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Author: quiet thoughts

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Why were Fujitsu so nervous after hearing that people from Tsukidachi and Mitsubishi Electric were arrested?

Is it because Fujitsu's compatible machines are slightly related to some of IBM's technologies?

In the 1960s and 1970s, the global computer market was basically concentrated in the business field.

At that time, there was no concept of personal computers, let alone the related microcomputer market.

Although the development of computers is slow, it has been widely used in the business field.

Among them, IBM's mainframe accounts for almost 70% of the global market.

The so-called mainframe, in layman's terms, means that a company shares a server and a storage system outside the company.

Then, through their respective operation ports, the company's employees summarize the data or information that the company needs to process to large servers for analysis.

It is similar to a local area network. The difference is that the computers operated by employees do not have processing capabilities, so there is an input port.

After all the data is aggregated to the mainframe server, it is then centrally processed by the server.

That system is a mainframe, which to some extent replaces the requirement of one computer for each employee.

From the perspective of the company's usage costs, the cost of a mainframe is much cheaper than N personal computers.

Therefore, mainframes are widely used in the business field, especially banks, insurance companies, airlines, railway systems, government agencies and other enterprises that require large amounts of computing. They are the largest customers of mainframes.

Since the demand is huge and the prospects are broad, it is not surprising that Xiaoyuezi can give full play to traditional skills.

Beginning in the 1970s, Neon's organization in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry began to vigorously learn from IBM.

What to study? Of course IBM's mainframe manufacturing.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has brought together six foreign companies with computer business and provided them with a large amount of R&D funds and policy support.

And the six clubs were divided into three groups, and targeted learning began with different mainframe companies in the United States.

Among them, Yueli and Mitsubishi were the ones who made the mistake of learning from IBM.

Fujitsu and Sharp are a group, and their learning error is the American Amdahl company.

That company is IBM's biggest competitive partner. Fujitsu is pursuing its computer technology and has even been thinking of ways to take a stake in Amdahl.

As for the companies organized by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, in addition to using traditional skills, they also carried out reverse engineering.

Another way to develop mainframes is to use IBM's foundry in Japan to get involved in the production details of mainframes.

With the unethical support of the Neon government, after more than ten years of hard work, 70% of IBM's global mainframe market has now been reduced to about 50%.

The biggest beneficiaries among them are Yueli and Fujitsu, which are Neon's largest mainframe manufacturers.

In recent years, as IBM's technology has continued to upgrade, it has become increasingly difficult for Yueli and Fujitsu to imitate its mainframes.

The mainframe does not only include hardware design, it is not an organic whole that combines software and hardware.

Mainframes must use specially tailored software packages, compilation systems, and operating systems to run smoothly.

Is it a very closed ecosystem, with hardware but no software? The compatible machines produced by Yueli and Fujitsu are just as popular.

It is precisely because of its closed nature that mainframes have features such as high reliability and high security that are highly trusted by enterprises.

The cheapest mainframe starts at US$200,000, so the profits of high value-added products are naturally not low.

So even if they encounter some difficulties, Yue Li and the others will not give up part of their profits.

Just like IBM's new 3081K mainframe launched last year, the processor architecture and compilation system have all been upgraded, and security has been greatly improved.

Yueli, who had been using IBM mainframes as prototypes and making compatible machines, was in a hurry.

It is impossible to crack the compilation system and processor architecture, and it will take about three years for Yue Li to produce his own compatible machine.

For such a long time, IBM's mainframe has been iterated two or three times.

That's why Tsukidachi and Mitsubishi found a treasure after they accidentally obtained the first ten volumes of technical information on IBM's 3081K mainframe.

And because there are half of them, the outside world is eager to launch compatible models that IBM has not responded to.

Yue Li and Mitsubishi took the risk and wanted to use IBM's external relationships to steal Sundong's technical information.

Why did the director of the Kanagawa factory trust the FBI's phishing personnel so easily because of the urgent external need for IBM's data to develop his own compatible machine?

The anxious Yuetachi and Mitsubishi were also tricked by IBM and the FBI, and they were caught and both took away the stolen goods.

As a member of the Study Alliance, Fujitsu was extremely nervous after hearing the news.

It stands to reason that Fujitsu and Sharp's mistake in learning from Amdahl seems to have nothing to do with IBM.

But if you don’t know your own business, Fujitsu’s compatible machines also drew a lot of references from IBM in their design.

Let’s talk about the hardware. Even a lot of software is imitating IBM’s design.

Matsuka Moriyoshi knew that the processor architecture of his own mainframe was somewhat similar to that of IBM.

And Tokita Ryuji also knew very well that Fujitsu's compatible machines were not compatible with IBM in many interfaces.

The reason why a compatible computer is called a compatible computer is that it can seamlessly integrate with IBM's mainframe in terms of operating system and software.

It would be fine if it was just about compatibility, but unfortunately, everything Fujitsu does is not authorized by IBM.

Their operating systems and software are nominally developed independently, but many cores are derived from IBM's designs.

Now IBM is directly ruthless and has teamed up with the FBI to send Yue Li and Mitsubishi people to jail.

The nature has completely changed. Just like what the newspaper said, is it a case of commercial espionage or a crime?

Even more exaggerated, IBM is preparing to launch international liability proceedings.

And the FBI has even issued an arrest warrant for Neon overseas. None of the directors of the Tsukidate Kanagawa Factory and others involved in the behind-the-scenes transactions can escape.

Is the FBI so overbearing? Arresting people in Xiaoyuezi is just like arresting people at home.

As for Matatsuka Michoyoshi and Tokita Ryuji, they were frightened by IBM because Fujitsu's own butts were not clean either.

Even so, Hongchuan Feng still didn't know the reason why Hong Fujitsu urgently notified him to come.

"Matsuka-san, since Fujitsu has nothing to do with the commercial espionage case, why are you two so nervous?

What's the point of asking me to come here in such an emergency?"

Facing Hongchuan Kaede's question, Matsuka Michoyi thought about it for a long time before speaking with an embarrassed look.

"Benikawa-san doesn't know that some of the design inspiration for Fujitsu compatible computers came from IBM.

According to external sources, IBM is conducting a thorough review of all compatible computers on the market, especially Neon.

If some infringements are discovered, Coco will be better than Jiao Kechang!

Hongchuan Feng is probably famous, IBM is settling its scores, and the six members of Neon Xia Fei are a little flustered.

In the past, the most common infringements were lawsuits and wrangling. They have experienced too many such things.

With the neon government's protective situation, it is not normal for cross-border lawsuits to be fought for several years.

Therefore, Fujitsu and others did not pay much attention to the so-called infringement behavior in the past.

At worst, due to the pressure from the United States, they can sign an agreement with the East and pay a sum of compensation, and that's it, without even bowing.

But it was different that time. What happened at Yueli that time was classified as an act of commercial espionage, so it violated the law and required serious action.

In particular, Fu Yueli and Mitsubishi's liaison officers in the United States have been arrested and are now launching a cross-border pursuit.

None of the senior engineers who participated previously, including senior engineer Tsukidachi and the director of the Kanagawa plant, could escape.

That would be more scary. Going to a prison in the United States is no joke.

As the direct senior executives of Fujitsu-related businesses, Matatsuka Michoyoshi and Tokita Ryuji were so frightened that they broke out in cold sweats several times.

After all, in the school where Fujitsu is located, the main person in charge is the two of them.

One is responsible for hardware architecture, and the other is responsible for software design. If IBM wants to use that incident to expand the scope of its attack, it might really catch them.

Because Yueli and Fujitsu will not go bankrupt, but their employees will be arrested for breaking the law.

Therefore, it is understandable that Matsuka Michoyoshi and Tokita Ryuji are so panic-stricken.

Hongchuan Feng nodded, probably understanding the meaning behind it.

As expected, Xiao Yuezi, who had no right to take responsibility for his losses, was dealt with by his master without any room for improvement and was left to his own devices.

"Don't worry, Matsuka-san. If Fujitsu is indeed not involved in that matter, some of the designs may have been based on IBM.

Then you can rest assured that the software licensing dispute between Fujitsu and IBM can generally be resolved through economic means."

If the software infringes, just pay the money and that's it.

Even if Fujitsu can take the initiative to communicate with IBM about licensing issues, then the matter may not even become a splash.

After listening to Hongchuan Kaede's comfort, Matsuka Moichi immediately waved his legs and said.

"Of course Fujitsu was not involved in that matter. There is no misunderstanding. Who knew that things like software also have copyrights?"
To be continued...