Rebirth of the Tech Madman

The shrewd Gates is best at stealing the teacher along the way. He quickly put aside the unnecessary entanglement, and tentatively said: "I don't know how powerful the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer with 32-bit architecture will be. It’s good to see the prototype. ∷∷,"

"You still care about how to pass the certification. I'm just here to give a general strategy. The actual implementation requires you to cooperate with the specific responsible department." Tang Huan changed the topic very tightly.

Although the 32-bit architecture concept of the four-generation Fangyuan personal computer was released early to make the media hype, the detailed progress is a trade secret. Including partners, no matter what the origins must be kept silent. How could Tang Huan reveal to Gates in vain? The other party simply couldn't afford the price, if AT&T had an existence like that.

It’s a pity that AT&T’s shelf is quite strong, and Tang Huan has a lot of bargaining chips here, but the Western Electric Company under his command, compared with Bell Labs, which continuously launches new commercial versions, has lacklustre results. Tang Huan, who expected it to become an important new force in the promotion of Fangyuan's technical standards, was disappointed.

This may be related to the dizzying changes in the personal computer industry. You should know that almost every month there are manufacturers in the market who withdraw sadly, or even if they retain the brand, they have changed their pedigree and become a member of the two standard camps of Fangyuan PC and ibm-.

The Fangyuan workstation and Fangyuan server, which have a direct inheritance relationship with the Fangyuan personal computer in the technical system, seem to be faster than minicomputers, making it very unsuitable for large enterprises with traditional business thinking.

Especially last year, the sorrowful North American home video game console market collapsed. The personal computer played a role in adding fuel to the flames. At the end of the fight, almost only the cheap computer manufacturer Kang Maoda and the video game manufacturer ea are the only ones left. It really frightened the onlookers.

In short, Tang Huan uses dex as a symbol to launch a batch of new products every six months. This virtually makes the competition in the microcomputer market extremely fierce. Many predators who want to come in can only sigh with excitement. , Even AT&T was affected by this "negative factor".

In Tang Huan's license structure, although there is a concept of "priority" for collaborators, it will never spread to the "future" roadmap too much. That is, unlike Intel and AMD and other companies when technology sharing and cooperation, there is no clear demarcation line on the possible development of x86 family processors in the future.

In other words, AT&T’s bargaining chips from Tang Huan have the timeliness of being used now and expired. No matter how slow it is in the development of microcomputers, the cards in its hands will be completely out of date. Up.

Tang Huan was too lazy to pay too much attention to AT&T. After all, the other party still made a lot of money in the communications business, and his inattentive steps into the computer industry were also the intention of the question. He has that worrying skill rather than paying attention to the development progress of the fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer.

Industry observers are generally cautious about Tang Huan's plan to actively promote the 32-bit architecture of personal computers. The reason is that the 32-bit concept is taken for granted as a "high-end" application, which should be considered by mainframes and minicomputers.

I have to say that this is a matter of vision. Although they are all computers with a 32-bit architecture, they can use technical means such as code parallelism and cache acceleration to increase data processing capabilities to distinguish products from high-end and low-end, commercial and personal use, and other market positioning.

Of course, bringing 32-bit architecture to personal computers is very difficult and workload.

The plug-and-play of hardware equipment, upgraded 32-bit bus, enhanced video processing performance, dma... and so on, the realization of the goals, very test the manager’s control skills for complex projects, a slight mistake will be like Steve Jobs’ development. Procrastinating for several years, it not only wastes resources, but also puts a heavy burden on the company, and it may be depressed because of this.

Fortunately, there is a boost that can significantly speed up the progress of the project, that is, many technologies have been implemented on Fangyuan workstations and Fangyuan servers, and borrowing from high-end to low-end is far better than groping from scratch.

The slightly troublesome place is manifested in the supply of cpu. Fangyuan PCs have always insisted on walking on two legs, that is, the product line is divided into two major series-Motorola models for mid-to-high end and Intel x86 models for mid-to-low end.

But now, Intel can't get a 32-bit cpu. In order to fight against Motorola, it put its hope on the microprocessor project with more advanced architecture, and brought in Tang Huan and Siemens to help out.

However, judging from the data gathered up so far, the structure is too complicated. The operating efficiency of microprocessors manufactured at the current level of semiconductor technology is obviously lagging behind intel80286, not to mention arguing to Motorola.

Perhaps the only solution is to modify the existing ideas, design and manufacture in a way. But this still cannot help Intel to launch 32-bit CPUs as soon as possible.

The old rival Motorola has launched a fully 32-bit architecture and has successfully taped out.

Such progress of research and development is of course thanks to Tang Huan's promotion. Similar to the ibm that can modify the internal structure of the intel80286, the authorization he obtained from Motorola is also very loose, and there is a lot of room for adjustments to the processor.

It is the first real 32-bit CPU in the microprocessor family. The previous products are only 32-bit internal registers and arithmetic units, while the external data bus and address bus are not 32-bit.

After all, the 16mb memory space that the previous 24-bit address bus can support is sufficient even on high-end Fangyuan workstations and Fangyuan servers.

But with the continuous reduction of memory prices, computers in the high-end field. Greatly increase the possibility of configuring memory capacity above 16mb.

The four-generation Fangyuan personal computer prototype in front of Tang Huan. The cpu inside is just such a one.

On the surface. This computer can already run smoothly, but in fact, there are still some details that need to be perfected for the functions of video, audio, network and so on.

Tang Huan looked at the files in his hand, and observed the actual operating effects of the prototypes one by one according to each marked milestone.

"Not bad." Tang Huan nodded in satisfaction, "According to this schedule, it is entirely possible before and after the dex is held this fall. Expand the scope of the test to the circle of computer professional media, and let them continue to help us build momentum."

John Chambers reminded without worry: "I’m a little worried. If the 32-bit fourth-generation Fangyuan personal computer is too successful, it may affect the existing sales of the third-generation Fangyuan personal computer and previous models. which performed."

"Are you afraid of the failure of the Osborne effect, repeating it here?" Tang Huan laughed.

Due to the fierce competition among other companies in the portable personal computer market, they only occupy the first-mover advantage, while those that are surpassed in terms of quality and technology are increasingly in danger.

So Adam Osborne tried to regain the favor of consumers by releasing a series of new product plans. But unexpectedly, not only the goal was not achieved, but the existing users canceled their orders one after another. Enter the state of holding money on the sidelines.

In the end, the poorly managed Osborne Computer Company had to go into bankruptcy protection and survive the difficulties by switching to the Fangyuan personal computer camp and manufacturing low-end portable second-generation Fangyuan personal computers.

This commercial failure has become an analysis case of many business schools in the United States, and has even been called the "Osborne effect."

However, Tang Huan obviously doesn't think he will repeat the same mistakes, he has his own ideas.

"Why Adam? After Osborne released the new product plan, users have entered the state of holding money on the sidelines? It is not the first portable personal computer. After the freshness of the first portable personal computer, consumers have gradually lost confidence in the technical strength of Osborne Computer. , And our Fangyuan Computer Company will not have this problem of mistrust."

"More importantly, Fangyuan personal computers from the first generation to the second generation, the second generation to the third generation, every large-scale product upgrade process, the continuity is made perfect. Most of the existing software of the user can be directly, Or with only a few modifications, you can easily transition to a new hardware platform and enjoy more powerful new features."

"Users’ existing investments are respected and preserved. Naturally, they will not worry too much about buying existing products, which will be a loss. After all, when new products are first launched, even if they are in every way good, the price is certain. High above the top, and work can't be delayed, it is better to buy the current mainstream products to get the benefits."

Having said that, Tang Huan smiled, "Of course, the impact you are worried about is also reasonable, but this is also a great test for our marketing team."

At this time, the function demonstration process of the application software reached the link of the database ebase, and a natural language artificial intelligence response program called q&a began to run.

Looking at Symantec in the list of cooperating companies at the Copyright Notice, Tang Huan couldn't help being taken aback.

"This program has a promising future. It allows our Fangyuan computers to be placed in libraries, banks, airports, hotels and other places to provide people with simple consulting services." John Chambers nodded in affirmation.

"In the field of natural language artificial intelligence response, Gary Hendricks, the founder of Symantec, has made great achievements. The start-up capital of this company was funded by the National Science Foundation. It is just that it is not well managed. It’s not because of the cooperation we gave, it’s going to close down. By the way, the location of Symantec is the same as Fangyuan Computer, Mountain View." Charles Simeone introduced on the side.

-The National Science Foundation, or nsf, is an independent agency of the US government that supports basic research and education in science and engineering other than the medical field. Its funded projects account for 20% of the basic research projects in American universities funded by the U.S. Federal Government. Especially in the fields of mathematics, computer science, economics, and social sciences, nsf is the main federal sponsor.

Gary Hendrix’s artificial intelligence project can be seen and funded by nsf. There should be real materials. How can there be no money to make in the end? Tang Huan couldn't help asking curiously.

"Symantec developed artificial intelligence on the minicomputer pdp-11 platform, but it was only after the results were realized that compared to personal computers, pdp-11 no longer has any commendable advantages. There has been no business that can bring stable profits for a long time. Even if Gary Hendricks wants to transplant to the personal computer platform, he has no funds available."

After Charles Simeone answered, he began to sigh again, “The industry changes brought about by personal computers are really great. I remember how popular the pdp-11 was when I was still working. eliminated."

pdp-11 was indeed all the rage in the 1970s. The operating system of Bell Labs first ran on pdp-7 and was written in assembly language. When pdp-11 appeared, Dennis Rich and Ken Thompson began to port to the new platform of pdp-11, and then the c language supporting data types was born.

This shows how pdp-11 is so popular. However, the rapid rise of personal computers ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ directly lifted this kind of minicomputers off the altar.

The specific implementation of the hardware architecture of minicomputers and personal computers is very different. Take the processor used, the general-purpose CPUs of Motorola and Intel are popular on the personal computer platform, and the entire processor of pdp-11 contains four A large integrated circuit chip made by Western Digital, which was originally known for its hard disks in time and space.

In terms of memory utilization, the pdp-11 of the 16-bit architecture has a short board. All applications are limited to a 16-bit virtual address space, so only 64kb of memory can be used, which is directly used by ibm- 640kb users. The program memory space is thrown out of the street, and it is even more incomparable with the Fangyuan personal computer.

Symantec now transplants its natural language artificial intelligence response program to the Fangyuan computer platform, especially using ebase as the back-end database.

"This artificial intelligence does seem to work." Tang Huan also affirmed, "Bring in the main figures of Symantec to let me see."

? (To be continued.) u