Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1197 Telephone Answering Machine

Hou Weigui is also one of the top experts in domestic electronics. To him, the principle of a voice recorder is very simple. It is nothing more than adding a small tape recorder and an analog circuit to an ordinary telephone to realize the voice recording function of incoming calls.

But if there is no car recorder device, Hou Weigui can't think of any other way to realize voice recording.

"Manager Hou, have you ever thought that if you add a voice storage chip to the phone, can it easily realize the voice memory function for incoming calls?" Duan Yun reminded.

"By the way, I remembered. The chip factory you cooperate with Japan mainly produces memory chips, right?" Hou Weigui reacted quickly, but immediately said: "But as far as I know, the current international production of memory chips The capacity of the chip is very small, so it shouldn’t be able to store voice data, right?”

For a long time, Hou Weigui has also been paying attention to the development trend of the international chip industry, but in the field of storage chips, it seems that there has not been much progress.

In 1970, Intel launched an epoch-making DRAM, model 1103, with a capacity of only 1KB. Over the years, the development of semiconductor memory has been improving, and the capacity has become larger and larger. In the mid-80s, 286 adopted The 80286 mainboard memory is directly solidified on the mainboard, and the capacity is only 64~2256KB, which cannot store much voice data at all.

In addition, it is unrealistic to use memory as a voice storage chip. First of all, the memory must be continuously powered to save data. The memory stick used on PC is worth nearly 286 US dollars. In addition, in 400, Wuxi 1985 factory successfully developed China's first 742 KD RAM chip, but mass production was very difficult, and the yield rate was very low. The price is also very expensive, so it is unrealistic to use memory to make a phone with call recording function no matter in terms of performance or price.

In terms of machine hard drives, the company founded by former IBM employees developed and launched the first 5.25-inch hard drive ST-506, with an initial capacity of 5MB. This is the first hard drive product for individual users.And the company is Seagate (SEAGATE).

But this kind of hard disk used on PC computers is also expensive, and requires very complex analog circuit support, so it is impossible to use it on ordinary telephones.

It is precisely because of this that all telephones with voicemail function in the world are recorded through tapes, which are a bit bulky and several times more expensive than ordinary telephones.

Since it is impossible for the most advanced technology in the world to realize this kind of voice message technology for incoming calls without tape recording, it is impossible for Duan Yun to make this kind of product.

"Strictly speaking, what we produce is the newly developed flash memory chip. This flash memory chip is different from the memory and storage hard disk used in computers in the past. You should know the EEPROM chip. In fact, the chip we jointly established with Toshiba this time The chip produced by the factory is an upgraded version of the EEPROM chip, which is definitely an epoch-making product..." Duan Yun began to carefully introduce the technical principle and performance of the "Flash" chip to Hou Weigui.

"And this kind of chip!?" Hou Weigui almost jumped out of his chair when he heard half of it.

This is the first time he has learned about flash chips, and he is also keenly aware that this is a chip product with great market potential.

When Hou Yonggui installed telephones in Hong Kong before, he found that almost all large companies in Hong Kong installed this kind of answering machine in order to prevent customers from answering their calls. The principle of this machine is actually not complicated, but the sales The price is not cheap, it is 3~5 times that of ordinary telephones. According to the current domestic price, the price of an ordinary dial-up telephone is about 100 yuan, and the price of an automatic answering machine sold in Hong Kong is about 400~600 yuan The volume is about the same as a brick, and it is very bulky. In the end, the sound quality of this tape answering machine is not very good, and occasionally some failures will occur.

If Duan Yun can really replace tape storage with chip storage, the volume will definitely be greatly reduced, and there will be no need for bulky tape core motors and other components. If the cost is low enough, this will definitely become an epoch-making product.

"Our chip factory will be put into production next year. There are no products using this chip at home and abroad, but I think this kind of storage chip should have a very broad prospect in the field of communication equipment, so I want to cooperate with you ZTE to jointly produce a A new type of telephone..." Duan Yun paused, and then continued: "In fact, in addition to automatic message, we can also realize the caller display function on the telephone, add an LCD screen on the telephone, and all incoming numbers will be displayed on it... ..."

In fact, Duan Yun originally wanted the holding company under his company to produce telephones with caller ID and message functions. However, in the current domestic market, it is very difficult for private companies to enter the communication industry, and there is a high threshold.

In addition, product research and development, publicity, and sales all need to spend a lot of time and financial resources on Duan Yun, and as far as most of the research and development efforts are invested in the chip factory Tianyin Electronics Factory, there are no extra resources to do this. up.

But if we cooperate with ZTE, all problems can be easily solved. Hou Weigui has a background in the Ministry of Electronics Industry, and he can easily obtain a network access license from the Post and Telecommunications Department. In addition, his company also has a research and development team, and previously had sales channels in Hong Kong. And experience, as for Duan Yun, he only needs to provide chips, and Duan Yun doesn't need to worry about other things at all.

"Your idea is very good!" When Hou Weigui looked at Duan Yun again, he already had a bit of admiration in his eyes. Now he seemed to finally understand why Duan Yun was able to make Tianyin Electronics Factory so big at such a young age. , So he said to Duan Yun: "I will ask our R&D team to design this product later, but... Manager Duan, I also want to ask, what is the cost of your chip? And when will it be mass-produced? ?”

Obviously, if the price of the chip is too high, then no matter how small and exquisite the design of the phone with message function is, if there is no price advantage, it will be difficult to promote and sell this product on a large scale. If the chip production capacity is insufficient, there is no way to guarantee the large-scale release of products.

"According to our preliminary budget and the Japanese side, the price of this flash memory chip should be around 30 US dollars. According to the current exchange rate of our Shenzhen Research Institute, the price should be around 250-300 RMB." Duan Yun pondered for a while, and then said : "However, as the output of this chip continues to increase, the research and development expenses will gradually be flattened, and the price will only get lower and lower in the future."

(End of this chapter)