Rebirth of America, this is my time

"Dr. Codd, Professor Chamberlain, from today on, we are a family."

"Oh yes, Ethan, I hope we can work together happily in the future."

Edgar Cord smiled and stretched out his hand to give Ethan a friendly shake.

Donald Chamberlain opened his arms and hugged Ethan. Not only that, he also winked at Edgar Cord, "Oh Edgar, we can definitely get along well with Ethan."

"Because everyone in the industry knows that Ethan is famous for only investing money and not caring about things."

"Hahaha--"

The joking words made everyone at the scene burst into laughter. Amidst the laughter, the figure of a group of people standing friendly in front of the sign was forever fixed on the film.

February 1979 was a busy February, at least for Ethan. The endless troubles kept him busy, but fortunately, after the storm, there was a rainbow.

On the morning of February 22, Edgar Cord and Donald Chamberlain, who had resigned from IBM, arrived at the Stanford Research Park and settled into the newly packed office building.

Under a flash of light, the SQL Laboratory, with an initial investment of two million, was officially established. This means that Destiny Game has officially started research on relational databases and database query languages.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, while everyone was chatting, Ethan heard another news.

"Vinton Cerf's concession made Rockwell's reputation within the Department of Defense skyrocket again. Oracle also expanded rapidly with the help of this aircraft carrier. In the middle of the month, they signed a software sales agreement with the CIA, but now Well...they sold their products to our Air Force again."

Edgar Cord's words made Ethan laugh and said, "Then at the current pace, Larry Ellison will probably soon be able to extend his tentacles to every corner of the federal government?"

"The possibility is very high." Donald Chamberlain nodded: "Oracle can be listed on the market in at most two years. Because the federal government's procurement will attract many buyers for them."

"Especially since Rockwell and Warner just announced that they have jointly invested in Oracle. In this case, they will definitely help their own people occupy the market, so——"

"The situation we are facing now is very serious."

"When you have pressure, you have motivation, right?" Ethan shrugged, not caring about these things.

"Hahaha - yes -" the other two smiled and nodded. For scientific researchers, competition is commonplace. "Being ahead does not mean success. Persistence is the key to victory."

Although Steve Ross has officially announced a union with Rockwell, what does this have to do with Ethan? We are all enemies. Whether we unite or not will not change the fate of fighting each other.

Since everyone must be killed no matter what, then...

Just hit it.

Who is afraid of whom?

At the same time that SQL Lab was established, good news came from Michael Blanco Manufacturing Company.

The home console production line located in Miabida, Bay Area has been completed.

The first batch of trial production officially started on the 24th.

The production of home consoles is actually different from the manufacturing of electronic arcade machines. In the latter, because the unit price is high and the demand is small, directly hiring workers can promote production and save costs, while in the former, when the unit price is low and the order is large, purchasing The production line is the right way to operate in a streamlined mechanical mode.

The technology involved is not difficult either. The circuit board engraving and corrosion machines used in manufacturing home consoles are exactly the same as the circuit board production lines used in home televisions. All it takes is a new mold.

After the circuit board is washed out, all electronic components are manually soldered by workers.

These two simple steps are the most difficult part in the production of home consoles. The remaining wiring layout, shell assembly, product testing, packaging and storage are all extremely simple.

Workers don’t even need training to get on the job.

During the visit to the trial production line, Ethan also discovered several problems.

“Don’t we produce the plastic casing of our home console ourselves?”

"No." Michael Blanco, vice president of Manufacturing Company, director of the manufacturing company's California headquarters, and a middle-aged man who set foot on the Asian continent with Ethan's father, shook his head: "Producing plastics is something like this. The pollution is too big to deal with, and a lot of toxic gases are produced during production, so after our joint consultation, we decided to assign this part of the work."

“The contractor is a plastics factory over there in Baja California.”

"It's also opened by us people from America."

“The price is reasonable.”

This fact made Ethan nod his head, "Then the pollution here..."

"Mass production of circuit boards is definitely contaminated, but we also have complete treatment measures." The vice president continued: "The technology in this area is provided by HP, because they encounter pollutants and pollutants when producing calculators. Our pollutants are actually the same.”

"Okay." The perfect and careful arrangement made Ethan very satisfied.

Although the factory has been split off, and Ethan has also established an incentive mechanism for them, which will reward them with up to 30% of the shares based on their operational performance, this does not mean that Ethan can just ignore it. After all, this is the key to turning designs into products. Without the overnight production of the factory, they would have nothing to sell. And when the factory is developing steadily and for the better...

Ethan was relieved.

On the morning of February 24th, Ethan inspected the California factory. The next day, he received a call from Michael Blanco from Arkansas. On the phone, the old uncle said that the first one in Arkansas The production workshop and warehouse have passed the acceptance inspection. The purchased circuit board production line will be brought into the site within three days, and the raw materials used for production will be in place within seven working days.

If nothing goes wrong, trial production will begin in mid-March, and in early April, the production of home consoles should be able to reach 2,000 units per day. Although the output of 60,000 units in January seems a bit high, this number is still acceptable after taking into account the scale of the factory there.

As for the missing capacity?

Then the California factory will make up for it.

In fact, this kind of thing is not troublesome. When the underwriters of home consoles are major shopping malls, point-to-point delivery is much easier than the previous day when the arcade machine ran around like a girl scattering flowers.

After finishing the production work, Ethan flew to Arizona again on the 26th.

At the party at the end of last year, Bill Mensch showed Ethan his optimized MOS 6502, and the huge performance improvement was recognized by everyone. After two months of improvement, the new chip finally came off the production line.

When Ethan came to Western Design Company, the rows of brand-new chips made him smile. When he witnessed Bill Mensch soldering a chip to the test machine, he started the Apple II disk system and simply ran it. After looking at the Apple version of "Snake", the fact that it was plug-and-play gave him a thumbs up.

"Is this chip ready for mass production?" Ethan cast a questioning look at Bill Mensch.

The other party smiled and nodded, "The production line has been debugged, and the current output is 500 pieces a day."

The output of five hundred chips is simply not enough for Ethan now, but before MOS 6502 was withdrawn from the market, the output of new chips was already very impressive.

"How much does a single chip cost?" Ethan asked again.

"The production process of this chip is the same as that of the 6502, and it costs four dollars for two chips each." Bill Mensch said: "One board can produce two chips, with a yield rate of more than 85, and each chip costs two dollars."

"What? Isn't this just increasing the quantity without increasing the price?" Ethan was a little surprised.

This metaphor also made Bill Mensch stunned for a moment, then laughed and nodded.

"Yes! Ethan! You are right! Just increase the quantity without increasing the price!"

The affirmative answer made Ethan very happy.

Improving performance without increasing price can give it more advantages in hardware.

However, even if the new chip is ready for sale, Ethan is not ready to release this product to the market immediately because the life cycle of MOS 6502 is still very long, so——

He reluctantly used the upgraded chip for himself first.

"I need to take part of the chip back. From now on, our arcade products will officially use this chip. At the same time, I will also bring part of the chip to Apple and let Steve Woznia conduct research on Apple's computer products. Performance iteration.”

"Judging from the current situation, this chip should not be mass-produced in a short period of time, so in the coming time, you can develop other products with peace of mind."

"Michael Blanco Manufacturing's chip production lines do not require upgrades at this time."

"Okay." Bill Mensch understood what Ethan meant.

"I will start the research and development of the 16-bit chip immediately."

"This is my oath and my dream."

"Of course, if you need to replace the production line during this process, I will still go to Miabida. You just need to call me."

"Okay." Ethan opened his arms and hugged the other person.

At the same time, he thanked him from the bottom of his heart: "Thank you."

Since breaking up with Allen Bradley last year, Chuck Pato Chip Manufacturing Company has officially cut off the supply of chips to their Destiny game. Fortunately, Bill Mensch has the installation technology to directly install it in Michael ·Blanco's Milbida factory launched two emergency production lines and expanded the production lines to eight in the following six months, perfectly meeting the daily needs of Destiny Games and Apple.

Therefore, when Bill Mensch said that the upgraded version of the chip uses the manufacturing process of the old chip, the most cost-effective upgrade method is to transform the production line that has just been used.

But if it's not for sale, there's no need to rush.

Moreover, there is another reason not to upgrade the production line.

That is, Johnson’s home console is now using 6502!

When the sales date of the product is approaching, it would be a stupid act to change the production line without authorization!

As for saying that since the cost of chips is the same, it might be better to let home consoles use new chips?

This is even more impossible, right?

Changing commanders on the battlefield is a taboo!

What should I do if the 6502 has no problem and the new chip has not been tested, but something goes wrong when it is replaced at will?

Who is responsible?

Who bears the loss?

This kind of thing is not like playing a construction game. If it is not built well, just dismantle it. When the number of employees at the headquarters of Destiny Games has exceeded 100, and the two factories combined have thousands of employees, expanding to the entire industry chain, there are tens of thousands of people pointing at him when Ethan Jones eats, in this case , changing the design with your mouth is not striving for excellence, but destroying the jobs of countless people!

Packing the chips was actually very fast. In just a few clicks, two hundred chips were packed into a large box. While Ethan was waiting, Bill Mensch said:

"Ethan, this chip doesn't have a name yet. Give them a name. Otherwise, we will have to keep calling it the new chip when communicating in the future."

This question made Ethan think about it for a while and said, "Then let's call it Fate."

"It was fate that made us meet, and it was fate that made them born."

“No other words can tell its legend.”

"Fate? Okay." Bill Mensch liked Ethan's point of view, "Then he is 0801."

"This represents Western Design's first eight-bit chip."

"If there is more later, it is 0802, 0803..."

"When the sixteen come out, it will be 1601."

For the general public who don't know why, the product code names of technology companies are all messed up, and the dazzling words are simply impossible to understand.

But in fact this is not the case, each code name has a unique meaning.

Take Nvidia as an example. The origin of the GeForce series is the combination of German Geschwindigkeit and English Force, which represents speed and power;

The Tesla series commemorates Nikola Tesla, an American physicist who made great contributions to modern power systems and radio communications;

The Titan series represents the Titans in ancient Greek mythology, symbolizing the invincibility of its graphics cards;

Quadro and Tegra, that also has its own meaning.

Because everyone is used to borrowing objects to personify people, Bill Mensch doesn’t think there is anything wrong with Fate, and the word is also a reference to fate, and it is a pun on the fate game. At the same time, Ethan doesn’t think there is anything wrong with the string of numbers, as a product When you are good enough, people can remember things that are difficult to remember.

After spending a morning at Western Design Company, Ethan flew back to California because Minoru Arakawa called in advance and said he would be in San Francisco in the afternoon and wanted to make an appointment to meet Ethan and sign a contract.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the two met at the headquarters of Destiny Games. Looking at Hiroshi Yamauchi's name on the contract, Ethan chuckled and said, "Don't let me find out."

Although Ethan's words were a little confusing, Arakawa Minoru still smiled.

"Mr. Jones, I don't understand what you mean."

"Huh huh..." Ethan pursed his lips and smiled lowly, without explaining.

He has already warned.

If there is a conflict next time, then everyone will fight against each other.

Although Ethan understands that Nintendo's tolerance means huge consequences, at this moment he has no time to speculate on the other party's plan, because on the 27th, the Destiny Game internal rating team composed of the former governor of California came to California. Palo Alto.

Ethan did copy a five-level rating before and threw it in the face of the American Film Association, but the specific age corresponding to each rating and the corresponding prohibitions required a separate meeting to carefully discuss.

And this is the purpose of Ethan inviting them here.

After all, Yiyantang’s credibility cannot be compared to external supervision.

Of course, regardless of whether they are the former governor of California, the director of America Legal Aid, Professor Ralph Bell, or Bill Gates' father, these people actually know that they are just going through the motions when they come here. As to how a game or a movie should be rated, it will definitely come down to Ethan Jones, but this cutscene can earn them a lot of prestige.

For people who are not familiar with the world, when the video game industry is developing faster and faster, with more and more products, and the harm is gradually increasing, it is they who decisively stepped forward and asked and guided the leading companies in the industry to formulate a policy. Series of review tools. When some inappropriate content first appeared in the video game industry, and when the New York Police Association criticized some violent games, they stepped forward and made a small contribution to protecting the healthy growth of teenagers.

This reputation for rectifying the industry is a benefit that everyone likes. So, everyone held a brief meeting throughout the morning, confirming the slight modifications to Ethan's rating method one by one, and gathered together in the afternoon, holding the "Destiny Game Movie and Game Rating Methods (Interim)" signed by everyone. A shadow.

After completing the process, the former governor also said with a smile: "Ethan, before you announce the classification method, you must inform me so that I can be prepared, Okay?"

Ethan understood what he meant and said with a smile: "I decided to announce this during the finals. At the end of the game, before the prizes are distributed, you, as well as everyone present, will stand on the podium."

"Oh——" the former governor said in a long voice and patted Ethan's shoulder hard, "I like this time - I like you even more——Ethan——"

"Thank you." Ethan nodded with a smile.

"The timing is great." The Arkansas governor's wife also smiled and extended her hand.

"Thank you." Ethan responded.

"Am I also going to give a speech that day?" Ralph Bell asked with a smile.

"Of course, you are the inventor of video games!" Ethan said pretending to be angry: "As the only senior consultant of our company, you are not here? Aren't you embarrassing me?"

"Haha——" Ralph Bell laughed and hugged Ethan.

When it was Bill Gates' father's turn, this gentle guy said humbly: "Ethan, if little William has made you angry before, I apologize on his behalf."

"Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity."

"No, No, No..." Ethan shook his head and said, "I have no conflict with him."

"There is no disagreement at the moment."

"I admire his talent and Paul Allen's talent."

"So please don't worry too much."

"Oh, thank you -" Old Gates stretched out his right hand to shake Ethan's hand, but as soon as he stretched it out, he took it back and opened his arms, "Can I have this honor?"

"Of course." Ethan complied with his request.

To be honest, Ethan actually knew why old Gates was so kind.

When he can flip over the Hollywood poker table without a scratch, only a fool would go head-to-head with him.

Old Gates is not a fool. On the contrary, he also knows the value of Excel.

In this case, Ethan also took the initiative to show his kindness and asked him to participate in formulating the standards and regulations of an industry... If his son made Ethan Jones unhappy, he really should be beaten.

With a series of affairs completed, Ethan, who had been busy for a week, finally had time to sit down and rest for a while, but before he could finish breathing, on February 28, Steve Ballmer poked his head in He got into his office and looked at him with a flattering look on his face.

"Is something wrong?" Ethan asked curiously.

"Yes." Ballmer touched his shiny forehead and said with a smile: "Boss, are you free tomorrow? Can I take you to San Francisco for a walk?"

"?"

That lewd smile made Ethan tremble in his heart.

“I have time, but—why should I go shopping with you?”

Ethan didn't understand.

Ballmer played a riddle.

"You have time? That's great!"

"As for why you are shopping..."

"You'll know when you go tomorrow~"

Note: ① In real life, Larry Ellison was immediately noticed by the Department of Defense after impressing the CIA with Oracle. The US Air Force did purchase their database in 1979. ②The scale of the two factories with thousands of people is not small, and the assembly line is enough to handle production. In reality, Atari's number of employees at its peak was just over 10,000. These people supported the production of tens of millions of cassettes and game consoles.