Chapter 291 Laying the Foundation for the Future



Look at the blue giant IBM, whose market value is still the world's largest. It has grown to its current size mainly by relying on enterprise-level computers.

At Han Chudong's level, even if he just said a few more words in private and revealed some ideas about the future application of personal computers, it would likely cause an uproar and attract the attention of the capital market.

Isn't it nice to eat alone without making any noise? In order to avoid any unnecessary trouble, Han Chudong was cautious and just said it was a game console.

Before the entire industrial layout is completed, it can be a calculator, a new typewriter, or a game console, but it cannot be called a personal computer.

The reason is that some people have been working on these things, and most of them are failed attempts, which can paralyze potential competitors and buy more time to achieve technological leadership.

It just so happened that Han Chudong also had a cooperative relationship with Atari, and they jointly invested in the establishment of Aurora Games. In the eyes of insiders, Han Chudong's use of Xerox's Alto series of products to create electronic game consoles was a reasonable business layout.

The company has some money recently and will also borrow another sum from the Swiss Bank Group. After seeing one Otto microcomputer after another with his own eyes, Han Chudong came up with the idea that he could enter the market early and accumulate some patented technologies first.

There are always more counterfeit toys to be found. Baofeng Electric's business model is being imitated by other companies. There are already companies called Baoyu Electric and Tornado Electric. In many countries without the concept of patents, various counterfeit facial masks are also sold openly without restraint. An American reporter has bought a product for 15 cents and published the news in the newspaper, but it didn't cause much trouble in the end.

Although I made a lot of money, it is still disgusting to watch my own interests being damaged.

This led Han Chudong to want to develop into the upstream manufacturing industry and focus on shaping the brand image and enhancing the competitiveness of his own companies.

Right now.

The head of the R&D department, who received the news, came out of the office to greet Han Chudong. Since there was no conflict of interest, his attitude was not very friendly.

Perhaps because of her personality, the forty-something middle-aged woman named Marilyn Turner showed no expression when she shook hands with him. She asked curiously, "I haven't heard any news about you. Why did you suddenly come to our research center?"

There are very few female executives in society. Take the morning meeting as an example. The ratio of male to female guests may be as high as fifty to one. Western women are still accustomed to being housewives at home. Even if they work, it is difficult for them to climb up the career ladder. Most of them are engaged in occupations such as teachers, typists, and receptionists.

Therefore, when Han Chudong found out that the person in charge of this research center was actually a woman, he subconsciously thought that she must have a strong and decisive personality, and said frankly: "I'm sorry to bother you. I didn't inform you in advance. I just heard that you are doing a more interesting research and development work here, so I wanted to see if there is any opportunity for cooperation. I plan to develop a new game console for sale, and Otto seems to be more in line with my needs."

“I see.”

When Marilyn Turner heard the word "cooperation", she immediately became interested. Xerox headquarters had long been dissatisfied with the existence of this research institute. After investing 20 to 30 million US dollars, the products produced could only be given away everywhere.

Of course, it’s not that they have made enough money to start doing charity. Their idea is to let others try their products first, and then attract research institutes, universities and the like to buy their products from them.

A year has passed and a lot of things have been given away for free, but in the end, they were all just wasted. Occasionally, when I surveyed the user feedback, no one said it was bad, but no one was willing to pay for it.

As a listed company, Xerox headquarters was of course very unhappy about this. Ms. Marilyn Turner had worried about her job more than once, fearing that the entire project would be cut at any time to stop the loss.

Surprised to hear that the young wealthy Chinese man who had been making a lot of noise recently actually took the initiative to ask for cooperation, she couldn't help but smile and continued, "The game console is very good. I have also played games with Otto. We have a large team of excellent engineers here, and the products are also very good. I happen to have time. Where do you want to start the tour?"

Han Chudong noticed her change clearly. After a brief thought, he guessed the reason. He smiled and said, "Let me try Otto first. Some people have given it a high rating. It is said to be very easy to operate. Is that okay?"

"Of course, I'll have the best engineer in the company come over to teach you how to use it. Wait a moment and have a cup of coffee first."

"Thank you, Ms. Turner..."

More than ten minutes later.

Han Chudong was led by a technical man wearing glasses and sat next to a Xerox Alto computer.

The keyboard layout also starts with "QWERTY". This layout directly imitates the typewriter and was created a hundred years ago.

The mouse was a very novel thing, a small square box with three neatly arranged capsule-shaped buttons on it. Han Chudong pretended to be ignorant even though he knew the truth. When he heard people introduce the functions of the mouse, he sighed from time to time, as if he had never seen it before.

There is no wrong version in the 1619 book forum!

After booting up the computer, you can see lines of code, but the beginning says "Otto's operating environment". After entering the file directory, you can see graphic buttons and file lists, but no icons or pictures. Han Chudong clicked on a document at random and found that it was a letter used as a demonstration, and it even started with enlarged and bold artistic fonts.

There's also a simple painting program that's like a simplified version of Microsoft's similar program, and even a small game that simulates 3D effects.

606*808 monochrome bitmap video display, one mouse button, five optional key settings, 128K bytes of storage, 2.5MB auxiliary storage hard disk, designed in BCPL language.

After trying it for a while, Han Chudong finally understood why the consultant he hired recommended this company's products to him. It was indeed quite interesting.

From what we know so far, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the ancestor of personal computers. It is a pity that it was born in the wrong era. Apart from playing some small games, it has almost become a decoration outside the universities or research institutes connected to the ARPANET. It is not even as convenient as a typewriter. After all, there is no way to send the written files to others.

Holding the mouse, clicking around, enjoying the feeling of sitting in front of the computer.

Han Chudong already had a plan. He didn't think it was a good deal to buy the research institute, but if the price was right, he could buy it to lay the foundation for the future...


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