My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 543 Everyone gets carried away when they're successful

There are many types of memory.

Memory is also a storage device, but it is cleared when the power is off. Its function is to allow the program to run wildly when it is running. After work, there is no one there.

Storage devices for storing data, like those in dormitories and classrooms, belong to a different category.

Write-only memory chips have a long history, dating back to 1965.

Game cartridges are mostly like this, and the data codes during a computer's power-on self-test are stored in the memory chips on the motherboard.

However, the capacity was very small. The ones on the motherboard were mostly only tens of kilobytes, and the game cartridges for the Famicom were basically 64 kilobytes. Later, those large collections were called 512 kilobyte cards, but many of them were fake numbers. In reality, they were just a few games with a bunch of names to fool people.

Moreover, the cost is even higher if the records can be repeatedly written on and erased, which is more in line with user needs.

Therefore, the mainstream trend now is towards hard drives, rather than chips.

Disks are divided into floppy disks and hard disks. The latter gets its name from the fact that floppy disks are like paper that can be crumpled, while hard disks have metal cores.

However, the recording methods all use different combinations of electromagnetic signals of 1 and 0 to represent different information.

IBM is the pioneer and leader in this technology.

The floppy disk appeared in 72, and the hard disk was developed in 73.

It was precisely during this period in the 2500s that hard drives were still very expensive, with a 20MB drive costing two thousand US dollars, and by the time they reached IBM Greater China, the retail price had reached two thousand US dollars.

Therefore, even high-end models like Apple computers, and even wealthy countries like China like Citibank, cannot afford hard drives for their home models.

Only floppy disks can be used.

The first computer to widely adopt floppy disk drives was the Apple Macintosh computer.

No one expected that Apple would change course just two years later.
So this is why Steve hesitated: he was developing the Macintosh computer, and in two years, he had sold nearly two million units.
Completely abandon floppy drives?

This is a debate over policy direction.

Especially since he had already chosen a path, and many manufacturers followed suit, and then suddenly he said he wanted to change paths?

That's not how a lord should act.

But in Wei Dong's view, continuing down a path without a future is a mistake.

Currently, a 1.44M hard drive costs one dollar, and producing a 512K cartridge costs four dollars. These are still the bargain prices that the Japanese have just introduced. Floppy disks seem to be cheaper and more widely available.

Steve and his team contacted various parties and estimated that after mass production of hundreds of thousands of 3.2M rewritable chips, the price could be controlled to within twenty dollars.

However, the card slot interface saves you the two or three hundred dollars that a mechanical floppy drive would cost.

If there weren't any rewritable chips, that would be one thing. But these have only just appeared, and even with lower capacity, they consist of several chip arrays in the cartridge. How to solve that is a matter of technological research and development; chip storage is the future.

This is simply a matter of continuously expanding capacity.

In Wei Dong's mind, he didn't know much about solid-state drives; he only knew about USB flash drives.

He didn't even discuss making a USB port with Steve, because he didn't know if such a thing existed. In any case, it wasn't available in China, so he decided not to mention it to avoid giving himself away.

The main reason was to capitalize on the popularity of the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) and promote home computers by riding the wave of game console success.

This was also to save the cost of floppy drive hardware of two to three hundred dollars per computer.

Whether foreign floppy disk manufacturers survive or not is none of his business; if there are no domestic manufacturers, then he can skip this stage of elimination.

Just like his lack of interest in further development of film cameras.

Why bother with something that's destined to be eliminated?

It's impossible to say that no European or American businesses noticed this.

It can only be said that the technology of rewritable chips has just matured and is beginning to ramp up capacity; it is still in the observation stage of market acceptance.

Citibank, the computer manufacturer that has been promoting floppy disk drives for several years, certainly doesn't want its product to be disrupted.

Let's just keep dragging this out and let it coexist. Nobody knows which line of memory will break the ice first and solve the core problem of low cost and high quality.

As a result, Wei Dong chose the memory without hesitation, even though China could only produce 128K cartridges at the time, and encouraged Steve to bet on this path.

To be honest, Wei Dong really didn't realize how insane it was to control memory standards.

Fortunately, he was working with Citigroup, and fortunately, Steve wasn't a pure businessman.

They've been doing this for the past two years, massively increasing production capacity to control the global production scale of memory chips. They also invented erasable flash memory chips in 82, and then became the world's number one in semiconductor chips.

Last year, Citibank declared that this was dumping in the market, thus launching a Section 301 investigation against Japan, and signing the Plaza Accord in September!
Such a momentous historical event seemed to Wei Dong vaguely familiar with it, but it was not within the scope of the severed-hand security guard's concern.

Therefore, even Steve didn't dare to make a complete and reckless change.

In the 1960s, when IBM was developing the memory industry, the Department of Justice launched an antitrust review.

Apple computers are now the biggest internet sensation of the 1980s. Steve Jobs' call to action could very well lead to a complete shift in storage paradigms.

He's likely to offend a large number of manufacturers and be sued until he goes bankrupt.

Therefore, the final decision was to superimpose.

The new Macintosh computer in 1986 eliminated the floppy drive and had a removable memory card slot, but still included an external floppy drive.

Do not do any significant advertising.

The main product being promoted is a 14-inch color monitor, which, although only a low-end 256-color model, already surpasses all competitors. This represents Citibank's first attempt at leveraging its technological reserves and domestic production costs.

Previously, this type of technology was only given to Japan, but after turning a blind eye to its arrogant ways last year, it is now giving memory chip technology to South Korea.

At this critical juncture of easing tensions, Apple happened to transfer its seemingly insignificant display technology to Shanghai Vacuum Electronics last year. At the time, it was being transferred in the form of television picture tube technology, and Weidong was allowed to "buy" it through his own profit sharing, thus miraculously escaping the technology blockade.

A color monitor that costs around $870 in Citibank's domestic market has a Shanghai-bound delivery price of approximately $630, while as is well known, ocean freight costs are negligible.

As long as the shell manufacturing process is improved, achieving the perfect details that Steve seeks.

This is the main selling point of the new computer.

Steve Jobs actually used this tactic before. The launch of the Apple II computer in 1980 was his last battle before the stock market IPO, when he truly gained favor with investors. It supported color display.

If you connect an Apple II computer to a color TV, you can get a six-color picture.

As a result, it swept the North American market.

Six years later, are they back with a 256-color monitor?
This won't trigger antitrust clauses, since color display technology is already quite open; the only difference is who can mass-produce it at a low price and with high quality.

Previously, only Japan could do it. After all, even screwing in screws in an electronics factory requires at least a junior high school education. Southeast Asia couldn't do it, and Europe and America disdained to do it.

After last year's agreement, the only option left was to relocate to Nanli.

By a stroke of luck, Wei Dong managed to get the Shanghai-Haikou Railway to take over.

Shanghai Vacuum Electronics Factory can be said to be second only to Japan in Asia, possessing such comprehensive production capabilities and experience, and is perfectly matched with technological improvements.

Steve was pleasantly surprised to spend several days in Shanghai, where he got to work on the front lines of the vacuum electronics factory and discovered that it had a group of excellent technical workers who were easy to work with and very willing to improve the technology.

In some ways, he was even more meticulous and down-to-earth than Wei Dong.

Then we drove to the Xizhou Semiconductor Factory and found that the workers and engineers there were also quite good.

While Demimore was filming the commercial, Steve confirmed that Shanghai could definitely produce the product. He then quickly joined in on the supporting technologies, process improvements, and manufacturing processes to ensure the production and assembly of Apple displays and computers.

In addition, there is the transfer of titanium alloy processing technology, acrylic processing technology, and memory chip technology.

A series of detailed production agreements for the new computers were signed within six or seven days.

Many Citibank engineers will come to assist in completing this part of the production line.

The three supporting small factories are located around the assembly plant in the electronics industrial park.

We will guarantee Apple a monthly production capacity of 100,000 computers by the end of the year!
In fact, the combined daily production capacity of X-computers at the Jinling and Jiangzhou plants is nearly a thousand units. How to increase production capacity by relying on modern electronic production lines depends on Apple's prototyping.

Wei Dong also officially signed a general agency agreement with Apple for the Greater China region, which included a series of investments in Apple's assembly plant and contract manufacturing.

However, the joint venture's intention to lease the international architectural complex was rejected.

It was only because Wei Dong was a representative of a private company that Building No. 5 was given the opportunity to try it out.

Now that they've just started testing the waters, they've already planted the flag of imperialist capitalism back on the Bund. It's too glaring.

The glass pyramid represents X Computer, not Apple Computer.

Rang Weidong originally intended to take advantage of the situation and help Shanghai earn two million US dollars in foreign exchange rent every year.

Only then did they realize they were still arguing about surnames, and quickly calmed down.

After signing the joint venture agreement, I sent Steve and the young movie star away, and then supervised them for a few more days before leaving.

Demimore has been accompanying him throughout the past few days, focusing on Qin Zhiming's assistance in perfecting the film script and filming computer commercials.

Then every night, he would accompany Qin Yuye to the art gallery to coldly observe his "love rival".

The original script that Wei Dong was asked to draft was for Steve to appear with her, conveying the message that "Today you look down on me, tomorrow I'll make you regret it," as a prelude to the success of the movie and advertisement.

Steve replied that he didn't have those superhuman skills and was focused on the critical aspects of computer production.

This would prevent Wei Dong from enjoying the sight of having women on both sides, and he would not want to be in the limelight.

Hong Kong girls are happy to continue acting, and they admire the acting talent of these Citizens' movie stars.

I go to learn with them every day.

As a result, all the foreign staff who came to the gallery, the Hong Kong staff, and the Shanghai residents all heard the gossip about a beautiful Citizen girl who had taken a liking to the general manager of Dongsheng Shipping and was competing with the gallery's female owner for him.

Fully booked every day!

This is precisely the peak of Demimore's beauty, her "pretty face" phase.

Her face is full of collagen without being overly chubby, and her striking black eyebrows, along with her high nose bridge, create a breathtaking beauty.

The pressure on Jenny was immense, but she was also captivated by the fact that even such a Citizen goddess was trying to steal my man and had made my gallery the focus of the entire city, so she relentlessly confronted her every day!
It's unclear whether they're just imitating a character in a movie or if they're actually ready to unleash their power at any time.

Whenever Demimore saw Chi Shih-ming at the gallery, her eyes would easily fill with tears, and she would quietly lean against the corner of the window and gaze at him.

They portrayed the love triangle storyline with remarkable depth and nuance.

Not only did onlookers both in China and abroad feel sorry for the victim, but even various overseas media outlets concentrated in Shanghai couldn't help but capture the scene and report on it.

As a result, when it finally appeared in the margins of newspapers in North America and Europe, it coincided perfectly with the advertisements for the new Apple computer.

(End of this chapter)