Chapter 863: Good discount

"Of course it's because Intel is backed by a big purchaser like IBM!" Dr. John sighed.
Tan Zhenhua nodded, indicating that he understood.
This is the most basic business principle. The only way to lower the price of MIPSR2000 is to mass-produce and sell this epoch-making CPU.
Because only in this way can we effectively amortize various costs including high research and development costs to reduce the price and at the same time lower the threshold for using this CPU.
To do this, it is far from enough to rely on his two companies, Cisco and SGI, both of which are still very small.
To put it bluntly, if there is no special situation, in the predictable future, the demand for CPU of these two companies may not even be enough for the "big blue" IBM.
Since the birth of Intel’s 4004 chip, the complex instruction set CISC architecture CPU has firmly occupied the heart of personal computers. However, in this system, Intel at this moment is far from being unified, just because of being "the blue giant." IBM selected the core of its personal computer to achieve a higher market share and shipments. Of course, the strength of the other camp cannot be underestimated. The two series of 6800 and 68000 chips developed by Motorola are also It has won many fans, such as Apple.
The CPU of the two camps of the CISC framework has occupied most of the core of personal computers for a long time, and a relatively complete ecosystem has been established. The IBM camp is basically unified under Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system and has derived a large number of applications. The MOTO camp also has Pro-DOS or APPLE-DOS available. Even the W6502C installed in the computer currently produced by the ARM company invested by Tan Zhenhua is actually only a compatible product of the Motorola 68 series CPU produced by MOS Technology.
The R2000CPU, which was born in MIPS, is the world’s first commercial reduced instruction set RISC architecture CPU in the true sense. What it will face is from all the complex instruction set CISC architecture CPUs that have built themselves The collective suppression of the product system of enterprises!
Take a look at this list of potential opponents, IBM, HP, COMPAQ, APPLE...
Surprised? Scary?
It is so difficult to survive such a difficult start and build a complete application software ecosystem.
At this moment, Tan Zhenhua finally understood the reason why MIPS, the CPU architecture regarded as the "most elegant and classic" by the academics, was struggling in the market and finally failed-because it is expensive, no one uses it, and because no one uses it, it is expensive... …This is simply a perfect loop.
Even SGI, a diehard fan of MIPS, finally had to abandon it and switch to the Intel platform...
"John, then I have to figure out a problem, how are our CPUs produced?"
Regardless of the scary opponent, Tan Zhenhua thinks that he can just talk about it first. It's not that we haven't just passed. McDonnell Douglas and Grumman are just... right? However, just before, it is necessary to clarify one's own strength first, we Young Master Tan Er is not a keyboard man, and we are still used to calling ourselves a jinliang before the mouth is open.
John Hennessy smiled bitterly again before replied: "Boss, you can be regarded as asking about the business. At present, our CPU is based on the laboratory environment, that is, our Stanford semiconductor laboratory is strong and well-equipped. Streaming out in batches can still meet the needs of Cisco and SGI for the time being, but the cost is higher. To expand production, we must have a large-scale factory, that is, we have to get a fortune. With the funds of the Philippines and the completion of the construction of a semiconductor factory, it is possible to expand our output, and also to reduce our costs and meet demand."
Well, after all, it's a matter of money again.
But this time, Tan Zhenhua did not rush to express his position, because he thought about it carefully and felt that it was really not just a matter of money.
Investing in a semiconductor production factory is of course necessary, but how to invest, where to build the factory, how to manage, how to operate, where are these high-tech production equipment obtained from, and how to continuously upgrade to adapt to the update and iteration. The processing technology, what product line to produce profits to operate this inevitably huge investment factory so that it will not fall into the situation of long-term losses and blood transfusions. These are issues that need to be carefully considered.
After all, he also had a background in electronics in his previous life. He is not proficient in the semiconductor industry, but he is not unfamiliar. Knowing that this is an extremely complex supply chain system with a wide range of implications, it is by no means that he is here today. It can be done with a billion dollars.
Moreover, the talents in this area in his entrainment are currently too scarce.
Whether it is John Hennessy in front of him or the great gods from the British ARM company, they are actually focusing on the design of the chip. They are also the former director of Toshiba Microelectronics Laboratory and currently host a modern laboratory in Xiangjiang. Fujio Masuoka still understands the production process of the chip, but the process mastered by the director of one of his laboratories is still quite different from the actual production requirements.
The most terrible thing is that they are not yet Chinese.
Although Tan Zhenhua asked himself that he was quite open-minded, his ancestors said that "people who are not from my race must have different hearts," but he had to guard against this.
So it seems that this matter is not in a hurry for the time being, so I can only let it go.
He sighed secretly, and sighed in his heart rare: "Master, my golden finger for rebirth is still too weak."
"John, I know what you said, but I need some time to develop a complete plan. As a major investor in MIPS, I need to consider more than just turning technology into products. , You need to weigh the relationship between investment and profit. You are also a major shareholder of the company. You certainly don’t want our investment to generate profits or even losses, right? So, my dear Dr. Hennessy, can you please stick to the status quo for now? ?"
John Hennessy clearly saw that his little funder seemed to have something unspeakable. He thought about it. It was because the generous Eric was caught in a temporary financial strain. He also knew that the construction of a complete The semiconductor chip production line requires a huge investment, so he nodded helplessly, saying that he could survive for a while.
Tan Zhenhua saw his loss, and then thought about the importance of this CPU to him, so he comforted him: "John, don't worry, you won't wait too long. Well, I think, maybe I only need a few months to come. Combing my thoughts, I promise you will get what you want, although the model may be slightly different."
"Well, Eric, I believe you, but you can't let me wait too long."
After comforting John Hennessy, Tan Zhenhua felt that it was time to feed his two partners a handful of sweet dates.
He smiled and announced:
Although John’s chip production line has not yet been resolved, our SGI workstation has been successful after all, right? This is a great event worth celebrating, and I want to tell you a good news. The first user of has been born, um, okay, it’s actually myself. I only order 100 workstations from SGI on behalf of Xiangjiang HQsoft. Hey, Jim, you will give me a good discount, right?"