Chapter 903: CES mission

Tan Zhenhua's rhetorical question caused Jim Clark to fall into a short period of sluggishness. He only felt that his mind was constantly "rumbled".
Yes, why can't our SGI workstation install more CPUs to improve performance?
Isn't this the most common solution for minicomputers?
Or was it dazzled by the excellent sales performance of "Indigo" during this period of time?
Parallel processing of two or more CPUs is a mature technology that has been verified on minicomputers. When used on this graphics workstation, it will definitely achieve good results, although due to efficiency issues, it is impossible to achieve 1+ The effect of 1=2, but the bonus effect of more than 80% can be expected!
If coupled with the increase in computing speed from increasing the CPU's main frequency band, you only need to install 3 CPUs for parallel processing, which increases the computing power to 4 times the computing power required by Tan Zhenhua, which is entirely possible or even beyond!
But in that case, an additional chip is needed to coordinate the task allocation and calculation process of these CPUs, and the host also needs larger data exchange bandwidth and larger computing memory...
While Jim Clark was still racking his brains on the technical path of "Indigo II", Tan Zhenhua put forward another idea: "Jim, the technical realization path of "Indigo II" you can go back and think slowly. After talking about the idea, in addition to the higher performance "Indigo II", I also want a cheap version of the machine. Well, I want to call it "iDesk", just like Apple’s Macintosh or IBM’s 286. You don’t need too strong scientific computing power. In other words, you can cancel the coprocessor. Although the floating-point computing power of R2000 itself is slightly weaker, our competitors such as Motorola’s 68000 are actually worse. We only need to be better than them. It’s better to be stronger. Other aspects don’t need to be too demanding. For example, you can use a case with a slightly less robustness, and you don’t need to configure such a high-end and stable power supply and cooling system for this computer..."
"Can I think that, Eric, you want a toy like a Macintosh?" Jim said with some dissatisfaction. In his subconscious, "Indigo" is used to replace some minicomputer functions. This is a productivity tool, and Tan Zhenhua’s requirements obviously run counter to it.
"That is not a toy, Jim. It is still a tool, a productivity tool. However, the users it will face will not be limited to professional scientific computing users, but a wider range of ordinary office users. Everyone is an indispensable partner to help them write documents, make forms, and process photos. Therefore, it must be so cheap that most companies and individuals can afford it. My goal is that the retail price of the standard configuration does not exceed US$1,500, and we will also pre-install our "iDoor" operating system and "iOffice" office software!"
"But in that case, our CPU price will be the biggest obstacle." Jim Clark muttered: "It's crazy to build a personal computer with a retail price of $1,500 with a CPU worth $800. It's impossible."
"Jim, don't worry. You will get a R2000-30 CPU at a price of $200 soon, I promise, and your goal is to reduce the cost of this personal computer to under $1,000 or less."
Tan Zhenhua made such a vowed guarantee, of course he has the confidence.
His confidence comes from that Zhang Zhongmou has taken a large team that he successfully poached from Texas Instruments to Xiangjiang.
The number of this team is as high as 56!
According to Zhang Zhongmou, this carefully selected team includes almost all key positions from plant construction to process research and development to quality management!
The reason why he can achieve such an achievement is not only because of his appeal in Texas Instruments, but also because, indeed, many people are dissatisfied with the product strategy and technical route implemented by the current CEO Mr. Phoebe.
When Tan Zhenhua reviewed this list, he was surprised to find that at least one third of them were of Chinese descent.
Except for a few Hong Kong nationalities, most of these Chinese are of Bay Island nationality, and some have already joined American nationality. However, Tan Zhenhua learned from their resumes that most of the so-called Bay Island nationalities were originally from Chinese mainlanders.
Tan Zhenhua thinks this is a good thing.
Because sooner or later he has to calculate the island, and now that this group of people is gathered, it means that the power is going down one after another...
Therefore, in Xiangjiang, at this moment, there is a construction site that is under continuous intensive construction 24 hours a day. For Xiangjiang, which is currently in a serious real estate crisis, it is really a rare scenery, accompanied by the huge roar of the mixer on the construction site. Rows of huge factories are rising from the ground and growing upwards at an unprecedented speed, because investors are waving their checkbooks desperately to push for progress. They demand that at least half of the buildings must be delivered before Christmas.
Also catching up with the schedule for this timetable is of course a large number of companies in the country, including Toshiba, and several major semiconductor equipment suppliers are also working hard to cope with an unprecedented huge equipment export order.
...
Steven Cezanne certainly has his "CES" mission.
"Matrix" not only recruited all his team, but also reached a license for all digital imaging patents with Kodak. Even the CCD patent license of "Bell Laboratories" was also bought together. Cézanne felt that it was serious for the "Matrix" to engage in digital cameras.
And the task he got was more than that.
According to the instructions of the big boss Tan Zhenhua, he must design a "special" digital camera.
This camera has strict restrictions on size and weight, and the requirements for stability are extremely high. This made Cezanne, who got the design requirements, quite confused, until Tan Zhenhua told him the answer: "This is a flying machine. Camera, Mr. Cezanne, it will have wings."
It took Cezanne a long time to figure out what Tan Zhenhua meant, and then he asked his own question: "Eric, I think the equipment you want is beyond the scope of our laboratory’s current capabilities. Oh, I have to To explain, I am not talking about electronics, but optics. Since what you want is a camera, I have to ask for an additional R&D team, that is, the R&D team of optical devices. Without the support of this team, I Impossible to complete the task."
"You don't have to worry about this, Mr. Cezanne." Tan Zhenhua said with a smile: "This team is already working. You will soon establish contact with them and get what you want, but you may need to travel frequently. , Because this team is not in San Francisco, they are a bit far away from you."
"A bit far? Where?"
"China, the magic city."