Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

After a week, the affairs of Xiangjiang Heiyun Group were basically completed. Regarding this time, the siege by reporters at the airport led to a battle for Swire \u0026 Company, the chartering king took the blame and resigned as chairman of the Jockey Club, and Black Cloud Group canceled all HSBC accounts. It can be said that there is no winner. Bao Zixuan failed to achieve its strategic goals, the Swire family increased its debt, and HSBC lost 150,000 customers and 100 billion in deposits. If it were not for the rapid development of Heiyun Group, HSBC would not have so much cash reserves. Being able to spend so much money now is thanks to Bao Zixuan. The only beneficiary may be Sumitomo Bank of Japan, but who can say for sure what will happen in the future?

Bao Zixuan understands the trend of history, as China's reform and opening up deepens and accelerates. In the future, a lot of large-scale equipment and industrial computers will be needed. At present, the large-scale equipment has purchased a complete set of technical information in Germany and the United States, plus the supply of raw materials from the Soviet Union. Production and assembly in Xiangjiang is no longer a problem. The only thing missing is that Bao Huodong Mining Company has not yet started production, and steel production may not increase. Fortunately, the market demand is not that big, and everything is still based on technical reserves.

Seeing IBM entering the notebook computer industry, it’s not a waste of profits! Bao Zixuan has long wanted to enter the field of large-scale industrial computers. This is an opportunity, but in order to confuse Americans, the CPUs used in large industrial computers this time are all Motorola chips. Heiyun is also discussing internally whether to use its own chips, but Bao Zixuan has carefully considered not to expose his strength too early.

Also, the Motorola chip runs very stably, while the performance of the chip designed by Heiyun itself does not meet the requirements. We can only wait until arm grows up and gradually improves it. At present, Heiyun's own engineer reserves are not in place yet.

At the same time, in order to maintain confidentiality, there are two teams within Heiyun that are developing large-scale industrial computers. One is in the United States and the other is in Hong Kong. Information from both sides can be shared. Once the required equipment is finalized, mass production will begin immediately. At the same time, outsourced components are being shipped back to Xiangjiang in large quantities for storage.

After the good news came from the American team, Bao Zixuan left Xiangjiang and boarded a charter flight to the United States. The main reason is that the large-scale industrial computer will be unveiled at the Electronic Technology Show in Los Angeles. Bao Zixuan still needs to familiarize himself with it in advance and improve the system.

At the end of February 1981, Bao Zixuan returned to the United States again. Now he chooses a chartered flight every time he travels, which is more convenient and allows him to have more people accompanying him. After all, as wealth increases, security issues cannot tolerate any sloppiness.

Arriving at the Heiyun Computer headquarters in Cambridge, Bao Zixuan watched the final assembly and debugging. The behemoth in front of us is a large-scale industrial computer that took the Heiyun engineering team nearly two years to develop. This is based on a lot of IBM's design concepts, and Bao Zixuan instilled in the entire team the future development direction of industrial computers; this epoch-making product was born.

Bao Zixuan looked at Professor Harry Rowland and said, "Professor, are you satisfied with the performance of our computer?"

This time the computer is thanks to the help of professors and graduate students at MIT. Without them, it would have taken at least 2 years to achieve this performance. Afraid of patent disputes, Bao Zixuan paid US$20 million in research and development funds to the school. And after the research and development is completed, 10 large computers will be donated to the school for free; it is estimated to be more than 20 million US dollars.

Technology is controlled by people, and there is no way around it. There is no computer science talent pool in Xiangjiang and even in China as a whole. Fortunately, the first batch of enrollment at Yulin Institute of Technology is mainly based on computer science, which can be regarded as filling the gap.

Harry Rowland: "I didn't expect you to be able to develop this big guy. Now it seems that Big Blue has a strong opponent. This is not a bad thing for them, but you have to be more careful in the future. Wait. They reported it but ignored it."

What Harry Rowland said is that since the advent of the IBM 360 large-scale industrial computer and its subsequent improved models, the blue giant has occupied more than 90% of the market share by virtue of its technological advantages. This was a serious violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and IBM was investigated. The case was not concluded until 1983, which to a certain extent also restricted the development of IBM. Otherwise, with their technical reserves, they would have been the first to develop the first home computer.

Bao Zixuan: "Society is developing, and we can't always look forward and backward. Now I just want to change the world, and others will be commented by future generations."

Harry Rowland: "Let me introduce to you the performance of this computer! This computer weighs 2.5 tons, uses 8,000 Motorola 68000 chips, and has an average computing speed of 3.8 million operations per second; the peak computing speed can reach 5.18 million times/second.”

Bao Zixuan: "So our average computing speed is 1.5 times that of IBM370, and the peak computing speed is 2 times that of IBM370. In addition, we seem to have several more interfaces than it, which can accept more data operations. At the same time, we can perform more Lots of tasks.”

Harry Rowland: "In principle, that's the case, but there are still some deficiencies in the software. Aren't you back now? You are mainly responsible for the next work, and the laboratory tasks have been completed."

Bao Zixuan: "There is no problem. I have tested the new software many times on the No. 2 prototype in Xiangjiang; there are no obvious loopholes. This time with you guiding me, I think the software will be more perfect."

Of course Harry Roland knew that Bao Zixuan also had a R\u0026D team in Xiangjiang. Rather than saying that the R\u0026D team was composed of students from the United States. But after all, it was someone else who paid for it, so it was hard for him to say anything. The most important thing is that all the expenses are taken care of by Heiyun Computer Company. I have earned money that I will never earn at MIT, so why not be satisfied?

Harry Rowland: "With your achievements in the computer industry, I can no longer guide you, but I think you still have to calm down and actively invest in research and development. Nowadays, computer technology is changing rapidly, and I can't keep up with the pace. I hope you can communicate with everyone more.”

Bao Zixuan: "Thank you for your teaching. In addition to going to Los Angeles to participate in exhibitions recently, I will complete my studies at school and graduate in a few months. Although I don't have much time in school, I really can't bear to be here. .”

Harry Rowland: "I have really decided to go back, what will happen to the company here!"

Bao Zixuan: "Everything remains as usual, my mother is not in good health. I also want to return to him as soon as possible, but I will come here often, but I can no longer be a student."

Harry Rowland: "Didn't you build a university in Xiangjiang yourself? What's the situation now!"

Bao Zixuan: "The first batch of freshmen will be admitted in September this year, and most of them are internal selections. After all, they are not well-known, and they need to be perfected. If you want to come and teach, the position of dean of the School of Computer Science is reserved for you."

Harry Rowland: "I'll think about it. I heard that Xiangjiang is a rich and beautiful place. I really want to visit it."

Bao Zixuan: "Even if you don't want to teach, you can take your family there for vacation, or you can come and see me."

Bao Zixuan knew that the United States would not engage in large-scale competition with China until the Soviet Union collapsed. Moreover, the two countries have just established diplomatic relations not long ago, and the relationship is still good at this time. At present, Xiangjiang has not returned, and the restrictions on Xiangjiang in the high-tech field are not strong yet. How many good things you can get depends on your ability. There is no shop like this after passing this village.

After returning to the United States, Bao Zixuan really entered the daily life of a software engineer. In addition to going to school every day, he would write and debug programs in the laboratory, trying to be as perfect as possible.

As loopholes and problems are continuously discovered, the software is further optimized. The comprehensive performance of Heiyun Industrial Computer has been improved by at least 30%, and its computing speed is already twice that of IBM370/168.