Video Game Empire

The Osborn-1 computer opened up a whole new category of computers—the portable personal computer. [First Release] Therefore, it relies on its unique positioning to avoid the fierce competition in the personal computer market.

The Osborn-1 computer body and keyboard can be folded together and look like a white briefcase. As soon as it is launched, it has attracted the favor of special users who have portable needs for computers.

Li Xuan doesn't know much about this Osborn-1 portable computer. According to the disassembly report of the company's technicians, this is a computer with a relatively good design. Li Xuan was impressed by another portable computer developed by three engineers who resigned from Texas Instruments—;. This computer really opened the curtain of compatible machines, and the computer company the three engineers founded was called Compaq.

It was Compaq that kicked IBM out of the PC throne. It was one of the most well-known personal computer manufacturers in the world throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and it disappeared in the long cloud of history until it was later acquired by Hewlett-Packard.

Under the guidance of Li Xuan, Aikang has already started to develop portable personal computers, and the original plan was to launch the new machine before the end of the year. But the unexpected appearance of the Osborn-1 forced Ikon to speed up the launch of the new computer.

The new portable computer will still use the name of the series, directly called -p4, referred to as p4 computer. Among them, p represents the abbreviation of the English word "" for "portable".

The p4 computer also uses an erm-1 processor, has 128k of memory, and is equipped with a 5.25-inch floppy drive and a 10m hard drive. But it has a 10-inch screen integrated with the fuselage, compared to a 17-inch monitor on a regular -3 computer. The keyboard of the p4 computer is detachable. Connect to the host through a data line.

The erm architecture plagiarized by Li Xuan inherits the advantages of low power consumption of arm, which also means that the heat generated by the erm-1 processor is not serious when working. This allows the computer designers at Ikon. There is a big advantage when designing a portable computer.

They don't have to leave too much cooling space, and can make the layout of the computer more compact. Therefore, although the p4 prototype manufactured by Aikon Company used a 10-inch screen, it was smaller than the 5-inch Osborn-1 computer.

Osborn-1 and Ikon's unlisted p4 computers can only be said to be the ancestors of future notebook computers. They look very different from the laptops of decades later. Today's portable computers can only be called laptops, not thin and light laptops.

The real thin and light notebook computer will not appear until the development of LCD screen technology is mature. The LCD screens widely used in computers and mobile phones in later generations are still in the laboratory development stage, and now computer monitors use crt picture tubes. Anyone who has taken apart an old TV set knows that most of the size of the TV set is taken up by the picture tube. All other circuits require only a thin printed circuit board.

After the New York launch of the Ikon-3 computer, the rest of the executives had left New York. And Li Xuan stayed and hasn't left. Naturally, it is impossible to watch the IBM company's press conference. He is not bored to this point.

The reason he stayed in New York was to talk to the company about a partnership. The company is arguably one of the oldest electronics companies in the United States, and has profoundly influenced the way humans communicate and communicate with information twice, from the age of radio to the age of television.

In the 1960s, the company was also the most powerful TV producer in the world. It holds a large number of patents for shadow mask type color TV sets, which completely enveloped the entire TV industry. At that time, almost all the companies in the world that produced color televisions. All need to purchase patents from the company.

But when Japan's Sony Corporation developed the Ultra-Slim picture tube in 1968, the company's television empire began to crumble. Before, in the 1960s, the company could still rely on its patent advantages to barely resist the low-price attack of Japanese companies. But from the seventies. The company has also lagged behind Sony in technology, and was forced to pay Sony a patent fee to obtain a production license for the Tri-Linglong picture tube.

Since then, the only one able to protect the company's market share has been the US government. Relying on trade protection companies, they barely survived under the strong attack of Japanese TV companies. The root cause of all this is the high cost of labor in the United States. The ongoing struggle of unions has improved labor conditions and benefits for American workers. But it seriously damaged the competitiveness of American products.

In recent years, the company, once a TV giant. Its share of the domestic TV market in the United States is also shrinking. To save themselves, executives have decided to move all manufacturing processes to neighboring Mexico, where labor is cheaper.

"Good afternoon, Peter, you seem to be in a good mood!" As soon as Li Xuan got out of the car, he gave a warm hug to a white man with a strong back. Peter. Charlson, director of the company, is also the head of the television business.

"Bruno has just been selected as the quarterback of the Harvard varsity team. He is my eldest son. This is the happiest news this year!" Charlison laughed very happily.

"It seems that your son will definitely inherit your mantle and continue to beat the Yale people!" Li Xuan complimented.

"Haha, that's right! I'm sure he'll make a good quarterback!"

Charlieson was obviously very happy after listening to Li Xuan's words. Even though he is in his fifties, he still maintains a very good figure. He is an athlete, and his muscles are as good as those of a bodybuilder.

Charlison had previously told Li Xuan that one of his proudest moments was being the main quarterback of the Harvard football team when he was in college and beating up Yale people twice in "thegame". "thegame" is the name given to the annual football game between Harvard and Yale. The game has been hailed as one of the nation's oldest and most intense college sports rivalries, although the two colleges don't actually have the same level of football.

American society has a very strong alumni culture, especially a large proportion of private university funding comes from the generous donations of alumni. If your parents are alumni of a certain university, you will have an advantage when applying to that university.

Many families, with dozens of members, may have graduated from the same prestigious private school for several generations. And with the fierce competition for admission to prestigious private schools in the United States, are these people really so good, everyone can just laugh it off.

The Orient Company and the recent intersection are not too small, and the two sides have a lot of cooperation in the fields of picture tubes, semiconductors and computers. , the company was also one of the well-known companies in the field of mainframe computers in the 1960s. It's a pity that it encountered the booming ibm company at that time, was defeated by the ibm360/370 series of computers, and was forced to announce its withdrawal from the computer field in 1971.

Although the company has withdrawn from the computer business for nearly ten years, its laboratory still holds many important computer-related patents, which are incomparable to Dongfang Electronics and these century-old stores.

A technology needs to be continuously explored and improved from concept to maturity and practicality. And a series of patents will be born, and any company that wants to use these new technologies must obtain the authorization of the relevant patents. This feature is particularly prominent in high-tech fields such as computers. Companies under Dongfang Electronics have been spending money to obtain licenses for a large number of basic patents from major companies.

Of course, the main purpose of Li Xuan's visit to the company this time is to negotiate business cooperation with the picture tube. Dongfang Shoji is already one of the company's most important picture tube purchasing customers in Asia. The number of picture tubes purchased by the company last year reached 300,000, and this number will at least double this year, so the company cannot help but ignore it.

"A ten-inch monochrome picture tube? No problem, we will definitely give our partners the best price!" Charlieson heard that Li Xuan had brought a new contract, and his face couldn't help but smile.

Li Xuan only needs to reach a general intention with the company. As for the specific procurement details of the p4 computer picture tube contract, there will naturally be a special person responsible for the negotiation. He quickly asked another question. "Peter, how are your company's previous negotiations to open a new factory in China going?"

Charlison shook his head and said, "The company has canceled the plan to build a factory in China! The Chinese government wants to gain a controlling stake in the joint venture. At the same time, UUkanshu www.uukanshu.com wants us to open up key technologies such as kinescopes, but restricts it. The sales quota for the products produced by the joint venture factory in China. Such conditions are too harsh, and we have decided to build a new factory in Mexico!”

The purpose of the company to set up factories in China is to develop the red market with huge potential. If TV sets produced in Chinese factories cannot be sold in China on a large scale, they will be sold back to the United States. Then it doesn't make much practical sense for them to set up factories in China. Because if it is only from the perspective of reducing costs, it can choose to set up a factory in neighboring Mexico. At least Mexico is far less politically risky to U.S. companies than Red China, which is entirely under the protection of the U.S. government.

Li Xuan is actually very clear that the negotiations with the mainland have broken down, and this is just the pretext for him to start the topic. He then asked straight to the point: "Is it possible for the company to set up a joint venture with Dongfang Electronics by way of technology investment to jointly produce crt picture tubes?"

"Setting up a factory in Hong Kong?,! The price of land in Hong Kong is too expensive. That kind of box-like industrial building is only suitable for light industry factories, not suitable for the production of picture tubes!" Charlison shook his head and said. He has been to Hong Kong and is not ignorant of the conditions in that city. (To be continued..)

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