemony. Alex wanted to get the personal computer out in advance, but without the pursuers, the research and development speed would definitely not be faster.

Since IBM also got involved, Ark's work efficiency has obviously been greatly improved. Noyce and Moore demanded room and board in the company, even if they were forced to go back.

Alex was very satisfied with this situation. He is not worried that IBM will take the lead. After all, he is the only one who clearly knows the direction of computer development in this era. If Ark Company has such clear instructions, it will lose to IBM Company, then he will have to admit that he is unlucky.