Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

Shirakawa Electric and IBM had just settled down. First, Shirakawa Feng signaled Nakajima Heitaro to distribute a copy of the blue book to the other party.

"About the technical specifications of CD-ROM, you can study it, it has a qualitative improvement in all aspects of floppy disks."

Louis and Robert took the blue book, opened it and looked at it carefully.

To be honest, both the capacity and the scanning speed surprised them. As for why they only pay attention to these two parameters, they are intuitive enough.

The capacity of 700MB is compared with 1MB, and any ordinary person understands the gap.

The reading and writing speed is between 100~300KB/S with the current floppy disk technology.

It seems to be about the same as the 150KB/S of CD-ROM, but please note that this is only double the speed of CD-ROM.

As those who deal with computers all the year round, of course they understand what double speed means, and if they have double speed, they must have double speed.

From the point of view of ordinary consumers, the capacity and data scanning speed all kill floppy disks in seconds.

The improvement brought about by these two points will make consumers have a very different experience in using the experience.

So Louis and Robert were of course surprised by the specifications in the blue book, and even had a little bit of joy in their foresight.

They understand what this means too well, and the floppy disk is already on its way to the grave.

But even though he thought so in his heart, Louis had a displeased look on his face.

"Mr. Shirakawa, you have made CD-ROM technical specifications with Sony and Philips without authorization, which will make IBM very passive."

The determination of the CD-ROM specification, in some respects, also limits the technical standards of the optical drive.

With the release of the blue book, IBM's right to speak on the optical drive has been cut.

"Mr. Lewis, first of all, the optical drive is for CD-ROM, and the latter's specification was developed under the extensive verification of Shirakawa Electric.

Please do not doubt the parameters in this respect, we are the most authoritative CD-ROM technical experts in the world. "

Bai Chuanfeng is now confident enough to say this sentence, and Sony and Philips will also lag behind in CD-ROM research.

"In addition, I would like to remind you, Mr. Louis, that Shirakawa Electric has come here with sincerity from the very beginning.

But we haven't received the attention we deserve, so until today the CD-ROM remains on paper. "

"Okay, Mr. Shirakawa. We are here today to settle this matter, aren't we?"

Seeing that Bai Chuanfeng was about to bring the topic back, Louis interrupted him quickly and started to get into the topic.

"Of course." Bai Chuanfeng shrugged.

"Okay gentlemen, now let's talk about the standardization of optical drives. Robert, what advice do you have on this?"

Regarding the technical problems of the optical drive, Louis first consulted his own technical director.

"I have seen the optical drive brought by Shirakawa Electric, but I will not comment on the internal structure, after all, it is related to the commercial secrets of each company.

In terms of data interface and working mode, I suggest to move closer to the computer in an all-round way. Because in the final analysis, the existence of optical drives is to serve users.

And users use computers to achieve their goals, so whether it is hardware or software support, the optical drive should follow the logic of the computer. "

Robert's view on the hardware of the optical drive is very simple, that is, to serve the computer.

"Mr. Bai Chuan, what do you think?" Louis turned his attention to Bai Chuanfeng.

After deliberating for a while, he turned around and discussed with Heitaro Nakajima, and finally Shirakawa Feng nodded in approval of IBM's suggestion.

If the optical drive is to be mounted on a computer and used as an opportunity to introduce it to the market, it is also necessary to obey the requirements of the computer in certain specifications.

Of course, these so-called specifications are mostly hardware factors such as interfaces and dimensions.

Bai Chuanfeng didn't mind giving them the right to speak in this regard to IBM, as long as it didn't involve his core interests.

"Very good, then let's talk about the parameters that affect performance." Louis was satisfied with Bai Chuanfeng's concession.

"As for the scanning speed, error correction logic, and data pickup mechanism, we hope that Baichuan Electric can provide detailed technical information.

Because we need it to write corresponding software, and open certain permissions in the system to users.

Of course, we will sign a corresponding non-disclosure agreement for all of this, and IBM has a good reputation in this regard. "

"In principle, we agree with IBM's request, but please forgive me for asking, which models IBM plans to apply the configuration of optical drive first?"

Providing more detailed technical information is a necessary means to develop software and hardware, Bai Chuanfeng can understand.

But as a maker of optical drives, he cared more about which platform IBM was using first.

Regarding Bai Chuanfeng's question, Louis and Robert looked at each other, and then answered.

"We thought the big opportunity was a good fit because, you know, those commercial companies always have all kinds of data to store.

Floppy disks are too small to store large amounts of data. The hard drive is adequate, but it's too big for storage.

Therefore, we all agree that it is absolutely difficult for mainframe users to refuse such a configuration as an optical drive. "

It makes sense for Louis to say that. The information of many companies costs several gigabytes. If stored on a floppy disk, it is absolutely a disastrous choice.

The current hard disk is already 1G in size, but it is about the same size as a washing machine, so storage is a problem for the company.

But it’s different with CDs. A few gigabytes are nothing more than a few CDs, which occupy less space than a book.

I believe that those business companies will never reject the new technology of optical discs, and IBM knows very well what their demands are.

But Bai Chuanfeng frowned when he heard that IBM wanted to apply optical drives to mainframes first.

"Mr. Lewis, I agree with your judgment on mainframe users. But for the first promotion platform, I suggest you add personal computers."

"Personal computer?" Louis looked at Bai Chuanfeng in surprise.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Shirakawa, but you may not understand that the personal computer market is not mainstream right now.

And for individual users, such a huge capacity of 700MB is completely unnecessary.

Like Gates said, 640KB is more than enough for anyone. "

The Gates mentioned by Louis is the famous Bill Gates.

There was a newspaper report last year about Bill Gates' views on memory capacity.

I don't know if this joke is true or not, and I don't know if Gates really said this sentence.

But it doesn't hinder Louis. At this moment, he uses it to prove that individual users don't have that much demand for large-capacity storage.

Bai Chuanfeng almost laughed out loud when he heard him say that, "Mr. Louis, the reason why individual users are satisfied with the current 640KB is because they have never seen the splendor of CD-ROM.

If Mr. Gates saw this blue book in person, I think he would take back what he had said. ".

What is completely unnecessary, why 640KB is enough, it is entirely because there is no such large-capacity storage device in reality, and users are frantic.

Bai Chuanfeng dared to bet that as long as the public experienced the hugeness of 700MB, they would never go back.

Do you really think that 700MB can only be used to store data? Pictures and multimedia files in the future can easily fill it up.

"But..." Louis's thoughts are still relatively conservative. After all, this is to be introduced to the public as a standard configuration of computers.

If the evaluation is not high, wouldn't it drag down the reputation of your own IBM PC?

"Mr. Louis, why don't you ask us how much the optical drive of Baichuan Electric is selling for?"

"Huh?" Louis looked at Bai Chuanfeng's smiling expression, and seemed to have some reaction.

"Then how much is the price of the optical drive of Baichuan Electric?"

"Double optical drive $199, quadruple optical drive $425."

"Wait!" Louis raised his hand to signal Bai Chuanfeng to wait for a while, "Mr. Bai Chuan said how many times the optical drive refers to the scanning speed?"

"Of course." Bai Chuanfeng nodded, "These are just the two most basic scanning magnifications. In the future, we will develop optical drives with higher scanning magnifications."

Louis and Robert looked at each other, and they both saw the disbelief in each other's eyes.

Their unbelievable is not the scanning speed of the optical drive, but its selling price.

too cheap~

A floppy disk with a capacity of only about 1MB can be sold for two to three hundred dollars, and a floppy drive can be as high as $400.

In such a comparison, Shirakawa Electric's optical drive is more like doing charity.

"Mr. Bai Chuan, I have to remind you that this price is too low."

The black-hearted capitalist Louis can't stand Baichuan Electric's pricing strategy at all, and thinks it's a little too cheap.

"I understand what you mean, Mr. Louis, but we want to make it a standard PC configuration and popularize it to the public.

The high price is not conducive to the promotion of CD-ROM. Especially if you want people to get rid of the habit of using floppy disks, you have to come up with something exciting. "

In fact, Bai Chuanfeng already felt that he was dark enough. The cost of an optical drive is lower than that of a CD player, and the cost of a four-speed drive does not exceed 50 US dollars.

Now it sells for $200 or more than $400, which is already a huge profit. I don’t know that IBM still thinks it has a good heart.

Hearing what Bai Chuanfeng said, Louis rolled his eyes but came up with another idea.

"It's not as good as this. Our IBM purchases optical drives according to this quotation, but the pricing power for the market belongs to IBM."

"Mr. Louis, Baichuan Electric will not concede on pricing power, so there is no need to mention this point."

Just kidding about this kind of monopoly product, how can the pricing power be handed over to others.

Bai Chuanfeng refused without even thinking about it. He knew what IBM was up to. It's nothing more than raising the price of the optical drive at that time, and then earning a fortune.

But IBM's heart was too dark, and Bai Chuanfeng was worried that the price they set was too high, which would affect their rapid expansion in the field of optical drives.

For example, IBM's own personal computer 5150 series, the cheapest price is 1535 US dollars, the common configuration is 2000~3000 US dollars, and the high configuration can reach 4000 US dollars.

Yes, you read that right, this is the PC price in US dollars.

Although people in the United States are rich, such a high price is doomed that there will be no explosive growth in personal computer sales.

But how many people know that IBM's personal computer is only about 600 US dollars if only the cost of parts is calculated.

The profits in this are astonishingly large, and far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

IBM may be able to explain the reason for such pricing with high R\u0026D expenses, but in Bai Chuanfeng's view, this is still a bit too high.

Under the condition of guaranteeing profits, appropriately reducing the selling price is more conducive to the expansion of market share.

If the pricing power of the CD-ROM is handed over to them, Bai Chuanfeng suspects that it is possible for IBM to sell it for $1,000.

After all, compared to the 400 dollars of the floppy drive, it is normal for the optical drive I hit with dimensionality reduction to be twice as expensive.

Some people will indeed pay for $1,000, but there are still a few people who can afford it.

Therefore, Bai Chuanfeng felt that maintaining a price similar to that of a floppy drive would be enough.

There are profits and no worries about sales, which can be regarded as making up for the shortcomings of the current discs that cannot write data.

Seeing what Louis wanted to say, Bai Chuanfeng signaled him to be calm.

"However, considering that the application platforms of optical drives are divided into mainframes and personal computers, our optical drives will also be designed accordingly.

For example, mainframes have high security requirements, and we will design a series of insurance measures for optical drives.

For example, the optimization of the shockproof structure and data analysis will have additional chips to do auxiliary work and so on.

Of course, due to the increase in design costs, the price will also increase. "

"Different versions of the optical drive?" Louis' eyes lit up, "Mr. Bai Chuan can explain it in detail."