Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1098 Repeater

In the early morning of the second day, Duan Yun came to the product technology research and development center and held a small meeting.

This meeting Duan Yun is mainly to arrange the next product development plan.

Before the Walkman is officially launched, the main work of the R&D center is to polish the product to ensure that there will be no major quality problems after the product is launched.

In addition, Duan Yun has another important task to assign to the product R&D center at this meeting, which is to develop a repeater based on the technology of the colorful Walkman.

Although Duan Yun's Walkman and tape recorder products are very suitable for learning foreign languages, in later generations, the most popular and hottest foreign language learning tool is undoubtedly the repeater.

Since Duan Yun has labeled his Walkman product as a "good tool for learning English", it is necessary to reflect this strength in product functions.

In Duan Yun’s impression, repeaters were very popular in later generations, and this product has also become a necessity for many primary and middle school students to learn foreign languages, especially students born in the 90s and 00s, who basically have a repeater.

Speaking of which, the repeater is a multi-functional language signal storage device formed by adding a microprocessor chip and a digital storage chip on the basis of a portable tape recorder. It converts the analog signal into a digital signal while playing the tape, and stores it in the digital file. In the memory chip, in the rereading state, the signal in the digital storage is converted into an analog signal, and after being amplified by the power, the sound is restored by the speaker.

In principle, this kind of equipment is not complicated. The key lies in the research and development of micro-processing chips and digital storage chips. Now that Duan Yun has mastered the technology of Walkman production, he only needs to add a chipset to the Walkman Can.

Speaking of which, it was Professor Zhong Daolong who was the vice president of a military academy in Nanjing who first invented the repeater. He invented the repeater at that time, which was just a by-product of his English learning.

Professor Zhong Daolong started to learn English at the age of 45, and became an oral interpreter one year later. He studied English hard for three years. He failed to listen to 17 tape recorders. For himself and his students, he invented the English repeater.

In 1992, Zhong Daolong was transferred to a school in Nanjing as the service dean to focus on teaching. When he first took office, the pass rate of the school’s national English level 4 was only 40-50%. The analysis reason was that the quality of the students was not very good. Moreover, there are no foreign teachers in the school, so it is difficult for students to learn.

Professor Zhong Daolong also has a deep understanding of the difficulty of self-learning English. When he was learning English, he changed 17 radio cassette players in three years. Hold a key and repeat a sentence.

After three months of repeated thinking, he finally invented the repeater. He applied for a patent for his unexpected achievement and became the first person in my country to invent the repeater.

In fact, with the current level of domestic semiconductor electronics technology, the storage chip cannot store too many voice digital signals, but there is no problem at all in storing a few sentences of spoken English. What Duan Yun needs to do is to add a piece of audio to the original Walkman memory chip.

However, in the early stage, Duan Yun still plans to continue selling this kind of Walkman without repeat function, because he wants to apply for a patent for the technology of Walkman at home and abroad. After the patent is issued, he will start mass production, and now he needs product technology. The staff of the R&D center made the samples of the repeater first.

"Manager Duan, do you mean to add a voice storage chip to the Walkman, a module group that can play this voice repeatedly with one button?" In the conference room of the product R&D center, after learning about the research and development requirements put forward by Duan Yun , Zhao Xuewu asked suspiciously.

"That's right, that's what it means." Duan Yun nodded, and then said: "Considering that adding this module group will take up a certain amount of space, I need you to redesign a walkman with this function, just press button, you can play a piece of voice recording repeatedly. In addition to realizing this function, you must also ensure the durability of the new sample machine. For example, the key switch must use wear-resistant and more reliable originals, and the cost price can be increased. , but it must be ensured that the machine has been pressed more than [-] times without failure."

"More than 5 times without failure?" Hearing this, the five professors present suddenly showed a look of surprise.

"That's right, because this button may be used frequently many times. If the quality of the button components is poor, there may be quality problems such as wear and leakage, so this is also one of my key design indicators." Duan Yun glanced at everyone. , and then said: "Actually, this requirement is not high. I originally hoped that there would be no failure after 10 key presses, but considering that this is too difficult, I can only relax some standards. The stronger the better."

"Manager Duan, we will follow the plan you proposed, but I just want to ask, why do we add such a component to our Walkman? Is there any practical use?" Zhao Xuewu asked suspiciously.

"That's right, not many people use the function of voice storage and restoration, right? Besides, you only need to store a few words, isn't this function a bit tasteless?" Yang Xiuchun also said at this time.

"This can be used to practice songs, and I also get inspiration occasionally..." Duan Yun does not want to disclose his true intentions because of the secrecy of the excellent creative patent of the repeater machine, not because he cannot trust the five old professors, but because In a kind of caution, he continued to say: "Young people nowadays like to practice songs. With this function, our Walkman products will sell better, so I hope everyone can design a song with repeat function as soon as possible. Listen to your heart product, and I hope you can also add this re-singing component to our colorful brand small recorder, I hope the sample can be completed within a month, it should be no problem, right?"

"Ok."

Although Zhao Xuewu and others didn't understand why Duan Yun insisted on adding such an obviously "tasteless" function to the Walkman, but Duan Yun is the boss after all, and he should do whatever he arranges as a technical researcher.

Afterwards, Duan Yun explained the details of the repeater design plan to these technical R&D personnel before leaving the product R&D center.

As long as Zhao Xuewu and others make a sample of the repeater, Duan Yun will immediately apply for a patent in China and Hong Kong in the next step. This is a patented product that is very likely to replace the Tianyin subwoofer and open up the international market again. Duan Yun The cloud must be treated with caution.

(End of this chapter)