Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

"Mr. Bai Chuan, nice to meet you."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Bai Chuanfeng looked at the handsome black-haired guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes in front of him, with doubts in his eyes.

He always felt that the person in front of him looked familiar. Where did he see him?

"Stephen Jobs" the dark-haired young man showed a charming smile and offered his right hand.

Hey, it turned out to be Gang Leader Qiao.

Bai Chuanfeng almost didn't recognize this thick black hair.

"It turned out to be Mr. Steve. I like your Mac very much."

Bai Chuanfeng extended his hand and shook hands with Chief Qiao in a friendly and cordial manner.

"The portable CD player of Shirakawa Electric is also very good. It is now the best partner for people to hold parties. Of course, I also have one at home."

"Oh, that's really my pleasure."

Baichuan Electric's CD player has been sold in Beimi since the beginning of the year. Just like Jobs said, it is now a star at various parties.

A compact CD player and two active speakers can entertain the audience with dynamic music anytime, anywhere.

Westerners, especially Americans, are all party creatures. Four out of seven days a week I get party invitations.

How can there be no music at a party, so the portable CD player of Shirakawa Electric exploded with vitality beyond expectations.

It is far more popular than desktops from Sony and Philips because it is easy to carry and the audio system is easy to assemble.

Now I heard that Gangzhu Qiao is also one of his users, not to mention, Bai Chuanfeng is also a little bit proud.

Of course, it's not rude to come and go, Bai Chuanfeng also praised the excellence of Apple Computer.

Sure enough, flattery is common among all human beings, and the smile on the corner of Jobs' mouth became more and more obvious.

Bai Chuanfeng knew very well that with Jobs' conceited character, he could only follow his hair.

Otherwise, he will definitely write a note for you in the small notebook in his heart.

"Shirakawa Electric has developed technologies such as CD-ROM, which is a boon for users.

Maybe they didn't know what they needed before, but when the 700MB disc storage appeared.

And they're like, oh yeah, that's what I want. "

After Jobs and Bai Chuanfeng sat down in the coffee area, they habitually made various gestures while discussing the main topics of today's meeting.

As an upstart in the personal computer market, Apple is naturally invited to the conference.

He was curious that Bai Chuan Feng could establish Bai Chuan Electric at such a young age, and at the same time, he also had a little bit of approval.

In the eyes of Jobs, who founded Apple at the age of 20, Bai Chuanfeng, who founded Baichuan Electric at the age of 19, is considered to be the same kind of person as him.

What kind of person? genius!

For smart people like himself, Jobs will respect and communicate with him seriously.

Otherwise, why would he take the initiative to come forward and say hello to Bai Chuanfeng?

"Glad for your approval, although CD storage has not grown up yet.

But we firmly believe that in the future it will definitely replace floppy disks and become the most commonly used storage method for people. "

On this point, Bai Chuanfeng is extremely confident, and the current optical drive is far underestimated.

Jobs admired Bai Chuanfeng's self-confidence, which is the same as he admired his own Apple computer.

"I heard that Mr. Baichuan not only owns Baichuan Electric, but also a company that designs chips?"

Bai Chuanfeng unexpectedly turned his head and glanced at Chief Qiao, "You are right, there is indeed such a company.

However, SIC has not yet conducted business in Beimi. How did Mr. Steve know this news? "

Jobs smiled maliciously, "The Los Angeles Times has long reported that Neon has such an overreaching chip design company."

"Huh?" Bai Chuanfeng was a little confused.

Seeing his confused expression, Jobs' smile became brighter.

So he explained the details of the incident in detail. At the briefing meeting of Baichuan Electric last year, Bai Chuanfeng's response to Western reporters was published in the newspaper intact.

It was at that time that the name of SIC first appeared on the Beimi continent.

But obviously this is not a good reputation. "Overreaching one's abilities" and "shoddy neon knockoffs" are the initial impressions of the people of Beimi on SIC.

After listening to his explanation, Bai Chuanfeng smiled wryly, "Well, SIC is that chip design company that 'overreaches'."

"Haha" Jobs laughed heartily, and that hearty laughter eased his recent depressed mood a lot.

"But if Steve had used SIC's chip, he would never have such an idea again."

Bai Chuanfeng shrugged, helplessly begging for his own chip.

"I have used"

"Okay, what's the matter... huh? Wait!" Bai Chuanfeng suddenly turned his head and looked at Jobs who had put away his smile.

"So Steve, do you think that the SIC chip is a shoddy counterfeit product?" Bai Chuanfeng looked at the opposite figure seriously.

"Of course not, even somewhat unexpected." Jobs gave him an affirmative answer.

Bai Chuanfeng seemed to understand now why Jobs took the initiative to greet him.

"Then Steve, are you willing to give it a try?" Bai Chuanfeng asked very directly after changing his reserved style in neon.

As for his question, Jobs did not answer directly, but discussed another issue with him.

"I don't know Mr. Shirakawa, have you ever heard of Apple's LISA computer?"

The LISA series of computers is a milestone computer in the history of Apple.

It was the world's first graphical computer, with overlapping windows, small icons, pop-up menus, and a mouse.

The graphical operating system that we are familiar with in later generations has already taken a rudimentary form on the LISA computer.

It greatly facilitates users to use various functions of the system. It is a qualitative change from the character interface in the DOS era.

The concept of a graphical interface (GUI) also appeared for the first time on a commercial computer.

However, although it has made great progress compared with previous personal computers, its sales are very poor because of its high price.

The LISA computer was launched last year for $9,998. So far, the total sales volume has not reached 10,000 units.

Compared with the 2 million sales of the popular Apple II in North America, LISA can be regarded as Apple's Waterloo product.

Even the Apple III with poor reputation can sell 120,000 units, but the more advanced LISA does not even have one-twelfth of it.

The most important thing is that on the LISA computer, Apple invested 150 million US dollars in research and development expenses.

There is no doubt that LISA's fiasco has brought huge losses to Apple.

As one of its original directors, Jobs has been in a gloomy mood recently because of the failure of LISA.

Although in the middle of the development, the team members kicked Jobs out of the development team because they couldn't stand Jobs' paranoid perfectionism.

But LISA (Lisa) is named after Jobs' daughter, which shows how much he attaches importance to this series of computers.

At this moment, when he heard him asking himself what he thought of the LISA computer, Bai Chuanfeng felt a little surprised.

But after thinking for a few seconds, Bai Chuanfeng decided to tell the truth.

"There is no doubt that it is a groundbreaking product, which brings people a brand-new system experience, which will definitely be a milestone in the history of computer development.

But it is too expensive, and at this price it is doomed not to be the product of choice for ordinary users. In addition, the ecosystem of LISA is also a problem. "

"Ecosystem?" Jobs interrupted Bai Chuanfeng's evaluation and raised his own doubts.

"Yes." Bai Chuanfeng nodded, "It's true that a computer is a product, but it cannot exist independently."

Bai Chuanfeng sat upright and began to talk about the necessary conditions for the development and growth of computers.

"The quantity and quality of application software, compatibility with surrounding equipment, hardware types in the system, and the connection between new equipment and legacy equipment.

The operating system is just a blank world. It needs the sky, the earth, sunlight, water, soil, and air. With these, the world will become vibrant.

But obviously the LISA computer does not have these features, and there are too few softwares that support it. Without nutrients, it cannot continue to survive. "

Jobs fell into deep thought. This was the first time someone used such a metaphor to describe the development law of the operating system, and it was also the first time someone proposed the concept of "computer ecosystem".

Vivid images, easy to understand.

Jobs came back to his senses, and the eyes he looked at Bai Chuanfeng became more radiant.

"The chip used by LISA is Motorola's MC68000, the internal bus is 32 bits, the address bus is 16 bits, and the main frequency is 7.8MHz.

It has nearly 70,000 transistors inside and supports a maximum memory of 16MB. Can SIC do this? "

No nonsense, Jobs directly reported his desired parameters.

"Yes!" Bai Chuanfeng nodded without hesitation in response, "SIC80281, the internal bus and address bus are consistent with MC68000.

However, its main frequency can be increased to 8MHz or even 12MHz, with up to 120,000 internal transistors and a maximum support of 24MB of memory. "

This is the latest generation of SIC's 16-bit chip, which was just taped out last month by Masari.

Although it has not been officially commercialized yet, Bai Chuanfeng took it out and used it as a card without even thinking about it.

At this time, you have to say yes, and you have to insist if you don’t.

When Jobs heard the series of parameters released by Bai Chuanfeng, he was also surprised. He didn't expect to be more optimistic than he thought.

"The quotation from Motorola is $125, what kind of discount can SIC offer?"

Jobs didn't give Bai Chuanfeng a chance to breathe, one fatal problem after another.

$125? ! Bai Chuanfeng almost crushed his back molars.

This price is really ruthless, and now the price of 16-bit chips is generally around $200.

If it is a big factory like Intel, the price will be close to 300 US dollars.

Gang leader Qiao chopped off more than half of it when he came up, which is simply no way for people to survive.

But Bai Chuanfeng didn't hesitate, he directly offered a price that even Jobs couldn't refuse.

"$100! If Apple purchases more than 100,000 pieces, it can be reduced by another $10."

Opportunities are rare, less profit, even loss, Bai Chuanfeng also recognized it. But after all, it is Beimi, and this market is much bigger than Neon.

"However, when SIC offers such a favorable offer, Steve must promise me one condition."

Jobs glanced at Bai Chuanfeng, and got vaccinated before he continued to speak.

"Others are easy to talk about, but Apple's computers are not yet considered to be equipped with an optical drive system."

Bai Chuanfeng was taken aback for a moment, then smiled wryly, is the optical drive so disgusting?

"Apple's computer may not be equipped with an optical drive system, but a SCSI interface must be added."

This is the optical drive interface specification just decided by this conference. With it, the computer can connect to the optical drive to recognize the optical disc.

Jobs obviously also understood Bai Chuanfeng's plan. He touched his chin and began to think about it.