Rekindle 2003

Chapter 819 Business Cycle (3)

'On the surface, the semiconductor industry was established very early'

Qingyun shrugged his shoulders and continued,

"But in fact, there is a huge gap between us and America in the basic environment for developing computer technology and semiconductor industry. We can look at the situation on the other side of the Pacific Ocean."

Xiao Ya understood what he meant and operated the computer, playing a PPT.

Comparison of semiconductor industry development between China and America.

Qingyun pointed to the comparison items on the PPT and said,

“First, it expanded from national defense needs to the needs of enterprises in all walks of life.

In 64, Abiy successfully developed the world's first general-purpose computer using integrated circuits, the Abiy 360 system, and began shipping it in 1965. Compared with my country's successful development of the first integrated circuit computer in the early 10s, my country's lag behind seemed to be within years, but in fact it was not the case.

Abbeymu made a brilliant design in the 360 ​​series, changing the previous situation where one model of computer used one operating system. Instead, except for a few models, the entire series, from small to large, from low performance to high performance, uses the same OS/360 operating system.

Before the release of Abbey's 360 series, computers of different sizes had their own instruction sets and operating systems, which meant that the application software on each computer was dedicated and could not be installed and used on another computer.

In other words, each computer was specially customized for the customer. After all, they were all mainframe computers at the time, with high unit prices, often costing several million dollars or even more.

In order to upgrade performance, users must not only purchase hardware, but also repurchase and rewrite all software. The 360 ​​series allows customers to use a cheaper model and then upgrade to a larger system as needs increase without the time and cost of rewriting software.

This flexibility significantly lowers the barrier to entry.

Imagine that all the software in your company is based on Windows. If the performance of the existing hardware does not meet the requirements, you must purchase new hardware and replace it with another operating system. Then all application software will need to be redeployed and adapted. Each computer is a unique system, and even software compatibility between two computers cannot be achieved. This high cost prevents many companies from purchasing computers at all.

It is precisely because of this change that Abbey's 360 series has become very popular and has been applied to various industries in America, including airline online ticketing systems, the Apollo moon landing, and so on.

The expensive models in the 360 ​​series can sell for millions of dollars each, while cheaper models such as the Abbey 360 model 30, which is the most popular model together with the model 40, accounts for more than half of the sales. Its suggested retail price is $13.3 per unit. Abbey has also launched a rental service, allowing companies to rent these large computers on a monthly basis.

在艾比诶木的官网上，提到360系列的总价从13.3万美元到550万美元不等，但是月租却可以便宜到2700美元到11.5万美元。”

As Qing Yun spoke, Xiao Ya released screenshots of Abiemu's official website at the right time.

The information is all historical data posted by Abiemu himself and is very easy to check.

It just takes some tacit understanding to work together.

It wasn't that they had telepathy, but the two of them had rehearsed today's scene several times.

The two of them carefully considered every word and even every action of Qing Yun, so as not to cause unnecessary resentment from the old men who were already very old.

As for those who haven't reached that age...

Emperor Yun said that they were not qualified to give him orders.

Xiao Ya didn't take it seriously at first, thinking that the little brat was too arrogant. Who does he think he is?!
But it seems that now Sister Xiaoya has to admit defeat.

Some people are really born to stand in the center of crowds.

Qing Yun pointed to the comparison chart on the left and said, "You see, although both started from military industry, by the 60s, the development of computer technology in China and America had already shown significant differences.

In the 1960s, American commercial companies in various industries had become the downstream demand side of the development of domestic computer technology.

The entry of such a huge market has created a powerful driving force for the development of computer technology in America.

At the same time, although my country successfully developed the first integrated circuit large-scale computer through the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" project in 1973.

However, at this time, China not only lagged behind America in terms of time and technology, but also had been left behind by America in the development path. Relying solely on funding from national projects was not enough to support my country's computer technology and narrow the gap with America.

But there is nothing to regret, my dear seniors, this is not anyone's fault, it's just that we were too poor at the time."

Looking at the shame and regret on the faces of many old men in the audience, Qing Yun hurriedly went back.

"My dear seniors, please read this. It is written on the historical data of Abbey's official website that when Abbey released the 1964 ​​series in April 4, as many as 360 businessmen from 10 cities in America came to attend the press conference!"

At this point, Emperor Yun paused, pointed at the picture on the PPT, and smiled, "10 businessmen! 10!"

Everyone smiled bitterly. In 64, there were less than 10 businessmen in the whole of China.

How does this compare?
Qing Yun shrugged his shoulders and continued, "Dear seniors, this is not a problem of scientific research route, it is not your fault or those seniors' fault, and it is not a problem of system or not.

It can only be said that the business atmosphere in Europe and the United States has made the importance of the market deeply rooted in people's minds, and the establishment of the market business cycle has become very mature.

And in our time? We couldn’t even get enough food to eat! Thinking about this is just warmongering.

We should face up to the gap and not make hindsight decisions.”

There is no way. These lovely old men, such as Li Guangnan, always habitually think that it is their own fault that they have not developed well. If they had worked harder or not taken the wrong path, then...

This is a valuable quality.

But this is not the right mindset. People cannot just live in the past.

Qingyun knocked on the wall beside the curtain, "Let's go back to the PPT and see how others have gone, so that we can learn from their experience!"

The people in the audience were startled and quickly focused their attention back.

“艾比诶木的360系列获得了巨大的成功，1965年交付了668台，到1966年底共交付了7700台。

而艾比诶木的营业收入，从1964年的32.39亿美元增长到了1971年的82.74亿美元，占到了阿美莉卡商用计算机市场的70%。

The reduction in costs has also led to the rapid development of the American business computer market."

“Second, the demand has expanded from hardware to software.

In 1969, due to the fact that Abbey's share of the American computer market was too high, under the pressure of the American government's antitrust, Abbey decided to unbundle software and hardware and took the lead in promoting separate pricing and sales of software and hardware.

Business model innovation under this pressure has made software begin to become an independent industry, and software has become a profitable and high-profit industry, creating huge demand.

It is also because of this that a large number of software companies began to emerge in America in the 1970s.

The business covers operating systems, office software, various game production, etc.

The Microsoft company we know today was founded in 1975, and Oracle was founded in 1977.

Due to America's global influence in this area, it has also affected the development of the global software industry. The famous SAP company was established in 1972 by employees who resigned from the Abbeym SAP branch.

1970年阿美莉卡软件产品与服务的收入还只有25亿美元，到1980年上升到180亿美元，到1988年更是增长到了680.5亿美元。

The increasingly rich application software has driven the sales of hardware, providing people with consumption motivation to buy computers, game consoles and other electronic equipment, thereby greatly promoting the development of computer and game console hardware technology including chips.

This means that America has not only formed a dual-wheel demand drive of market and national engineering, but also created a dual-wheel demand drive of hardware and software in the market field.

Computer technology developers in the United States can not only obtain income from national engineering grants, but also obtain income through sales in the commercial market. They can not only obtain income from hardware sales, but also obtain income from software sales. This creates huge motivation.

At the same time, the development of application software will bring high requirements for hardware performance, which will drive the continuous development of hardware technology, forming a good synergistic effect. "

Qing Yun picked up the mineral water and took a sip, giving the people in the meeting room some space to digest it.

The leaders present here have dedicated their lives to scientific research and to promoting the development of China's semiconductor industry. They have witnessed countless ups and downs and changes, but most of the time, they think about problems and explore solutions from the perspective of scientific research.

However, today, Qing Yun's speech was like a heavy hammer hitting their hearts. His restoration of history from a business perspective shocked them like never before.

There was a flash of shock in Li Guangnan's eyes.

He thought of his youth when he devoted himself to scientific research and always felt that market and business considerations were secondary, just an afterthought after scientific research success.

But now, he began to realize that perhaps he had overlooked something more important.

He thought of some projects he had participated in, which ultimately became unsustainable due to lack of commercial considerations.

Qing Yun's words made him start to reflect on how to better combine scientific research and business.

A thoughtful look appeared on Huang Lingyi's face.

She thought of the chip that her team had developed. Although it had made some technological breakthroughs, it had difficulty gaining a foothold in the market.

Qing Yun's words made her start to reflect on whether the purpose of scientific research is to pursue advanced technology, or to meet market demand and promote the development of the industry? Or is it that all these are complementary and mutually beneficial?
Wang Shouwu's brows were furrowed, and a complex emotion surged in his heart.

He has always believed that as long as the technology is advanced enough, it can lead the market and promote the development of the industry. But now, he began to realize that he might be too idealistic and did not fully consider the business factors.

Wang Yangyuan, Xu Juyan, Zou Shichang, Yan Xiaolang...

Even Hu Weiwu, who was much younger than him, was thinking silently in their hearts. They knew that Qing Yun's words were not only a profound analysis of the development history of China's semiconductor industry, but also a profound touch to the scientific research concepts of each of them.

They all understand that if they want to truly realize the rise of China's semiconductor industry, they need to think about problems and explore solutions from more perspectives.

“Third, expand from the needs of enterprises to the needs of individual consumers.

American entrepreneurs soon realized that the personal consumer market would be a larger market than the corporate market, so they tried to make computers smaller and more affordable.

It is worth mentioning that in the development of application software, early scientists developed by-products to verify computer performance, such as the intelligent program "OXO" designed by Alexander Douglas in 1952. These intelligent programs later gradually evolved into electronic games and became the best-selling software applications on the market. In fact, the development of computer graphics is inextricably linked to electronic games.

These electronic games made many ordinary people start to get interested in computers, which led to the birth and popularity of home game consoles.

The business world soon realized that the gaming business was big enough that it was worth developing a separate computer specifically for playing games - a game console.

Dear seniors...

You must not underestimate this game console that can only make you lose your ambition."

……

(End of this chapter)