Rebirth 79: I opened a bank in the United States

Chapter 877 Lost opportunity to formulate industry standards

After writing down the keywords of "China Li-Ning" in the notepad, Carter's letter-reading journey continues!

In addition to letters from various industries reporting work progress, the letter from Douglas is particularly prominent.
"Carter! Did you know? Mr. Estridge, the director of IBM's Personal PC Division, will call tomorrow and say that he wants to formally lead his engineers to visit Douglas! Needless to say, these people must be your computer company Attracted! Sure enough, I found you at the beginning, and it was the luckiest thing in my life! The development path of integrating production, education and research is not wrong! The construction of the medical school of Georgia Southern College has basically been completed and is preparing."

Ignoring what Benjamin wrote in his letter, it doesn't matter whether the medical school is recruiting or the hospital is nearing completion.At the same time that news of IBM's Estridge's visit reached Carter's desk, Goodman had a letter on the subject:

"Benjamin told me today that people from IBM are coming to visit our factory and R&D center. Now that you are not at home, I don't know how to deal with this matter. The opinions of Dr. Gauchar and Mr. Benjamin are to allow them to visit It is best to reach a cooperation with IBM. I know that Mr. Benjamin wants to let IBM see that there are enough cheap and skilled electronic workers in our Kofi prison, so as to receive IBM's production orders. It is best to send IBM's The production line was introduced into Douglas."

"I know there is nothing wrong with this idea, but I always feel a little uneasy. After all, they are our competitors. If they find out that we are using prisoners in prisons to produce computers, I am worried that they will spread bad news about us. But , they all agreed, and I am not very opposed to it. I will follow the whole process and observe the attitude of those people in IBM!"

"On July 7th, early in the morning, that guy from IBM named Estridge brought people to Douglas. This is not good news. As far as I know, they came from Cabo Coton, Florida. I remember some of your friends back then, that fat man named Paul came to Douglas from there to find you, and they didn’t arrive until around two o’clock in the afternoon. And these people actually came here all night long.”

"The first stop was the ROG R&D Center. The head of IBM chatted with Dr. Mosley for a long time. I couldn't quite understand their conversation, but several terms and numbers were mentioned repeatedly. AT machine? 80286IBM's people seemed It’s amazing what chips we can produce computers that can use.”

"On the first day, they didn't leave Douglas. That should be good news, but the way I look at them, they're definitely going to ask for a factory tour"

"We went to the factory today. The reaction from the IBM guys was a bit weird, they didn't question us about working with prison inmates. They just wanted to see our warehouse and then they acted a little bit disappointed"

"On July 7th, they finally left. This guy Benjamin still wants to keep them for a few more days. He is still dreaming of bringing IBM to Douglas. The investment attraction you talked about with him a few years ago feels like it's almost letting him down. Dazed"

"IBM"

"storehouse."

Carter touched his chin, another confusing question appeared!
And, IBMAT?New model? !Looks like it's powered by an 80286 chip
"Rick, help me find if there are any advertisements for IBM's new computer in these newspapers!"

"Okay, what happened?"

Rick asked while searching.And Carter's answer was also very straightforward, directly handing the letter to Rick.
"Is this 80286 chip special?"

After searching to no avail, Rick reads the letter.Before he finished reading the letter, Rick noticed the key words in the words: 80286 chip!

"Hmm! Although this chip is an upgrade of 8086, it may be because the performance has been improved too much all of a sudden. As a result, the original motherboard with general specifications cannot control this chip at all!"

Carter nodded slightly:

"The reason why ROG's preparations have been going on for so long is that a large part of the reason is waiting for the successful development of the new motherboard. But now, it seems that IBM has also developed a motherboard with a new specification for the 80286 chip. Now I have a headache!"

"Although I have confidence in ROG, the objective fact is that IBM is the leader in this field! Our popular and so on, motherboard specifications are actually in compliance with IBM's rules! I was still thinking, do I have a chance to pass the 80286 After catching up with it, as a result, we actually released products at the same time.”

"The IBM rule you mentioned means that the circuit layout on the motherboard, the size and depth of the slot position, etc., all have to follow IBM's standard template, right? And because of the 80286 chip, the old motherboards in the past can't carry it. It, so you think you can develop a new motherboard, and then set a new ROG standard under the name of the only computer that can run the 80286, a more powerful chip?"

After translating Carter's words with his own understanding, Rick understood where Carter's embarrassment was at this time.

"Yeah! That's what I thought at first, and I didn't hesitate to spend more than 100 million US dollars on this. If I didn't spend money, the research and development progress would not be so fast. Now, I have spent the money and the product has come out. Turns out IBM has an equivalent. I don't think their specs will be the same as ours!"

"So, if I switch to IBM specifications now, my previous money will be wasted. Not to mention this feeling is always a bit uncomfortable. But if the rules are not changed, we will definitely be at a disadvantage in terms of market supply!"

It is almost IBM, the vane of personal PCs in the US market, what kind of products they have produced.There is almost no need for them to send the specifications to different parts manufacturers, or other hardware manufacturers.
The personal PC with the largest amount is owned by IBM, who is still a hardware manufacturer and wants to sell his own products.Wouldn't it have to be forced to produce accessories that fit IBM's size?
Only such accessories are easy to sell!The market demand is huge!
One family is like this, two families are like this, and finally, the rules appear!

All the standards are formulated by IBM!
And any company that can formulate industry standards. No, it should be said, if possible, who would not want their company to be able to formulate industry standards? !

In the past, in the era of XT specifications, Carter did not have this opportunity!

Compared with the tens of thousands of IBM XTs in the mountains and plains. Oh no, if you don’t follow the XT specifications, first of all, in terms of procurement, you can’t purchase suitable accessories. You have to customize or produce them yourself.

That cost can't be kept down!

In the same way, in the price of ROG TOP, which is as high as more than 3 US dollars, the self-produced or customized supporting hardware is the culprit that makes the cost soar!

But in an era when there are no competitors, it is possible to do so!

Expensive, but powerful!

No matter how expensive it is, someone will buy it!
Then there will be supporting hardware vendors to adapt to its size and then
All of this went bankrupt as IBM also tinkered with new products that adapt to the 80286 chip!
(End of this chapter)