Chapter 384 Losing Money Buying Tickets
If we just add a SCSI interface... Jobs silently calculated the cost and then nodded.
"OK, no problem with that."
Phew ~ Very good, Baichuan Feng breathed a sigh of relief.
"So what kind of assistance does Apple need from SIC? In addition to chips, we can also send technicians to assist your developers in adapting the chips to the system."
In order to get the admission ticket to North America, Shirakawa Feng was very active.
Boss Qiao was also very satisfied with his hospitality.
“I once asked people from the development team to try out your chip.
In terms of performance, it is on the same level as Motorola, but it is not mature enough compared to Intel.
But your chip has one advantage," Jobs raised his finger and tapped twice, "and that is its instruction set is very simple and convenient."
The reason why SIC's chips attracted Jobs was that after using the relevant chips, developers unanimously reported that SIC's chips were relatively simple to develop.
The reason is that its instruction set is much simpler than other chips on the market.
The advantage of doing this is that the instruction format is unified, there are fewer types, and the addressing methods are fewer than complex instruction sets.
Developers will certainly feel during use that the processing speed of the chip has increased a lot.
Jobs' plan was far more than just buying SIC chips. "Apple was going to develop a whole new series of computers that would be different from LISA, but not inferior to LISA in terms of performance.
Internally we call it the Macintosh, and I’m currently in charge of that project.”
Macintosh? Is this a later Mac?
Baichuan Feng's eyes lit up, it seemed that he was involved in something big today.
"If SIC wants to get the Macintosh order, then you must commit. In the future, if Apple needs it, SIC must fully disclose the chip's instruction set system."
Baichuan Feng narrowed his eyes. Boss Qiao has great ambitions.
The instruction set is the bridge connecting software and hardware. With it, the various circuits inside the CPU can faithfully execute the various commands of developers.
At the same time, completely opening the instruction set to a company means licensing the chip to the other party.
Steve Jobs is making this request now. Is this a preparation for Apple to manufacture its own chips in the future?
Baichuan Feng expressed his doubt as to whether the current Boss Qiao has such foresight.
However, Baichuan Feng readily agreed to his conditions, "SIC can agree to this request, but the authorization fee will be discussed in the future."
It is quite common among semiconductor design companies to license their own chip architecture to other companies.
Even in the future this will be one of the main profit points for chip design companies, and the same applies to SIC.
However, because it has just started and wants to make more profits, SIC has basically not given in on the authorization.
Especially in Japan, if the SIC is opened up too early before it has fully grown up, it will lose a lot of profits.
However, there is a blank market for SIC in North America, so it doesn't matter even if it is opened up for licensing to Apple, at least there is still profit to be made.
And if the situation changes in the future, SIC will also consider licensing all of its chips to other design companies.
Of course, authorization is authorization, but the price cannot be determined now. The development of chips is changing with each passing day, and they are updated and iterated almost every year, and their prices are also constantly changing.
Only after getting Shirakawa Kaede's promise did Jobs reach out again.
"Mr. Shirakawa, it's a pleasure to work with you."
“It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
Baichuan Feng was a little surprised that he got an unexpected gain from participating in the optical drive standards conference.
This is Apple. The first personal computer in the true sense came from it.
Yes, the Apple I, launched in 1976, was the world's first personal computer, even though it was extremely simple.
IBM, a giant in the computer industry, only released its first personal computer, the 5150, in 1981.
Although IBM is the undisputed leader in mainframes and compatible computers, it is actually a latecomer in the personal computer business.
However, IBM changed its usual bulky image and cleverly chose a personal computer compatible with Microsoft MS-DOS and Intel 8088.
After two years of development, in 1984, IBM occupied 26% of the personal computer market share in North America.
In contrast, Apple, which was the first to take the plunge, now only has a 21% share of the personal computer market.
Think about when IBM personal computers were first launched, the arrogant Apple even took out an entire page of advertising in the Wall Street Journal.
“Welcome, IBM Seriously”
Yes, that's what Apple did at the time. Call it gentlemanly or call it arrogant.
In short, this sentence is destined to become a classic scene and will be used as a joke by people from time to time in the years to come.
Feeling the pressure now, Jobs decided to launch a computer with advanced performance and revolutionary changes.
Unfortunately, LISA's Waterloo gave him a hard blow.
But even so, Jobs' determination never changed.
LISA kicked him out of the development team, so he planned to put Macintosh in the lead.
The Macintosh series originated in 1979, but it was positioned as a low-cost consumer computer, priced at around one thousand dollars.
Now that Jobs has taken over the Macintosh team, he is unwilling to accept the failure of LISA and is still preparing to launch a charge towards high-performance computers.
He was even willing to have a conflict with Rosskin, the team leader who accepted him, which shows how determined Joe was in doing high-end business.
Compared with him, the later leader of the Lei Gang was far inferior in his determination to win.
However, although Jobs was stubborn, he was not stupid.
One of the main reasons for LISA's failure was its high price.
Therefore, in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, we must first make drastic cuts in costs.
Motorola's chips were too expensive, and he needed to look for other alternatives.
Unfortunately, apart from Motorola, the only chip that met the development team's requirements was Intel, and the latter was even more expensive than the former.
Finally, SIC, which accidentally came into view, became another alternative.
After the deal was done, Jobs also invited Shirakawa to visit Apple's headquarters in California.
The latter also went there happily, where he saw Apple's system 1.0 for the first time.
I have to say that compared to the DOS system, it is really a product of another generation.
Desktop, windows, icons, cursor, menus and scroll bars, this is definitely what later operating systems look like.
Baichuan Feng gave Boss Qiao a thumbs up. Awesome!
After visiting Apple, Shirakawa Kaede went to Washington, where Microsoft’s headquarters is.
He had heard that Microsoft was developing a new graphical system, and he also wanted to see what the original Windows looked like.
However, when he actually saw its appearance, Baichuan Feng couldn't help scratching his head.
Hey, why does the framework look so similar to Apple's system 1.0? Is there any connection between them?
Well, there is indeed some connection, but the honest Mr. Gates said it was all coincidence.
Graphical operating systems are the ultimate direction of future computer development, and Jobs and Gates agree on this point.
It's just that Mr. Gates replied to Boss Joe in his own words, we both have a rich neighbor named "Xerox", I broke into his house and wanted to steal his TV, but found that you had already stolen it.
This was Gates' classic rebuttal when Jobs asked him why he cloned the Mac system.
To put it bluntly, the graphical user interface (GUI) is not their original creation, it is the result of Xerox.
It’s just that one struck first and the other was a step late.
Of course, Baichuan Feng has nothing to do with the grudges involved. He is just a businessman who wants to sell his optical drives and chips.
Just like when he was dealing with Jobs, Shirakawa tried his best to convince Gates to add CD playback function to the Windows system.
However, Microsoft and Shirakawa Electric had no direct business dealings, and Gates only promised that he would give this suggestion serious consideration.
It's a pity that Shirakawa Electric has no computer business, otherwise, given that computer manufacturers are potential customers of Microsoft, Gates might have directly agreed to such a request.
But we have to take one step at a time, and it’s good enough to get Apple’s support.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shirakawa Kaede also took a close look at the Windows 1.0 system under development.
However, unlike System 1.0 which had already been put into practical use, Windows 1.0 was still in a semi-finished state.
Moreover, it only has a graphical prototype in the interface, and the core is still the DOS system.
Seeing this, Baichuan Feng couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. This is still a long way from the Windows of later generations.
But despite this, Shirakawa Kaede still praised Windows' innovative initiatives.
Afterwards, he did not forget to give Gates a thumbs up. Awesome!
Well, Baichuan Feng treats both Boss Steve Jobs and Boss Bill Gates equally.
I hope they will support my own optical drive in the future. It's profitable, not a shame.
I visited Apple, then Microsoft, and finally had some private contact with IBM.
This time, Shirakawa Feng's trip to Northern Mi was the completion of his entire plan.
The issue of the optical drive is a reassurance, and all we have to do now is wait for the release of recordable optical discs next year.
In addition, the cooperation with Apple on chips is a pleasant surprise.
However, SIC80281 is priced at US$100 per piece, but SIC is not making any profit at this price.
Even if Macintosh shipments were not ideal, SIC would most likely lose money.
But as long as we can get a ticket to enter North America, it's worth it. For some things, we don't need to focus too much on immediate interests.
After finishing the work in Beimi, Shirakawa Feng was just about to return to Tokyo, but before leaving he received an unexpected invitation.
The invitation came from Analog Devices (ADI) in Massachusetts, whose main business is various signal processors, decoders, converters and other products.
Their core is still chips, and they do this to develop more related businesses and reduce costs.
The reason why Analog Devices invited Shirakawa Feng to visit was very simple, that is, like Boss Joe, he wanted to obtain SIC's chip authorization.
The price of SIC is lower, and after obtaining the authorization, Analog Devices can completely develop chips that are compatible with its own products based on this.
In addition, Analog Devices has its own wafer fab, which reduces design costs and production costs to a minimum, so profits increase.
Capitalists don’t care about domestic chips or non-domestic chips. They have only one goal, which is to reduce costs and create more profits.
Baichuan Feng did not refuse Adeno's request for cooperation, but of course he did not directly agree to it either.
His reply was that he would discuss it with Japan and then give a specific answer.
This is different from Apple's future authorization, as Analog Devices can start production directly.
For professional advice, I need to discuss with Shima Masayoshi and others before making a decision.
However, the authorization can be discussed slowly. It was Shirakawa Feng who first asked whether ADN would accept OEM services.
There are wafer fabs? That’s great. Apple’s chips will be produced locally in the future.
Faced with the sudden increase in orders, Yadno was stunned for a moment, and then he accepted the orders naturally.
If you don't make money when you have it, you're a bastard.
In fact, in his heart, Shirakawa Feng agreed to authorize ADN. Although the profit was not as high as the finished product, it had extraordinary significance.
This may not be a bad idea when facing the flood in the future.
Of course, this is a matter for the future. After finishing the visit to the last stop, Adeno, Shirakawa Feng went straight back home.
It was already May and Yuko Tanaka was already three or four months pregnant. If she didn't go back, her pregnancy would become obvious.
