Reborn in the red age

Although Lemon Company has only entered the domestic market for a few months, for various reasons its influence in the country is much greater than that of foreign companies such as Motorola and IBM that have already entered the country.

As soon as the purchase news came out from Lemon Company's Greater China office, domestic and foreign computer manufacturers in China sent representatives to the Huaxin Building where Lemon Company was located to inquire about the details.

Under Ding Guangqing's instructions, the staff of the purchasing department announced Lemon Company's purchasing requirements to all representatives, which was to purchase portable computers from foreign brands and desktop computers from Chinese brands.

The reason for this open procurement was mainly because Ding Guangqing figured out Li Qingfeng's intention and wanted to disgust Lianxiang and let MSI step on Lianxiang to get to the top.

The purpose is not pure, so we must make a good distinction. Otherwise, more than just Lian Xiang will be offended.

With such a big commotion happening outside, it was natural for Li Qingfeng, who had been in Huaxin Building all this time, to not be unaware of it.

He called Ding Guangqing over to inquire about the situation. After learning the details, Li Qingfeng nodded without commenting and let Ding Guangqing leave.

With Li Qingfeng's tacit approval, Ding Guangqing relaxed his actions a lot. He even called reporters over, published the company's purchase news in newspapers, and began to publicize it widely.

While Huaxin and Sun Kangmei were discussing Huaxin's next development upstairs, Li Qingfeng's mobile phone in secretary He Guangqin's hand rang.

As soon as the call was connected, Hao Aiguo's voice came from the microphone:
"Qingfeng, what's going on? Why did your company call me and ask me to prepare a better machine and send it to your company for public procurement?"

"Just prepare as you are asked to. Don't worry. It's a good thing."

"I know it's a good thing, but if we do this, isn't it unfair to other companies participating in the bidding?"

Listening to the voice coming from the microphone, Li Qingfeng shook his head and laughed. This Old Hao really is not suitable for doing business.

Other businessmen are afraid that their business will be taken away by others, so they rack their brains to sabotage it and cause trouble for their peers. This is good, and they are also worried about whether it will affect fairness.

"When you were in charge of the room allocation, why didn't you consider that it was unfair to other teachers?"

"Well, that's different. The decision was made by the leader, and I was just an executor. I had no power at all."

"Forget it. Business is like war. If you can't accept this, then I suggest you buy a few houses and become a landlord."

Having said that, Li Qingfeng didn't even give Hao Aiguo a chance to speak and directly hung up the phone.

Throwing the mobile phone to He Guangqin, Li Qingfeng smiled and explained to the others, "My old classmate is so silly and cute."

"Haha, this brother is too honest. If it weren't for Teacher Li's help, he would have been taken advantage of by others, right?" Sun Kangmei said with a smile.

Li Qingfeng waved his hand and said, "Alright, let's not talk about him, let's not talk about him, just keep talking about anti-Americanism."

"Okay, I'll continue then."

Sun Kangmei continued to operate the mouse, and the image data was displayed on the huge screen on the wall of the conference room through the connection of the lines.

Sun Kangmei operated the mouse to scroll the PPT appropriately while explaining in detail: "Since S1991 Graphics from the United States launched the first 3D graphics accelerator card in 2, 2D graphics accelerator cards have entered an era of competition among many companies."

The 2D graphics accelerator card is actually the predecessor of the GPU. In early computers, the graphics processing capabilities were very limited and could only display simple characters and lines.

With the development of computer technology, the demand for graphics display continues to increase, and graphics accelerator cards come into being.

The graphics accelerator card is mainly used to improve the speed and quality of computer graphics processing. It integrates some hardware and software specifically used for graphics processing, which can accelerate the processes of drawing, rendering and displaying graphics.

With the continuous advancement of technology, the functions of graphics accelerator cards have become more and more powerful. In 1999, NVIDIA first proposed the concept of GPU when it launched GeForce256.

After this, the gaming industry entered a new stage of development.

(If you don't know what a GPU is, you can roughly think of it as the 'heart' of a graphics card.)
"As technology continues to advance, the performance and functionality of 2D graphics accelerator cards are becoming increasingly enhanced. In this process, major manufacturers have invested in research and development, and competition has become increasingly fierce."

“From what I have observed in the past year, the market demand for high-quality graphics displays is growing, both in office applications and professional design fields.”

"Stop, let me interrupt for a moment"

When Sun Kangmei said this, Li Qingfeng interrupted Sun Kangmei.

Everyone in the conference room looked at Qingfeng Li.

"Teacher Li, is there any problem?"

“I want to add one more on demand”

"what?"

Li Qingfeng lit a cigarette and said calmly: "Games, graphics accelerator cards are also needed in the gaming industry. Graphics processing capabilities and special effects are indispensable hardware support for the gaming industry, and graphics accelerator cards are much more important to games than design and drawing."

Most of the people sitting in this conference room are middle-aged and elderly people like Academician Wang and Ni Guangnan. They do not play games and have great prejudices against games.

After these words were spoken, the people in the conference room fell into a brief silence. Most of them looked at each other, left and right, not understanding why they were talking about something as irrelevant as games.

Sun Kangmei, who had just returned from America, was knowledgeable and open-minded, and he immediately understood what Qingfeng Li meant.

"Indeed, there are only a few users who are professional graphic designers or require high-performance image processing. If we want to develop products that can sell well, we still need to consider the support of entertainment users. After all, there are many more people who use computers to play games than to draw pictures."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the conference room immediately understood what Qingfeng Li meant.

After all, Huaxin is not a private enterprise and does not have financial support from the state. It is understandable that it must first consider economic benefits when designing products.

"Teacher Li, what you said does make sense. Nowadays, games are paying more and more attention to graphics and special effects, and the requirements for graphics accelerator cards are definitely getting higher and higher, but..."

Sun Kangmei pushed up his glasses and said hesitantly, "However, the 2D graphics accelerator card can only improve the game screen to a limited extent. It currently supports only a limited number of games."

"2D was a technology released in 1991. What time is it now? It will be 1995 in a dozen days. The technology from four years ago is already outdated in the computer age. Why don't we just develop a 3D graphics accelerator card?"

Li Qingfeng interrupted Sun Kangmei again, stood up, put his hands on the conference table, looked at everyone firmly, waved his right hand, and said passionately:

"When doing research and development, we cannot just focus on the technologies currently available on the market. This will only make us lag behind others step by step. Our analog communication chips are an example. We must take a long-term view and focus on the next generation of technologies on the market for research and development. Only in this way can we catch up with or even surpass them." "We at Huaxin must take one step and look three steps ahead when releasing products. We must release one generation to fight, develop one generation to prepare for war, and design one generation to intimidate our peers around the world."

The passionate voice echoed in the conference room. Everyone was shocked by his words. Engineers like Sun Kangmei who had returned from overseas had excitement in their eyes.

Under Li Qingfeng's inspiring encouragement, the passionate Sun Kangmei was the first to stand up from the stool and patted his chest to assure Li Qingfeng that he would complete the research and development of the 3D graphics acceleration card within two years.

Listening to Sun Kangmei's solemn assurance, Li Qingfeng smacked his lips and whispered, "Two years is a bit slow. Can it be done in a year?"

"."

Li Qingfeng did not shy away from others and spoke out the company's predicament quietly: "Anti-American, our company has offended the Eagle Sauce, and sanctions may come at any time. We urgently need to develop powerful products within the next year to increase our strength."

"."

"The successful development of a 3D graphics accelerator card within a year seems to not only fail to prevent sanctions, but also accelerate them, right?"

"Don't worry about that. I have my own thoughts. Just tell me if you can do it within a year."

After a long silence, Sun Kangmei gritted his teeth and nodded in agreement.

"Well, you are worthy of me. I didn't misjudge you," Qingfeng Li slapped the table and praised.

After the compliment, Li Qingfeng chuckled and continued, "If it just processes images, it would be too monotonous and not advanced enough. Can you add some more functions, such as helping the CPU do some floating-point calculations, achieving some complex special effects, rendering complex 3D graphics, and other small functions?"

"."

Sun Kangmei just wanted to say, just kill me.
Digital communication chips have been successfully developed. Apart from the long-term project of "photolithography plant" and the 0.8-micron production line being installed, Huaxin has no other major projects recently.

After deciding on the latest 3D graphics acceleration card project, Huaxin began to organize a large number of people to carry out research and development.

At the same time, the lemon company's procurement meeting, which had been prepared for several weeks, began.

Companies of all sizes from all over the country sent representatives to the capital to participate in the Lemon Company's bidding and procurement conference.

This conference was held with an undisclosed purpose in mind. Out of a sense of guilt, Lemon Company was very generous to these unfortunate people who came from other places.

All round-trip transportation expenses will be reimbursed, and you will be provided with free accommodation in a star-rated hotel during your stay in Beijing. When you leave, you will also receive a small gift.

This group of manufacturers' representatives had never seen such a high-standard treatment before from a purchasing party, and they were dazzled at once.

They all expressed their admiration that Lemon Company is worthy of being the big brother of domestic enterprises. Needless to say, this kind of magnanimity is enough for mainland enterprises to learn from for 10 to 20 years.

On the day of the procurement conference, Li Qingfeng did not want to come. But after hearing that his friend Liu Aiguo was also there, he decided to go downstairs to take a look and catch up with Liu Aiguo.

The two were old acquaintances. They met for the first time in 1986 when they were working on a local area network at Peking University, and it was a bit unpleasant.

In 1987, Liu Aiguo was defrauded of three million yuan by a shell company in Pengcheng. At that time, Liu Aiguo fled to Hong Kong and sought help from Li Qingfeng. That was the second time the two met.

Later, he shamelessly plagiarized his own operating system and a series of office software, and the two of them had another intersection.

After careful calculation, Liu Aiguo met with him three times and was cheated twice.

The first time, the three million that could have been recovered was secretly messed up by himself, and the scammer ran away with the money in advance, resulting in the complete loss of the three million.

The second time was when the Academy of Sciences seconded Academician Wang to Huaxin in order to cover up for Lian Xiang’s mistake.

It doesn't matter if he was cheated, but Liu Aiguo never knew about it. Now he has to go and reminisce with others, and it's quite embarrassing to talk about it.
"Old Liu, long time no see. After all these years, you are still as charming as ever." After going downstairs and seeing Liu Aiguo, Li Qingfeng greeted him warmly.

Looking at Li Qingfeng who was walking towards him and greeting him enthusiastically, Liu Aiguo always had an indescribable feeling in his heart.

It seems that after meeting this guy, nothing good will happen to me, and I will be in big trouble soon.
Although he was thinking it in his heart, Liu Aiguo's face was also extremely enthusiastic. He took two quick steps and stretched out his right hand from a distance:

"Long time no see, long time no see, Teacher Li, you really make me feel embarrassed. I can't say I'm still as charming as before, but you haven't seen any change in your face after all these years."

Li Qingfeng smiled and waved his hand: "Old Liu, don't be polite to me. We are old acquaintances, there is no need to be so formal. I heard that Lianxiang has been developing very well recently and even won such a big order from Telecom."

"Teacher Li, you are too kind. We are just trying to survive in the industry. We were able to win the telecom order because we had a barely passable product and a little bit of luck."

Li Qingfeng smacked his lips. Why did this guy keep being polite to him? It was as if he was on guard against him, saying polite words back and forth.

After all, we have known each other for so many years, and this person is really not real.

Faced with such a Liu Aiguo, Li Qingfeng no longer had the heart to reminisce about the past. He just laughed it off and said goodbye.

The rules of the procurement conference are very simple. Ding Guangqing asked the programmer to write a small software to measure the performance of the host.

Buy hosts with the same configuration from various manufacturers on the market, connect these computers to the same network environment, and then run the measurement software.

This behavior is mainly to test the degree of optimization and adjustment of the existing drivers by the assembly machine manufacturer.

At this time, domestic assembly plants were really just assembly plants. Not to mention developing their own drivers, they didn’t even optimize existing drivers. They just bought the accessories and started assembling the entire machine.

Sure enough, after running the test program, except for MSI, which was taken care of in advance, the rest of the hosts all failed in terms of drivers.

After that, we followed the usual procedure of secret bidding, and the winning bidder was unsurprisingly MSI Computer.

Ding Guangqing publicly announced that MSI was selected as Lemon Company's only host purchaser in the country.

The next day, there was a news item in the computer newspaper about Lemon Company purchasing computers.

The title is: "High-tech enterprise or assembly plant? Computer brands such as Lianxiang lack technology!" (End of this chapter)