Siheyuan starts from the stationmaster

Next to the computer was an Epson mx-80 (nine-pin) printer, and Bai Zirui asked, "Wen Hao, how do you use the computer and printer?"

Sun Wenhao replied: "The computer is very convenient to use, but there is something wrong with the printer. It is no problem to print English documents with it, but Chinese documents are often garbled. The company's logistics invited a maintenance technician to repair it. The maintenance master said that it was the Chinese card of the printer. question."

Bai Zirui used this printer in his office when he was a warehouse manager in his previous life. This is the mx-1980 (80-pin) printer launched by Epson in 9. This printer uses dot matrix printing technology. Not only is it cheaper than the market The mainstream printers on the Internet are cheap, and the printing cost is also cheaper.

It has caused a sensation all over the world. This year, mx-80 has a market share of more than 60% in Japan, and has also received high praise in the US market. Later generations gradually developed into the world's first mainstream dot matrix printer suitable for PC products.Epson has not yet listed this printer in the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets.

Bai Zirui's heart moved, and he asked Sun Wenhao to take him to his office. A group of people came to Sun Wenhao's general manager's office. Bai Zirui sat on his desk chair, and Sun Wenhao and the three managers sat opposite him.

Bai Zirui asked, "Wen Hao, how did you get this Epson mp-80 printer?"

Sun Wenhao replied: "Zi Rui, this is when I was on a business trip to the country of Japan and saw that this printer was selling very well in the country of Japan, so I bought one and came back. This is a new type of printer launched by the country not long ago. It’s not even on sale in Taiwan yet.”

Bai Zirui said: "Wen Hao, you just said that this printer has no problem printing English documents, but Chinese documents are often garbled. Do you know why?"

Sun Wenhao scratched his head and replied: "Zirui, how do I know why? I don't know about such high-tech things. I only heard from the maintenance master that it was because of the Hanka problem."

Bai Zirui smiled and said: "That's right! This printer is equipped with Japanese Chinese cards, and Chinese Chinese cards are required to print Chinese. When you use Japanese Chinese cards to print Chinese characters, there will be incompatibility, so the characters will be garbled! This printer from Epson This printer has not yet been launched in Xiangjiang, so there is no matching Chinese card to replace it.

I guess it may be because it is so popular in Japan and the United States, so Epson is now focusing most of its energy on seizing those two major markets, and has not had time to develop the Asian market for a while.

Just like the problems encountered by our company's machine, if this new Epson printer wants to enter the Xiangjiang and Taiwan markets, it must first re-develop a matching Chinese card. "

Sun Wenhao asked suspiciously: "Chinese Han card?" He knew nothing about these high-tech things. "

Bai Zirui nodded and said: "The Japanese Chinese characters evolved from our Chinese characters, and the two fonts are actually mostly the same. However, there are still differences between the Japanese Hanka Chinese character library and the Chinese Hanka Chinese character library. If you want to perfect Printing must develop a special Chinese card!"

Sun Wenhao asked curiously: "Zi Rui, what does what you said have anything to do with our company?"

Xu Jingli was sitting in the reception area of ​​General Manager Sun Haowen's office. After hearing Bai Zirui's words, her eyes lit up and she said, "Zirui, this is an opportunity. If we design the Chinese Hanka that this printer needs , you can talk to Epson about the exclusive distribution rights of this new printer in Hong Kong and Taiwan!"

...

Bai Zirui nodded in praise and said: "The one who gave birth to me, the parents, and the one who knows me, is also Sister Jingli. What I mean is to develop a Chinese card to talk to Epson about the exclusive distribution of Xiangjiang in the Taiwan market."

Sun Wenhao scratched his head and said helplessly, "Zi Rui, but no one in our company knows how to develop high-tech things!"

When Bai Zirui was a warehouse manager in his previous life, the printers in the office often had problems, and he often had to trouble his colleagues in the computer department to come to repair them. Chatting with them, he also knew some procedures for making Chinese-Chinese cards. First, he had to compile a set of drivers and then make Chinese-Chinese cards. Card.

In principle, Chinese Hanka is the same as Japanese, the only difference is that there are more Chinese characters.Therefore, as long as the circuit diagram of the Japanese Hanka is slightly modified to increase the capacity of the Chinese character library chip, it is not difficult.

Secondly, it is to imitate the Japanese Hanka and draw the wiring diagram of the printed version of the Chinese Hanka. This is also a photo of a cat and a tiger.The programs in the Hanka firmware only need to be modified a little bit.

Because the biggest cost of making masked Chinese character library is to buy a chip, only the chip socket is soldered on the Chinese card, and then the font library is written into the chip and plugged into the socket of the Chinese card.

After the design was completed, a sample of the printed circuit was made, and then a new firmware and a set of Chinese character fonts were burned to make the first Chinese card of this printer.

After the finished Chinese card is inserted into the Chinese card slot of the printer, as long as the computer sends the Chinese national standard code to the printer, the Chinese card will take out the corresponding Chinese character dot matrix and print it according to the national standard code.

Bai Zirui used pen and paper to draw the route map of the Chinese card for the printer, and wrote the list of electronic components for making the Chinese card to Sun Wenhao. The core of the Chinese card is naturally a chip that stores the Chinese character library and can process Chinese character information. The second is the integrated circuit board designed with the chip.

Bai Zirui is going to let the printer Hanka use the z80 processor as the core.This chip went on the market in 1976. The Zilog company that produced z80 was founded by several technicians who resigned from Intel. The design idea of ​​this chip is to copy Intel's 8080 processor.

As a result, the newly launched Li Gui, the z80, defeated Intel's genuine Li Kui, and the only killer feature was the price.At that time, the retail price of the 8080 chip was US$150 each, while the price of the Z80 was US$25. The huge price gap between the two made Intel's 8080 chip instantly unable to fight back.

The eight-bit chip z80 was later selected as one of the 25 most shocking chips in history. Even in the 30st century 21 years later, it still continues to glow with tenacious vitality on some low-end microcontrollers.

The design of a Chinese card can only be regarded as entry-level difficulty at best.But easy in theory does not mean easy in practice.The biggest problem at this time is the development tools. The circuit design of later generations in the 21st century has already entered the stage of computer automation development, and various CAD and EDA auxiliary software are very handy.

In 1981, commercialized computer-aided software had not yet come out, and most of the design and wiring of integrated circuits had to be done manually. Fortunately, the circuit diagram of the Chinese card was not too complicated.

In addition to various electronic components, there are also tools for programming chips, testers, editors, programming sockets, connectors, adapters, and so on.

Sun Wenhao took the list written by Bai Zirui and looked it over. These electronic components and various tools trading companies can get them, which made him slightly relieved.