Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 681 Driven the Governor of Hong Kong to Death

……

When most venture capital investors were cold-blooded, Ross Perot was deceived by Steve Jobs into giving him $2000 million for NeXT, a company with no actual operating income. Was he stupid?
of course not!

At this level, Ross Perot's pursuit must be different from ordinary people.

He doesn't lack money; he doesn't feel bad about losses; what he really wants is adventure and a sense of accomplishment after a challenge.This can also be seen from his past experience.

The main customer of Electronic Data Systems is the US government, so its activities are quite extensive.

At the end of 1978, on the eve of the Iranian revolution, two executives of an electronic data system company working there were arrested by the local government on charges of bribery because they were implicated in an anti-corruption operation, and the bail was as high as 1275 million US dollars.

At that time, Ross Perot was still the owner of the company, and he immediately asked a lawyer to rescue him.But the wave of revolution that broke out soon after brought the situation in Iran into chaos, and it was impossible to pay people for money.

Ross Perot's action was more decisive. He invited a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel to form a team and went to Iran to rescue him.Even he himself went to the front line to oversee the battle.

You know, Ross Perot at that time was already a real rich man, which shows the adventurous gene in his bones.

Fortunately, although the rescue process was tortuous, it finally succeeded. These people diverted to Turkey and returned to the United States safely.

Based on this incident, Ross Perot invited the famous British suspense novelist Kenneth Martin Follett-Kenneth Martin Follett to write a novel called "On Wings of Eagles"-"On the Wings of Eagles", in 1982 After publication, it was extremely popular and once occupied the top position of the best-seller list.

It is not difficult to imagine how huge the reputation this venture brought Ross Perot in return.

Now, everyone looks down on Jobs, and Ross Perot intends to gamble on this entrepreneurial star he admires to prove that he is different from ordinary people.

The mentality of this Texas billionaire is reflected in the declaration when he spent 2000 million US dollars to join the business.He said to Jobs: "I pick the jockeys, the jockeys pick the horses and ride them, and you are the jockeys I bet on, so you figure it out."

……

After chatting with Jobs for a while, Tang Huan understood the relationship here.He had to be convinced that Jobs was a man of great luck, just like a female star who dreamed of marrying into a wealthy family, he really caught a rich man.

"With this capital and Ross Perot's attention, your NeXT can survive for a while." Tang Huan finally commented on this financing with affirmation.

Hearing the teasing meaning in Tang Huan's words, Jobs unconvincedly let out a bold statement, "The previous MAC is not necessarily inferior to your Fangyuan personal computer, but it was launched a little hastily at the beginning, which makes it appear that the performance Insufficient, after expanding the memory to 512KB and listing the hard disk as an optional configuration, it will be more than enough. Therefore, my NeXT will definitely not be inferior to your Fangyuan workstation."

"Judging from your performance in the development process of the NeXT project over the past year, which still ignores priorities and follows one's inclinations, the development progress of NeXT is likely to be as difficult as that of MAC."

Tang Huan warned mercilessly with the attitude of an expert: "Do you understand the true meaning of rapid technological development? It seems that it will be 1987. When will your NeXT reach the level of real commercial use? It won't be slow. It will take three or four years to follow in the footsteps of MAC. If you really have to wait until the 1990s, it is hard to say whether the highlights of your NeXT, including object-oriented, can still be regarded as leading the industry. "

After so many years of fighting overtly and secretly, even though he refused to admit it, Jobs has already convinced Tang Huan in his heart. One of the major manifestations is that he can listen to Tang Huan's words in his heart.

Therefore, for Tang Huan's unfavorable words, Jobs did not become angry and angry, but just nodded with an ugly face, "You don't need to provoke me, the $300 million can't be wasted. In another year, you just wait to see NeXT Let’s make a stunning debut. At that time, the protagonist on COMDEX will only be NeXT.”

After making a powerful declaration, Jobs, who didn't want to listen to the lessons of Tang Huan, a special shareholder who only paid 300 million US dollars and took up [-]% of the shares, got up and left.

Tang Huan shook his head. Jobs is such a fool, at least half of his words are full of water. It is estimated that at least an additional 50.00% will be added to the one-year period he claimed.

None of that mattered, though.In Tang Huan's view, the $300 million was just a ticket.When Jobs made any noteworthy move, he could use it to make an impact.

As for now, just let Jobs toss, and IBM is the most worthy of attention.

……

The opening time of COMDEX in the fall of Las Vegas this year was postponed to the beginning of December due to the direction of the organizer.The reason is naturally to provide more preparation time for the participants in the new round of personal computer standard wars full of gunpowder - the harder the parties fight, the more exciting COMDEX will be.

Big Blue's new generation of personal computer PS/2 has naturally become a major focus of this exhibition.

IBM CEO John Akers came to the scene in person and released more than a dozen models of PS/2 in one go. The momentum can be described as huge. Bill Lovo, director of IBM's personal computer department, even announced that the production cycle of IBM-PC/AT series products is about to end, and the company's future focus on personal computer products will completely shift to PS/2.

Bill Lovo's decision is similar to that of his predecessor, Don Estridge.

At that time, after the IBM-PC/AT using the Intel 80286 microprocessor was launched, Don Estridge declared that IBM would close the IBM-PC/XT production line using the Intel 8088 microprocessor, completely ceding this field to Rising IBM-PC compatible manufacturers competed with each other.

As a result, the strategy proved ill-conceived after its implementation.At that time, the market demand for IBM-PC/XT was still acceptable. Don Estridge's voluntary withdrawal allowed IBM-PC compatible machine manufacturers to take this opportunity to grow and develop, and launched IBM-PC/AT compatible machines. Competing with Big Blue's genuine IBM-PC/AT, the result was a complete victory and a great harvest.

Now, Bill Lovo has copied Don Estridge's approach-after the launch of the new generation of personal computer PS/2, he gave up the continued production of the previous generation product IBM-PC/AT.

But the biggest difference between the two is that Bill Lovo has learned from Don Estridge's experience and lessons, that is, although IBM-PC/AT has withdrawn from the stage of history, the target customers targeted by IBM-PC/AT The group has not been abandoned, and even the previously lost IBM-PC/XT market is ready to recover.

The biggest reliance to support this ambitious plan is the PS/2 with a new architecture.Among the large number of models announced, only one product uses Intel80386 as the CPU, while the rest of the products use Intel80286 and Intel8088, which is not a comparable version of Intel8086.

It is obvious that while IBM is launching the PS/2 with strict licensing and a new design to differentiate it from those IBM-PC compatible machines, it also intends to "prepare the internal affairs first before fighting outsiders", so that IBM-PC compatible manufacturers can rely on it to survive. Get rid of the territory they grew up in, and eliminate this group that sucks blood from themselves.

In other words, Tang Huan was facing the emergence of PS/2 as if he was facing a formidable enemy, but PS/2 aimed the first attack target at the IBM-PC compatible machine.
万花丛中一点绿。做为PS/2的第一批公布的诸多产品型号当中，唯一一款采用了32位微处理器Intel80386DX的PS/2-8580，不免显得格外瞩目。

This is currently the most high-end IBM personal computer product, and the bus architecture is exactly the micro-channel architecture of the 32-bit bus.

It can be said that PS/2-8580 is the best evaluation platform if you want to fully understand the newly released micro-channel architecture.

……

"PS/2-8580 should be IBM's most powerful personal computer, but it still can't threaten the mid-range model of Fangyuan personal computer. The CPU operating frequency alone is almost twice as bad." Charles Simeone, come to Tang Huan to report non-stop.

"That's because we have the most advanced wafer factory in the world, and we can manufacture the most powerful microprocessor." Tang Huan commented with a smile while helping Charles Simeone pour coffee, "And, I can be sure One point, in order to hit us in the early days, IBM used to play the trick of drawing salary from the bottom of the pot, hoarding the microprocessors Intel8086 and Intel80286 used by IBM-PC, and it is estimated that it has not been processed yet.”

After taking a sip of coffee, Charles Simeone continued: "Based on preliminary judgment, the operating system OS/2 on PS/2 is powerful, but its execution speed is obviously slow. The best memory capacity, It has to be 2MB."

"In this way, there is still a high threshold for PS/2 marketing." Tang Huan laughed meaningfully.

……

Seeing that PS/2 came out, the IBM-PC camp couldn't calm down anymore.

Because IBM's plan to encircle and suppress them is clearly revealed, the main system bus has been replaced with a newly designed micro-channel architecture, and even the small interface connecting the main chassis to the keyboard and mouse has become a completely different PS/2 Interface, this Nima has done a great job!

Now that the PS/2 new product release includes so many low-end products using Intel80286 and Intel8086 microprocessors, it is clear that we want to take back the previously abandoned territory, so how can everyone live a nourishing life?
The IBM-PC compatible camp, which has taken unauthorized imitation of IBM personal computers for granted, is full of resentment, especially the "six doors" small group, which immediately fought back.

Because of the cost advantage that IBM, a big stupid elephant, can't have in many operating links including distribution channels, Compaq and other companies simply came to a half-trick Tian Ji's horse racing, lowering the price of the Intel80386 model, and hitting hard head-on. The Intel 2 model in the PS/80386 crushed the Intel 2 model in the PS/80286; and the competition for the remaining Intel 8086 models became a handover.

At the same time, PS/2 was analyzed by various slices, and it was only a matter of time before the new generation of IBM-PC compatible system bus was designed for the advantages and disadvantages of the micro-channel architecture.

This tragic situation of white knives in and red knives out directly spread from COMDEX to the subsequent Christmas sales season.

Of course, Tang Huan would not sit on the hills and watch tigers fight stupidly. Although the IBM-PC camp is fighting a civil war, the entire IBM-PC standard is expanding, and he simply cannot tolerate it.
As the company with the highest market capitalization in the world, Fangyuan Computer must at least be upright on the surface. The main positive method is to increase the intensity of promotions and discounts. After all, this is just the beginning. There is no need to use all the cards like the IBM-PC compatible camp. Show it up.

If anyone is a beneficiary in the new round of personal computer standards war, it must be Microsoft, WordPerfect and other software vendors that strive to take over all hardware platforms. After all, no matter how personal computer manufacturers fight with each other, the entire The disk is expanding rapidly.

……

Tang Huan, who was tense and supervising the war, was paying close attention to the changes in the market situation. Another big news came from Hong Kong - Hong Kong Governor Youde passed away during his term due to a sudden heart attack.

The life and death of a Hong Kong governor certainly cannot be compared with the leaders of those countries, but for Hong Kong, which is a tiny place, it is definitely a top priority.

In particular, rumors began to circulate in Hong Kong that Hong Kong governor Youde suffered a heart attack because he was anxious about the Hong Kong social commotion caused by HSBC’s sudden withdrawal of Hong Kong Telecom’s franchise. , while the other party, Xiangjiang Telecom, made fierce opposition.

Hong Kong Telecom’s attitude is justified. Its contribution to the development of Hong Kong’s communications industry in the past few years is obvious to all. There is absolutely no fault at all. If the franchise is taken back, the Hong Kong government will be treacherous, and we will inevitably see it in the arbitration court.

Hong Kong Governor Youde once tested the feasibility of the Hong Kong government paying huge sums of money to redeem the franchise held by Hong Kong Telecom to the mainland. The answer he got was very simple. Its annex stipulates that the financial reserves of the Hong Kong government cannot be emptied.

In this dilemma, the pressure on the frustrated Hong Kong Governor Youde can be imagined.

This also made HSBC and Qinhe choke each other, and the rumors that the Governor of Hong Kong was forced to death became widespread and believed by more and more people.

(End of this chapter)