Chapter 557: Learn from the strength of the barbarians to control the barbarians

"Eric, we have encountered insurmountable difficulties."
It’s 11 o’clock late at night, and the barn is still brightly lit. When all the nine employees of Acorn are busy, only the second son of Tan gives himself a cup of coffee and holds it as if he’s out of the business. Read with a free book.
Oh, no, looking at the little nodding of his head hidden behind the book, this kid actually fell asleep.
Until Herman reluctantly pushed him awake.
Tan Zhenhua stared with sleepy eyes and asked, "Oh, Herman, what's the matter?"
Herman said patiently: "Eric, you asked Chris to tell me in the afternoon that the price of each computer is 500 pounds, but according to the computing power required in this tender, we must use a 16-bit CPU and at least It is equipped with 1 megabyte of memory, but we evaluated the mainstream CPUs currently on the market, such as Zilog’s Z8000, Motorola’s M68000, and Intel’s 80286, and found that they are all unable to meet our requirements."
"How is this possible?" Tan Zhenhua asked in surprise.
The CPU market in 1982 cannot be said to be blooming, but it is definitely fiercely competitive. In the future, Intel’s monopoly has not yet formed. There are several micro-processing vendors that can supply 8-bit or 16-bit processors. The few named by Hermann are the shelf products of the most mainstream suppliers in the market.
Chris Curry, who walked over immediately, said helplessly: "Eric, Herman is right. It is true. The current situation is that the Z8000 is too slow and the interrupt response time is too long, while the M68000 And 80286 is too expensive. The unit price of M68000 reached 120 pounds, and the 80286 is even more expensive. When we asked Intel, the arrogant Americans actually gave an amazing price of 160 pounds per thousand. Can you imagine Is there a £160 worth of CPU installed in a £500 computer?"
Tan Zhenhua shook his head. According to general knowledge, if the CPU price reaches 160 pounds, with peripheral parts, the price of the whole machine is bound to exceed 800 pounds. This can be told by Marconi President Mike Parton. The base price difference of is too big.
However, Tan Zhenhua knows very clearly that in the history of his previous life, without this order, there would be no ARM that would be able to conquer the dominant position of Intel in the future.
Therefore, Acorn must have won this order worth 8.6 million pounds at a unit price of 500 pounds!
Obviously, something must be wrong.
16-bit CPU, 16-bit CPU, there must be a cheap CPU that Herman, Chris, and himself ignored!
Which one is it?
The 16-bit CPU that could be used in 1982 was not slow and cheap enough. Who else? !
A special 16-bit CPU, what a long time it is, that thing is in my previous life, even if it is used as a game console, it will barely be able to play Contra and Tetris with the stale picture quality...
Wait a minute, as if thinking of some incredible clues!
What was the game console I played back then?
Red and white machine? No, no, not Nintendo.
Ha, I remember!
"Little Overlord has a lot of fun!"
Yes, that's it!
Well, that thing seems to have been dismantled out of curiosity. What is the CPU inside?
Come to think of it, W6502C!
Yes, that's right, the famous "Apple II" computer uses this CPU too!
But with such a famous CPU, why did the two opposing people ignore it? Shouldn't it?
He asked questioningly: "Herman, Chris, have you heard of W6502C? I heard that the CPU is quite cheap..."
Before he could finish his words, he saw the two opposing people look at each other and shouted at the same time: "Fak, how can I forget it..."
The impatient Herman didn't have time to say anything, and as soon as he turned around, he ran back to the work area, and shouted: "Okay, the CPU is available, with W6502C, who of you can help me check the unit price of a thousand..."
Chris smiled apologetically at Tan Zhenhua and said: "Eric, Herman has always been this temperament, don't be surprised."
Tan Zhenhua smiled and said: "How could I blame him, I just wonder why you didn't even think of such a famous CPU."
Chris smiled awkwardly and said, "Eric, you are not afraid to make a joke. When I founded this company with Herman, we deliberately named "Oak Seed" Acorn because of this Words can make our company on the phone company’s yellow pages and rank ahead of the famous "Apple" APPLE..."
"Oh, hahahaha, there is still such a thing." Tan Zhenhua laughed very impersonally.
Chris also laughed a few times before saying: "This is true, I didn't lie to you, Herman and I really regarded "Apple" APPLE as our biggest idol and competitor, so this may be We just subconsciously excluded the CPU used in APPLE computers. After all, I guess Apple’s APPLEII computers will inevitably be our important competitors in this business."
Tan Zhenhua smiled slightly and said: "What's the matter? Everyone competes with the same CPU, and we are a local company with the price and the performance is not bad, then this order will definitely fall in our pocket. What is this called, this is called" Learn from the strength of the barbarians to control the barbarians"..."
What seems to be wrong?
This is the claim made by the famous thinker Wei Yuan at the time when Huaxia lost the first Opium War in Huaxia’s first overseas book, "Pictures of Haiguo". At that time, China’s greatest enemy I am afraid it is just as the "lord of the seven seas" Britain!
The dignified ancient empire of the East, the de facto hegemon of Asia, the world’s largest economy with a country accounting for more than 30% of the total global economy, was actually beaten by a few warships and artillery with gunpowder invented by the Chinese. , Cessation of land compensation, you can imagine how helpless and angry Wei Yuan was when he shouted this proposition more than a hundred years ago.
Now, it's the turn of Britain to weaken and the U.S. men to rise, and to shout the slogan "Teach the barbarians to control barbarians" in the electronics industry, the most important field in the future. This is really... Feng Shui turns!
Therefore, it is not enough to have money alone. More than a hundred years ago, China relied on exports of porcelain, silk, tea, etc. to create a huge trade surplus, and a large amount of silver and gold flowed into it every year, just like a child holding gold in a busy city. It's not just envy, it's more greedy and covetous eyes.
This has nothing to do with morality, only human nature.
Tan Zhenhua slapped her mouth, with mixed feelings in her heart, and heard Herman cheering loudly: "Okay, the unit price of W6502C is only 40 pounds, which can fully meet our requirements. Come on guys, let us finish this design. Draft, go and win this order tomorrow!"