Rebirth of America, this is my time

In Ethan's memory, no matter whether it was Neon in this era or them in the future, it would be impossible to produce a self-produced microprocessor. The reason is very simple. Neon is a country with excellent tactics but poor strategy. Historically, every time they risk their lives to bet on the fate of the country, they will definitely lose everything in the end. No one can explain the reason clearly. But most people can only respect this fact.

Therefore, even if Ethan in this life acts as a butterfly in South America, he does not think that his existence will affect Neon's strategic layout and prompt them to change their track.

Therefore, after searching his past life memories, Ethan knew that Neon in this era must be researching read-only memories and it was impossible to develop a central microprocessor. In this case, Neon's company did not want their Chip? Then this is simply outrageous. His mother opening the door to outrageous people is outrageous!

"Are all companies asking for it?" Ethan asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Julis replied affirmatively.

"What is the price of MOS 6502 in Neon?" Ethan tried to analyze the reason. "Did Nintendo raise the price of the chip? And then it caused public outrage?"

"No." Julis denied Ethan's guess and said: "Since Nintendo obtained the agent, they have set the price of the chip to the lowest value that can be widely used in accordance with the requirements in the contract."

"That is, it is directly anchored to our US dollar selling price."

"At first it was 2,599 yen, which is just over ten dollars, which is not as expensive as the twelve dollars in our country. Later, with the appreciation of the yen, they also adjusted the price to one thousand six hundred and sixty-nine yen." One hundred and ninety-nine yen, and now, it’s one thousand, three hundred and ninety-nine yen.”

"Under the impact of low prices, Neon's other chip manufacturers no longer manufacture microprocessors. Therefore, sudden unexpected situations will require Pu Yamauchi to communicate directly with us."

Julis’s words brought back Ethan’s memories.

When Nintendo obtained the agent for MOS 6502, he and Chuck Paido were still friends.

At that time, Chuck Paddo was talking about changing the world, so when the two parties were discussing cooperation, Ethan respected their wishes and prohibited Nintendo from establishing a chip monopoly and free pricing in Neon. , writing 'civilians' and 'popularity' into the pricing plan.

Later, even though they parted ways with Chuck Paido, Bill Mensch still maintained his sincerity, so in the new contract, Ethan still deprived Nintendo of its right to increase prices.

In the case where Nintendo cannot adjust the price, the low-cost MOS 6502 will definitely inhibit Neon’s local company’s research on microprocessors. In this case——

"Why don't other companies want chips?" Ethan muttered to himself.

"Did Intel sell its chips to Neon?"

The next second, he denied it again: "But this is not right!"

"Even if they sell the chips, they still have no advantage!"

"The low price of MOS 6502 cannot be compared to Intel. Companies like Neon cannot give up cost-effectiveness for some performance, so... what went wrong?"

He couldn't figure it out.

And Julis couldn't answer this question.

So, Ethan could only give up and let Julis continue to pay attention and report the news immediately.

Perhaps it was because the matter was so strange that the truth could not be hidden, but it was also possible that this strange situation had affected Nintendo's business. Hiroshi Yamauchi had to figure it out. Therefore, only thirty-six hours later, Yi was sleeping. Sen was woken up again by the ringing of the phone.

It was still Julis who made the call, and the news she brought this time...

Very shocking!

"Boss, Hiroshi Yamauchi has investigated the matter clearly. The reason those companies canceled the order is because they found a better substitute, a chip with better performance and cheaper than MOS 6502."

"The chip supplier is Casio."

"Since they have never released a chip to the outside world, there is no news about their research on chips on the market, and their sales are carried out quietly. Since last month, they have been negotiating with Neon's chip demanders. We communicated privately and showed them our chips one by one."

"According to Hiroshi Yamauchi, Casio's chip is named Blue Bird, which means hope, because they feel that their chip will be the hope of neon in the central microprocessor."

"Historus Yamauchi doesn't know the specific parameters, but it doesn't matter because he is already trying to get the chip. He asked me to tell you that he will send it to California immediately after getting the chip. He hopes you can get it. The technicians have determined how much more powerful Casio's chip is than the current MOS 6502..."

Ethan's teeth hurt hearing these words.

Even though it was already late at night, he still got up and leaned on the head of the bed.

Because he really couldn't understand why this guy Casio would get chips!

In his memory, didn't Casio sell watches?

Does a watch seller make chips?

Isn’t this even weirder than farming and aerospace?

When this strange news occupied Ethan's brain like a tsunami, his sleepiness immediately disappeared. Wanting to find out the situation, he directly dialed Ballmer's home phone number and called the sleeping bald man. He shouted, "Aren't you busy now? I'll arrange a job for you."

"Go and collect information about Neon Company Casio for me. I'll need it tomorrow morning."

“The more detailed, the better.”

As the snapping sound appeared, Ballmer, who was wearing pajamas and a nightcap, looked confused.

"Aren't you busy now?" The bald man repeated Ethan's question, and then glanced at the clock beside the bed. The fact that it was four in the morning made him suspect that he was sleepwalking.

After blinking twice to confirm that he was indeed awake, Ballmer suddenly looked up to the sky and sighed——

"Boss! I'm sleeping! Do you think I'm busy?"

The painful wailing can make the listener cry and the listener sad, but even so, Ethan, who had hung up the phone long ago, could not hear the helplessness of his subordinates.

After sighing twice, Ballmer finally chose to get out of bed. Although the work of Destiny Game made him physically and mentally exhausted, the accompanying excitement also made him fascinated.

Ballmer believes that there will not be another company in the world that can develop as twists and turns as Destiny Game. Ethan Jones's four years of experience are comparable to the lifetime of other companies.

After working in this kind of enterprise for a few years, no matter whether it is starting a business or getting a job, you will feel confident after leaving, because the biggest difficulty in life is to violate the rules, and this kind of thing...

Steve Ballmer has experienced it.

I got into the bathroom, flushed my face with cold water, brushed my teeth, and then drove away from home.

He communicated in the archives room where he usually went, and got into the filing cabinet at five o'clock in the morning. When the sun was high, a fresh Casio report was presented to Ethan.

Casio was founded in 1946 as an electronics company. In 1954, it released its first product, an electric calculator. In 1965, it officially announced its entry into the computer industry and launched their own desktop computer. However, due to Intel The microprocessor had not yet been released, so their progress was very slow.

However, the calculator war was in full swing at that time, and seeing a bright future for the calculator industry, Casio resolutely joined in and launched the world's first handheld calculator, CASIO MINI, in 1972. , this product became an instant hit, selling eight million units in the past seven years, bringing huge revenue to Casio.

In 1974, they launched the world's first digital watch with a fully automatic calendar function that did not require adjustment of months and leap years. This product officially entered the watch industry.

Since Casio already has a dominant position in the neon market, they have been trying to expand outwards since the mid-1970s. Like neon Sony, Toyota, and Honda, they also want to sell their products to North America, but unlike them The difference is that Casio did not try to operate its own business in North America. Instead, it licensed its products to Komodo and they sold them in North America.

Therefore, at present, all Casio’s goods in North America are actually produced by Komodo.

The concise message made Ethan nod slightly.

If Casio had been working on personal computers more than ten years ago, they might have invented a microprocessor. In his previous life, the reason why these messages were not popular might have something to do with their failure? After all, those who can be written down in the history books are usually the winners.

And Casio suddenly stepped in and disrupted his business?

This kind of thing made Ethan sigh.

Although he knows that a company in a single field and a group company are two different concepts. The competitors of the former are relatively fixed, and the pressure faced by the latter will continue to increase as the number of industries involved increases, but this increase is like It's like the endless monsters in the game that give people a headache.

"Okay, I understand, thank you, go ahead and do your work."

Putting down the information, he thanked Ballmer, and as the other person left, Ethan also leaned on his seat.

Now that the opponent has appeared, the right way is to contend with it.

There is no way, who made the shopping mall like this?

If you want to become bigger and stronger, you can only get to the top by stepping on countless skeletons.

If you want to be content with the status quo and enjoy the life of a rich man, you must give up your career.

Ethan can't do this, so...

"well……"

"Hirashi Yamauchi... hurry up and get me the chip..."

"Only when I see Casio's products can I know what they are like..."

At this moment, Ethan suddenly felt that there was nothing wrong with choosing Nintendo to cooperate.

Hiroshi Yamauchi may be full of ambitions, but he has the strength and background to carry his ambitions!

Not to mention anything else, in the three-thirds of an acre of land in Neon, he can at least reach the sky!

This is enough!

Hiroshi Yamauchi seemed to have heard Ethan's call. On the morning of the 9th, as soon as Ethan arrived at the company, Nintendo's North American liaison officer Minoru Arakawa appeared in front of him.

Without any small talk, Minoru Arakawa directly handed Ethan a dark chip. The chip was about the length of an index finger and the width of a knuckle. The flat surface was also marked with neon bluebird and Casio logos.

Hiroshi Yamauchi's speed made Ethan very happy, so he invited Ballmer to send the chip to Western Design Company in Arizona, and then asked Minoru Arakawa to wait for a while and talk about other things after the results came out.

Arakawa Minoru had no objection, but he said that waiting was boring and he wanted to visit the Destiny Game.

If it were any other time, Ethan would definitely hesitate, but now...

He called a secretary and asked him to guide him.

No matter where Arakawa really wants to go, there is no problem, because the biggest secret of the Destiny game is not the sequel to "Star Wars" that is being developed, nor the "Pac-Man" and "Star Wars" that are being transplanted, but Evelyn The "Super Pac-Man" series in hand.

And this thing, before it is released, it is impossible for anyone to see it.

It takes almost twelve hours to drive from Palo Alto to Arizona, so Ballmer flew there on a chartered flight. We set off at nine in the morning, landed at eleven, and gave the chip to Bill Mensch at twelve. At two thirty in the afternoon, Bill Mensch called.

"Oh William, you researched so fast?" Ethan, who had been waiting for the call in the office, was shocked.

He couldn't wait to ask: "Are Casio's chips bad?"

Before he could finish his words, a loud roar came from the other end of the phone——

"Sucks?"

"Oh! Ethan! If you insist on using the word "bad" to describe Casio's chip, it is simply an insult! Because their chip is not self-developed at all! It is plagiarized!"

"What?"

The answer was beyond Ethan's expectations.

The next second, Bill Mensch yelled: "And what they copied was MOS 6502!"

"When I took the chip apart and put it under the microscope, I found that the transistor circuit diagrams inside were all designed by me! Yes! They are a new chip! But they were only optimized based on my design!"

"MFxxk!"

"These beasts!"

"Oh no! They are thieves! They are thieves!"

"Although I don't know how Casio did it, I know that Casio is stealing my things now! Ethan! You must contact Nintendo! Let them sue Casio! Nintendo has an agency agreement for chips. This lawsuit We will win!"

The crazy roar made Ethan's eyelids jump.

The word plagiarism made him frown.

The self-developed chip launched by Casio is actually a copy of 6502?

No wonder they can sell it at a cheaper price than Nintendo!

Because plagiarism means R\u0026D costs are almost zero!

"ok, I know, thank you."

After figuring out the situation of the Jade Bird chip, Ethan wanted to hang up the phone and call Minoru Arakawa to talk to him about rights protection issues, but before he could put the receiver on, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

He picked up the receiver again and asked if the other party was still there. After receiving a positive reply, Ethan asked again: "William, I want to know, in your judgment, is Casio capable of cracking our chip?"

"Or, do they have the ability to upgrade MOS 6502?"

As if he felt that his description was not accurate, Ethan added: "Let me put it this way, when Chuck Paido and MOS betrayed me, Motorola called me."

"Their CEO Robert Galvin told me that if I need it, Motorola can provide me with a chip, which is exactly the same as the MOS 6502 on the market."

"Motorola has the technology to reproduce. I believe this, because MOS 6502 was developed based on the original Motorola chip, but they didn't do it before I lacked the chip, because Motorola has calculated that replicating MOS 6502 will not make much profit at all. .”

"Since Motorola knows about this, why does Casio want to crack it?"

"And also upgraded MOS 6502?"

"If they have the ability to hack and upgrade, why don't they develop it themselves?"

"This is both a technical issue and a cost issue."

"..." This question caused silence on the other end of the phone.

"What do you mean?" Bill Mensch reacted, "Casio shouldn't have the ability, or Neon's company shouldn't have the ability..."

"I'm not bragging, I've always thought I was the best architect in the world."

"Unless I tell those people the production principle, it is impossible for them to crack the chip in a short time. Just like Woz, few people can crack his design in a short time."

"That's Commodore." Bill Mensch's answer made Ethan pick up the document again and looked at the notes on it. His tone was unusually sure, "Or, it's Chuck Paido. "

This answer made Bill Mensch frown. After saying "wait a minute", he quickly rushed out of his office. About an hour later, Ethan's phone rang again, and this time Bill ·Mensch gave him an affirmative answer——

"It's their style." Bill Mensch's voice was low.

He was suppressing his anger.

"I know." Ethan took a deep breath.

Hang up the phone.

As the snapping sound sounded, his expression darkened.

Note: ① The world's first handheld calculator was the Casio mini, and the HP-35 I wrote before was the world's first handheld scientific calculator. These are two things. I didn't write it wrong. ② It is true to use a microscope to look at circuit diagrams. There were people on YouTube who specialized in this series before. CPUs before 2004 can be seen clearly with a microscope. This was also the wildest way for people to identify whether their CPUs were plagiarized. .