Chapter 310: Shirakawa Electric's Next Product
The profit of SIC's processors to Fujitsu is about US$45 per piece, or 11,250 yen.
Fujitsu initially placed an order for 100,000 chips, but currently only tens of thousands of FM-7s are in stock, and the remaining chips are lying in Fujitsu's warehouse.
They need to reserve some chips to meet the assembly needs of their own computer production lines. After all, each generation of computers will be sold for a long time.
But this has nothing to do with Baichuan Feng. As long as the chip leaves his place, Fujitsu will need to pay.
100,000 pieces means a profit of more than 1 billion, which is so tempting.
Moreover, chips are not end-consumer products, and there are no offline channels for distribution, after-sales service, marketing, etc.
Once the chip is designed, someone places an order, and SIC delivers it, the transaction is complete.
Compared with Shirakawa Electric's consumer electronics products, there are fewer necessary links in the middle, which can also save a lot of operating costs.
But in terms of profits, the difference between the two is not much.
It can be seen how high the profits of the chip industry are. This is also a bonus unique to industries with high barriers and high technical difficulties.
As long as you enter the industry and have a market, you can basically make money without doing anything.
With one order, he pocketed 1 billion yen in profit, and Shirakawa Kaede was in a pretty good mood.
Even the bulky big-butt computer in front of him looked much pleasing to the eye now.
Unfortunately, Fujitsu used an enhanced 8-bit version of SIC chip. If it was the 16-bit SIC8081, the profit would be even greater.
Shirakawa Kaede did try to persuade Fujitsu to directly use the high-end version of SIC8081, but the other party was very cautious.
I am only willing to use SIC8089F on low-end computers first to see how the market responds before making any plans.
After all, the 16-bit SIC8081 was priced at $260, so they had no choice but to be cautious.
But this price is actually very low. Intel's 16-bit chip costs more than $300, so SIC is still very conscientious.
But for the time being, Baichuan Feng did not force it. He first digested what he had eaten.
In order to test the text editing function of FM-7, the staff here took a small boxed device from the side and plugged it into the computer.
Soon the system recognized that the peripheral was in place, and a small window popped up, prompting that the font function could be enabled.
Staff-san closed the window and began to type quickly on the keyboard. At the same time, lines of Chinese characters appeared on the computer screen in front of him.
"It seems that the Chinese character reading and writing card is also running normally, and there is no downtime." Baichuan Feng nodded with satisfaction. HAL is also very capable.
"It is indeed very reliable. We have tested it ourselves. The failure rate is very low and it can support long-term operation."
Tokita Ryuji standing by also agreed a little. The hardware provided by the other party was at least reliable.
That’s right, this small external device is a Chinese character ROM card developed by the HAL Research Institute.
The current Microsoft system does not support Chinese character editing. In fact, not only Microsoft, but all systems on the market currently do not support Chinese character editing.
But Japan is still using Chinese characters extensively at this time, especially in business dealings, and most of the content on company documents and forms is composed of Chinese characters.
This has brought inconvenience to many business companies in using computers, but where there is demand there is a market.
Look, weren’t the Chinese character reading and writing cards of HAL Institute born?
Although HAL Research Institute is full of young people, they are all hands-on experts with extraordinary creativity.
It is very easy to develop an external device that supports Chinese character editing based on the DOS system.
Store the Chinese character library in the ROM card in advance, and you can call it directly when you need it.
And this palm-sized device is priced at 29,800 yen.
Don't think it's expensive, this kind of thing is usually purchased by companies.
As long as any product is related to business offices and company procurement, it is normal for the price to be higher.
Moreover, Chinese characters are indeed an indispensable communication tool in business dealings. Having a reading and writing card will greatly facilitate work content and improve efficiency.
So it is normal to spend some money to meet work needs.
For this kind of small peripheral, Shirakawa Kaede initially suggested that Fujitsu should directly integrate it into the computer and sell it as a complete machine.
However, Fujitsu was worried that the high price would affect its reputation and sales, so it finally decided to make it into an external device.
In this way, customers can choose and purchase additional accessories according to their own needs.
Although the recommendation was not successful, Shirakawa Kaede felt that it was already very good that Fujitsu could sell the HAL Laboratory's Chinese character reading and writing cards as official configuration.
A set costs 29,800 yen, two-thirds of which is profit, which is higher than the return rate of chips.
However, due to positioning issues, most of the purchasers will be business companies.
The sales volume may not be that high, but because of the extremely high profit, the final revenue will not disappoint Baichuan Feng.
In addition to card readers and writers, printers, fax machines and other office equipment were also tried out for FM-7.
These products are also designed and produced by Fujitsu itself, and are all placed on the menu as optional configuration packages for the computer.
After trying all these, the staff member took out a small square box machine and connected it to the computer.
Then, under the gazes of Baichuan Feng and others, he carefully took out a square black disk from a plastic packaging bag.
After taking a closer look and seeing that there were no obvious scratches on the surface, the staff member put the disk into the floppy drive that had just been connected to the computer.
After watching this series of operations, Baichuan Feng realized that the other party was testing the computer's disk read and write functions.
The small black square disk just now is actually the floppy disk that has long disappeared in later generations.
In the impression of many people in later generations, USB flash drives are the most common storage devices in daily life.
But before the millennium, floppy disks took over this role.
This portable mobile storage device, which appeared in the early 1970s , has always been the most important means of data transmission in office and daily life and has been popular for decades.
Although floppy disks have been around for more than a decade, their capacity has always been relatively limited.
Its data storage size is generally measured in KB, which is hard to imagine.
For example, the Sony 3.5-inch floppy disk in the staff's hand, Baichuan Feng just took a look and found that the capacity is more than 800KB, less than 1MB.
"Mazuka-san, how much do Sony's 3.5-inch floppy disks cost?"
While Staff-san was taking the test, Shirakawa Feng turned around and asked quietly.
"Huh?" Michiyoshi Mazuka was stunned. What does this have to do with our FM-7?
Although he was a little confused, he still explained quietly, "This is a 3.5-inch disk that Sony launched two years ago. It has a capacity of 870KB and costs about $300.
The other party has great ambitions and intends to overthrow IBM's 5.2-inch floppy disk and become the standard specification for the next generation of floppy disks."
Shirakawa doesn't care about Sony's ambitions. What he really cares about is the price. 870KB? 300 dollars?
This is totally unreasonable. Is the production cost of a floppy disk so high?
Even if you kill Baichuan Feng, he would never believe it. The capacity may be limited due to technical limitations, but the cost has absolutely nothing to do with hundreds of dollars.
"Did Sony succeed?" Restraining his inner surprise, Baichuan Feng asked another gossipy question.
Mazuka Michiyoshi smiled and said, "The other party is IBM, it won't be that easy.
The mainstream floppy disks on the market are still 5.2-inch disks, and the price is similar to that of Sony, or even slightly more expensive.
But in Japan, Sony's 3.5-inch discs still have a certain market."
After all, it has the advantage of being in its home turf, and Sony is also a well-known company.
Therefore, although the 3.5 storage system launched is not popular, it can ensure the survival of this business.
The reason why Sony's floppy disk did not become popular was that no drive manufacturers followed up.
The reason why IBM is so dominant in the computer industry is because it has gathered a number of hardware equipment manufacturers around it.
For example, after IBM launched the 5.2-inch floppy disk drive, manufacturers such as Compaq and Shugart Associates immediately followed suit, and soon the 5.2-inch disk became the consensus of the new generation of floppy disks in the industry.
This is the difference between fighting alone and forming an industry alliance. If Sony wants to apply its 3.5-inch hard disk on a large scale, it has to consult with its .
"The price of floppy disks is so high, but what about floppy disk drives? Is there really a market for such a high price?"
Compared to the gossip about Sony and IBM, Shirakawa Kaede was obviously more interested in the price of floppy disks.
"Here," Mazuka Michiyoshi pointed to the box-like floppy drive on the desk, "It is also sold as an optional equipment for FM-7, and it is sold separately for about 100,000 yen.
Most business companies will buy it, after all, compared to physical data, floppy disks are much more convenient. "
"How much?" Baichuan Feng widened his eyes. He was shocked by the price of the floppy drive.
"100,000 yen, which is 400 US dollars, the market price." Michiyoshi Mazuka was not surprised by the selling price of floppy drives.
A floppy disk of less than 1MB can be sold for $300, so it is reasonable for a reading and writing machine to sell it for $400.
It is indeed very reasonable. Baichuan Feng is almost drooling with envy. Look at them.
It is also a computer accessory, also a small box, but others sell it for 100,000 yen, which is almost the same price as a computer, and they don't have to worry about the market.
The Chinese character ROM card that he had worked so hard to make only sold for less than 30,000 yen, less than one-third of what others paid.
Or maybe my heart is not dark enough, Baichuan Feng secretly sighed for his kindness.
However, as the only portable storage device, there are almost no alternative products of the same kind for floppy disks, which may be one of the reasons why they are so expensive.
In the past when there were no floppy disks, what did companies use as a means of storage?
Either a paper punch or a cassette tape. Yes, the kind of cassette tape you listen to music on, it can also be used to store information.
These two storage methods have one thing in common: they use physical means to record and store data in a signal simulation manner.
The two main characteristics of it are complicated steps and low efficiency. Just imagine rewinding for more than ten minutes every time to find the previously recorded data, which is definitely a painful thing.
Floppy disks do not have this problem. The digital storage method can complete the reading and writing of information in just a dozen seconds.
Compared to hole punchers and magnetic tapes, floppy disks are a dimensionality reduction attack.
No wonder Michiyoshi Mazuka looked like he was not surprised. Only those who have experienced the more primitive and painful method of data entry can appreciate the joy of floppy disks.
But for Shirakawa Kaede, floppy disks were not so advanced as to be unimaginable.
On the contrary, after learning about the huge profits of floppy disks and the current limited storage methods, he had a new idea.
When it comes to storage , a new technology that we are developing seems to be even more awesome than floppy disks. Is there any future for this?
