Chapter 309 FM-7
In Minato-ku, Tokyo, Shirakawa Kaede and Nakajima Heitaro came to Fujitsu's consumer electronics division together.
"Shirakawa-san, Nakajima-san, we have been waiting for you for a long time."
Michiyoshi Mazuka from the Semiconductor Division and Ryuji Tokita from the Consumer Electronics Division stood together at the door to greet the SIC team.
Baichuan Feng smiled and shook hands with them, "I am really grateful for your care."
In terms of supply and demand, Fujitsu is considered a customer of SIC.
But the fact that the other party stood at the door to greet them shows how much Fujitsu values SIC.
Party A has always been the father since ancient times. When did he become so polite to Party B?
So although we don’t know how our own chips will perform in our products, we think it should be good.
So Baichuan Feng, who was in a good mood, also put on a smiling face early on.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Shirakawa. The chip developed by SIC and Fujitsu has performed very well.
We are very confident in this generation of products. Let's go and see the performance of Fujitsu's new generation of personal computers, FM-7. Please come in!"
As he spoke, Jianzhong Daoyi stretched out his hand, motioning for Baichuan Feng and the others to go first.
"Please!" Shirakawa Feng bowed and took Nakajima Heitaro and others into the Fujitsu Building.
In fact, it is said that Fujitsu and SIC jointly developed a new generation of computer processors, but in fact SIC is still the main force.
For Fujitsu's personal computer FM-7, the processor it is equipped with is SIC8089F, which is a modified version of the 8-bit enhanced chip SIC8089.
As the name suggests, its main structure has not changed, but it has been specially optimized for the computer version.
In addition, it is called a processor because other modules are integrated inside.
Compared with the single-core SIC8089, the processor SIC8089F has more comprehensive functions and stronger computing power.
"Mr. Shirakawa, please see this is the FM-7 we are going to launch next month."
In the office, Michiyoshi Mazuka pointed at a white machine on the table and introduced it to Shirakawa Kaede and the others.
It has a very retro style, and when Shirakawa Feng saw it for the first time, he was reminded of the big-butt computers of the past.
No, the machine in front of me is more retro than a big-butt computer.
It has a square shape, very similar to the 14-inch black-and-white TVs used in homes in the 1980s and 1990s, except that it is white in color.
Fujitsu's FM-7 is an all-in-one computer with the display and host integrated into one.
There is also a beige keyboard connected to the front of them, and the design style follows the host, which is thick and bulky.
Just looking at the appearance of the keyboard, it is almost the same as the popular home game consoles nowadays. No wonder Nintendo and others like to position game consoles as home computers. It turns out that the reason is here.
Shirakawa Kaede did not comment on the design of Fujitsu FM-7.
It may seem old-fashioned to him, but people of this era have long been accustomed to this aesthetic style.
Judging from the smug look on Mazuka Michiyoshi's face, maybe they even thought it was pretty cool.
It’s a pity that Shirakawa Electric currently has no personal computer business, otherwise Shirakawa Feng would definitely teach him what appearance design and aesthetics are.
In order to demonstrate the specific performance of the computer, the staff on the side also connected the computer to the power and pressed the power button.
Soon the screen lit up and the letters "MSDS" popped up, along with the "Microsoft" logo below.
That's right, Fujitsu's FM-7 uses the first generation operating system developed by Microsoft for personal computers, the MS-DOS system.
According to Fujitsu's original plan, FM-7 still uses its own language instruction set F-Basic or Microsoft's OS-9.
However, under the strong suggestion of Shirakawa Kaede, the system is now switched to MS-DOS for personal users.
Fujitsu was a little hesitant at first. For them, which system is better to use is secondary.
The most important thing is to be prudent, never make changes easily, and be cautious in any new attempts.
The best option is to continue using the previous system, and there won’t be so many problems.
As for the new DOS system being more user-friendly, this was not even within their consideration.
Even after internal employees evaluated it, they felt that the DOS system was more convenient to use.
But in the end, when the decision was made, it was still rejected by management.
Their reason is simple, that is, as a product provider, they should not easily change the user's usage habits.
They are so stubborn and persistent. Baichuan Feng didn't know how to evaluate them after hearing the news.
When it comes to technology, especially Internet-related products, people stick to the old ways and don't know how to adapt.
No wonder in the later Internet and information age, Japan was left far behind and did not gain any benefits.
This excessive caution means that it is destined to not make any groundbreaking moves.
So how did Shirakawa Feng convince them to switch to the MS-DOS system?
It's very simple. SIC's processor SIC8089F is specially adapted for DOS system.
It can even be said that SIC8089F was developed based on the DOS system and logically optimized.
In actual use, the fluency and computing speed of the DOS system are much higher than Fujitsu's own F-Basic.
It is no exaggeration to say that the performance of FM-7 is completely different when the same processor is used in these two different systems.
Faced with the facts, Fujitsu had to compromise and finally switched to the DOS system.
After all, Fujitsu has put a lot of effort into the research and development of the processor, and it can't just abandon it because of one system.
Why did Shirakawa Kaede insist on persuading Fujitsu to use the DOS system?
Nonsense, don’t you see that your own F-Basic is for people to use?
Shirakawa Feng couldn't tolerate the poor operating habits and the almost non-existent UI for even a minute.
When it comes to developing systems, you have to look at Microsoft. Although the current DOS is also very simple, it is at least still usable.
Moreover, the instruction set of SIC8089F and Microsoft's DOS are mutually bound and compatible, and have obtained official recognition and authorization from Microsoft.
The reason why the little-known SIC was able to reach a cooperation with Microsoft was also due to the mediation of Masayoshi Shima.
He has been in Silicon Valley for eight or nine years and has some connections.
Previously, Masayoshi Shima was in charge of chip research and development at Intel, so naturally he had to deal with companies such as Microsoft and IBM.
Chips and operating systems complement each other, and Intel and Microsoft communicate frequently in their daily work.
For this reason, when Shima Masayoshi came to Microsoft, Microsoft agreed to cooperate with SIC without much consideration.
Apart from this relationship, Microsoft was just a small company at that time.
Why not develop another business in Japan and promote your own system at the same time?
This is why SIC8089F can be perfectly compatible with DOS at this time.
Its performance did not disappoint those present. Under the on-site operation of the staff, whether it was calculation, text processing, or simple graphic drawing, it was all very smooth.
Even running the currently popular Pac-Man game is easy.
The images of ghosts in different colors come to life before your eyes, which is no less impressive than their performance on arcade machines.
After using it for a while, Baichuan Feng touched the big bottom of the computer and said, "Not bad, it runs smoothly and there is no sign of heating.
The color performance is also solid and can be described as vivid and discernible to the human eye.”
Mazuka Michiyoshi nodded with satisfaction. "The performance of SIC8089F played an important role. It is better than we expected."
Fujitsu's previous models used 8-bit processor chips from Motorola and Zilog.
Customers can choose between these two chips according to their preferences.
But no matter which one it is, it's an 8-bit chip.
Now SIC's processor is an enhanced version, and its performance is nearly twice that of the previous one.
What’s more important is that the SIC8089F also integrates a small graphics processor, which is generally equivalent to the core graphics card of later generations.
This is another killer feature of SIC, which optimizes the graphic display separately.
You have to know that Intel had not yet done this kind of operation at that time, and SIC was the first time in history.
Of course, today’s graphics processors will definitely not be as miniaturized as future integrated graphics, which does not affect the design of the main chip at all.
SIC has put a lot of effort into integrating this function, but the price is that the size is significantly larger and the power consumption is also increased.
But looking at how bulky computers are now, even if the chip is two times bigger, it can still fit in them.
As for power consumption, we now have desktop computers and laptops have not yet been invented, so there is no need to consider power consumption at all.
Only computers of this era would allow SIC to make such a fuss. If it were a later era, it would probably be criticized to pieces.
In addition to these features, Fujitsu's FM-7 has also made a qualitative leap in gaming performance compared to before.
Don't forget what was the first platform for SIC8089? Arcade!
Because it follows its design, SIC8089F also inherits the advantages of the former in game optimization.
Now I can use it to run games like Pac-Man without any pressure.
In Shirakawa Kaede's opinion, this can be used as a selling point of FM-7.
However, people at Fujitsu don't seem to take it seriously, as the majority of their customers are still major business companies.
Alas, it's just like flirting with a blind man, wasting the excellent performance of SIC8089F in games.
"Mr. Mazuka, how much does FM-7 cost?" Shirakawa Feng pinched his chin and looked at the big-butt computer in front of him, not knowing what he was thinking about.
"126,000 yen" When talking about this, Mazuka also showed a proud look.
The average price of computers on the market now is around 200,000 yen, and the high-end ones are close to 300,000 yen.
This year, Fujitsu's FM-7 is going to go the cheap route, and the price is very affordable and competitive in the market.
After all, the price has dropped from 200,000 yen to more than 100,000 yen, and many young people who could not afford it before will probably consider it.
With such fierce price competition, it seems that the computer industry is also very competitive.
However, at a price of 126,000 yen, it is still profitable, so it seems that computers are making good profits.
The price of SIC's processor to Fujitsu is around US$80, or 20,000 yen.
Shirakawa Feng roughly estimated that it should be less than a quarter of its production cost, which is very reasonable.
You should know that Intel's 8088 chip alone is priced at around $120, and this doesn't even have an integrated graphics processor like SIC.
Compared with it, SICSIC8089F is really conscientious.
Not only is the chip better than the 8088, it is also modularized and comes with a graphics processor.
Definitely increase the quantity without increasing the price!
So what is the cost of SICSIC8089F?
Ahem, about $35.
It’s not too much to make $45 from a processor. Compared with Intel, Baichuan Feng can pat his chest and say that he has a clear conscience.
Tsk, 45 dollars! The profit of one chip is 11,250 yen.
To be honest, this profit is about the same as what Shirakawa Electric makes from selling a high-end Walkman.
When Baichuan Feng learned about the profit ratio for the first time, he even wondered why he had worked so hard on the Walkman.
It’s just a matter of selling a chip, there’s no need for so many manufacturing links.
But the account cannot be calculated in this way. There are gains and losses, and there are pros and cons to each.
In addition, Fujitsu's FM-7, is this the only presence of Shirakawa Kaede's company?
Of course not.
