Chapter 862: The birth of indigo

"Eric, I have good news for you, our workstation, it's done."
After taking the time to sneak back to China, Tan Zhenhua, who was replenishing his vitality, had just returned to San Francisco after the Christmas and New Year holidays, and received a call from Jim Clark. His tone was full of excitement.
"This is great, Dr. Jim, I'll be right there." Tan Zhenhua was also very happy to hear the good news. He didn't make any delay at all, and immediately went straight to SGI company. He waited for this machine. too long.
Although he had already spent a lot of money to order a batch of ARM-produced personal computers for his teachers and some related units to use, but the core processor of these computers is W6502C, which is a main frequency after all There is only a 1.8M Hz 16-bit CPU, which determines that its performance cannot be any better. In Tan Zhenhua's eyes, it is only a little better than a calculator.
But this SGI graphics workstation is different.
According to the product roadmap developed by him, Dr. Jim Clark and Dr. John Reloy Hennessy, the first SGI graphics workstation will be equipped with a 32-bit MIIPS architecture CPU developed by Dr. The geometrical graphics generator designed with point arithmetic and graphics acceleration functions (this time has been succinctly named as the coprocessor by Tan Zhenhua), the maximum support for installing 4MB of memory, and a standard Seagate hard disk with a capacity of 20MB!
Maybe younger students don’t understand why this computer with such a low configuration can make Tan Zhenhua so excited? Here, Qian Zhiyu needs to explain.
In 1984, excluding this MIIPSCPU, who was the most common "personal computer core" on the market at this time?
Of course it is the 80286 produced by Intel. This is a 16-bit CPU with the highest clock speed of 20M Hz. The 32-bit MIIPS CPU installed in the SGI workstation has a clock speed of 30M Hz. It has a larger bandwidth and a higher clock. The frequency makes the working efficiency of the two CPUs differ dozens of times!
Let's talk about memory. At this time, the most integrated memory chip in the world is the 256K memory chip developed by Toshiba Microelectronics. The output is scarce and the price is high. It is already a luxury for ordinary computers to install 512K of memory. SUN, which Jim Clark regarded as a competitor, only installed 1M memory for its workstation, and the upper limit of the memory capacity of this SGI workstation turned out to be 4 times that!
This has reached or even exceeded the level of most minicomputers of the time.
When it comes to hard drives, don’t look at the mere 20MB capacity, but you have to know that this thing was only invented in 1980 by two engineers who left IBM. They established a new company called "Seagate". To promote it, the world's first mass-produced mechanical hard drive has a capacity of 5MB. In less than 4 years, the capacity has been increased by 4 times, which is already a very remarkable achievement.
As for the dedicated coprocessor introduced earlier in this article, it is an epoch-making product that Professor Jim is proud of.
All in all, the graphics workstation now presented to Tan Zhenhua affectionately named "Indigo Indigo" by Dr. Jim, although its size is only slightly larger than ordinary personal computers, it was assembled before the mid-1980s. It is created by the top black science in all sub-fields of global IT, the highest crystallization of human wisdom!
"I have a few questions. First, what operating system will this computer use?" Tan Zhenhua asked after reading this computer.
This is one of his most concerned issues, because in his plan, the SGI workstation will be combined with the CATIA software that he has obtained authorization from Dassault Systèmes into a powerful productivity tool for promotion and sales.
In this way, the adaptability and portability of the software are of course his concerns.
Dr. Jim replied: "Currently we are adapting it to BSDUnix, a Unix operating system branch from the University of California at Berkeley. However, we have found some areas for improvement during operation. Therefore, we have organized a team and are working To develop an independent operating system based on BSDUnix extension applications, we named this system IRIX, and the first version will be launched no later than this year, and this version will be the same as the BSDUnix currently installed on it Seamless connection and 100% compatibility."
Tan Zhenhua nodded with satisfaction. In the process of negotiating with Dassault Systèmes for CATIA agency rights, he also asked similar questions-on what system is this engineering application software required to be installed?
The answer he got at that time was that the current version of CATIA was developed based on standard Unix systems, and the most adapted version before was IBM's AIX system (IBM's version developed based on Unix). Of course, as long as it is based on standard Unix, then adapt it. The problem will not be big, just make a slight correction.
"The second question is how much does this workstation cost, what is the estimated price, and when can it be put into mass production?"
As a major investor, these are of course issues he should be concerned about.
"Under the standard configuration, the cost of the hardware is about 5,000 US dollars, plus various other cost allocations, it is expected to be about 7,000 US dollars, and we plan to start the retail price of 19,000 US dollars." Jim replied. After thinking about it, he added: "Erik, the current cost is calculated based on the production of 1,000 units, so the unit price is still a bit high, and our CPU purchase price is also a bit more expensive. Coming up, there should be more room for cost reduction."
"Are our CPUs expensive?" Tan Zhenhua asked suspiciously, "Could it be that John was so scornful that he wouldn't give you preferential prices?"
"Boss, I can hear it." A slightly helpless voice sounded from behind the two of them. Tan Zhenhua looked back and saw the inventor of MIPSCPU. John Hennessy came in from outside, walking and spreading out. A wry smile appeared on his hands.
"You are here just right." Tan Zhenhua blamed half-truth: "Jim said the CPU you provided him was too expensive."
He thought that John would find a reason to refute or prevaricate, but he did not expect John to admit it generously: "Yes, 800 dollars a piece, I think it is very expensive, but I can't help it?"
"Uh..." Seeing John Hennessy admitted so frankly that his things are expensive, Tan Zhenhua didn't even know what to say.
Dr. John obviously saw Tan Zhenhua’s confusion. He explained: "Eric, I actually really want to lower the price of this CPU. Moreover, I think this is actually a very good opportunity. Our MIPSR2000 chip About 110,000 transistors are integrated inside, which is equivalent to Intel’s 80286. But you see, the current price of 80286 can be less than 200 US dollars per 1,000 units. At this price, Intel can maintain a fairly high profit. Rate, why is this?"
"Yes, why?" Tan Zhenhua echoed.