Chapter 346 Black-hearted IBM

Author: quiet thoughts

Chapter 346 Black-hearted IBM

The two sides of Hongchuan Electric and IBM had just settled down. First, Hongchuan Kaede signaled Heitaro Nakajima to distribute a blue book to the wrong party.

"As for the technical specifications of CD-ROM, you can study something. It has qualitative improvements in all aspects of parameters compared to floppy disks."

Louis and Robert took the blue book, opened it and looked at it carefully.

To be honest, both the capacity and the scanning speed surprised them. As for why they focused on those two parameters, they were intuitive enough.

The capacity of 700MB is larger than that of 1MB.

The reading and writing speed, based on current floppy disk technology, is only between 100~300KB/S.

It seems to be similar to the 150KB/S of CD-ROM, but please note that it is not twice the speed of the optical drive.

As people who have been dealing with computers all year round, of course they understand the meaning of double speed. If there is double speed, then it must be multiple speeds.

From the perspective of ordinary consumers, the capacity and data scanning speed all kill floppy disks.

The improvements brought about by those two points will give consumers a completely different experience in using it.

So of course Louis and Robert would be surprised by the specifications in the blue book, and even a little bit happy about their foresight.

They knew too well what red meant, and the floppy disk was already on its way to the grave.

Although Bu Nao thought so in his heart, Louis showed an unhappy look on his face.

"Mr. Hongchuan, if we formulate CD-ROM technical specifications with Sony and Philips without authorization, it will make IBM very passive."

The determination of CD-ROM specifications also limits the technical standards of optical drives in some aspects.

With the release of the Blue Book, IBM's say in optical drives has been reduced.

"Mr. Lewis, first of all, does the optical drive serve CD-ROM? Were the latter's specifications developed after extensive verification by Hongchuan Electric?

If the parameters are wrong in that regard, please have no doubt that they are the most authoritative CD-ROM technology experts in the world."

Hongchuan Kaede is now confident enough to say that, and Sony and Philips also want to wait a little longer on CD-ROM research.

"Also, I would like to remind you, Mr. Lewis, that Hongchuan Electric has been sincere from the beginning.

But if they don’t receive the attention they deserve, the issue of optical drives will remain on paper until tomorrow.”

"Okay, Mr. Hongchuan. They will solve the matter when they come tomorrow, won't they?"

When Louis saw Hongchuan Feng begging to bring the topic back, he even interrupted him and started to get into the topic.

"Of course" Hongchuan Feng shrugged.

"Good students, now let's talk about the standardization of optical drives. Robert, what suggestions do I have in that regard?"

Facing technical problems with the optical drive, Louis first consulted his technical director.

"He has seen the optical drive brought by Hongchuan Electric, but he will not comment on the external structure. After all, it is related to the commercial secrets of each company.

In terms of data interface and working mode, he suggested moving closer to computers. Because in the final analysis, the existence of optical drives does not serve users.

And users use computers to achieve their own purposes, so regardless of whether the hardware or software supports it, the optical drive should comply with the computer's logic."

Robert's error in the hardware concept of the optical drive is very simple, that is, the computer is a service error.

"Mr. Hongchuan, what do you think?" Louis turned his attention to Hongchuan Feng.

After thinking about it for a while, he turned around and discussed it with Heitaro Nakajima. Before that, Hongkawa Kaede nodded and approved IBM's suggestion.

If the optical drive wants to be installed in computers and use this as an opportunity to market, then does it make sense to comply with the requirements of computers in certain specifications?

Of course, those so-called specifications generally refer to hardware factors such as interfaces and dimensions.

Hong Chuanfeng doesn't mind giving them the right to speak in that area to IBM, as long as it doesn't interfere with his core interests.

"Very good, then let's talk about the parameters that affect performance." Louis was satisfied with Hongchuan Feng's concession.

"As for the scanning speed, error correction logic, and data pickup mechanism, they hope that Hongchuan Electric can provide detailed technical information.

Because they need it to write corresponding software and open certain permissions in the system to users.

Of course, they will sign corresponding confidentiality agreements for everything, and IBM has a good reputation in that regard."

"The principle is that they agree with IBM's request, but may I ask, which models does IBM plan to use optical drives in first?"

Hongchuan Feng can understand if you provide more detailed technical information and the necessary steps to develop software and hardware.

But as a manufacturer of optical drives, he is more concerned about the platform that IBM will use first.

At Hong Chuanfeng's question, Louis and Robert glanced at each other wrongly, and then answered.

"They felt that large-scale machines were a good choice because, I know, those commercial companies always have all kinds of data that they need to store.

The capacity of the floppy disk is too small to store a large amount of data. The hard disk may meet the requirements, but it is too large and is not conducive to storage.

So they all agreed that mainframe users would be hard-pressed to reject a configuration like the CD-ROM drive."

Does what Lewis said make sense? Many companies often have several gigabytes of data. If you use floppy disks to store them, it is definitely a disastrous choice.

Today's hard drives are already 1G in size, but they are about the same size as a washing machine, so storage is not a problem for the company.

But it's different if you have a CD. A few gigabytes is just a few CDs, which takes up less space than a book.

I believe that those business companies will definitely not reject new technologies like optical discs, and IBM knows very well what their demands are.

But Hong Chuanfeng frowned when he heard that IBM wanted to apply optical drives to mainframes first.

"Mr. Lewis, he agrees with your judgment that you are wrong about mainframe users. But as for the first promotion platform, he recommends that you add it to personal computers."

"PC?" Louis looked at Hongchuan Feng in surprise.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hongchuan, but I don't know much about Hongchuan. The personal computer market is not mainstream now.

And for individual users, there is no need for a huge capacity like 700MB.

As Gates said, 640KB is enough to meet anyone's needs."

The Gates Louis was talking about was not the famous Bill Gates.

Last year, a newspaper reported Bill Gates’ views on external memory capacity.

I don’t know if that joke is true or not, and I don’t know if Gates really said that.

But this does not prevent Lewis from using it at this time to prove that individual users are wrong and there is not such a big demand for large-capacity storage.

Hong Chuanfeng almost laughed out loud when he heard what he said, "Mr. Lewis, the reason why individual users are satisfied with the current 640KB is because they have never seen the charm of CD-ROM.

If Mr. Gates comes face to face now and sees the blue book, he thinks he will definitely retract what he once said."

There is no requirement at all, and 640KB is enough. Is it because there are no such large-capacity storage devices in reality, which will cause confusion for users.

Hongchuan Feng bets that once the public experiences the hugeness of 700MB, they will never go back.

Do you really think that 700MB can be used to store data? In the future, pictures and multimedia files will easily fill it up.

"Can..." Louis's idea is not conservative, so after all, it should be promoted to the public as a standard computer.

If the reviews are not high, won't it drag down the reputation of our own IBM PC?

"Mr. Lewis, why don't you ask them how much Hongchuan Electric's optical drive costs?"

"Huh?" Lewis looked at Hongchuan Feng's smiling expression and seemed to have some reaction.

"So, how much does Hongchuan Electric's optical drive cost?"

"A double optical drive costs $199, a quadruple optical drive costs $425."

"Wait!" Louis raised his leg to signal Hongchuan Feng to wait for a moment, "Does the multiple times of the optical drive mentioned by Mr. Hongchuan mean the scanning speed?"

"Of course" Hong Chuanfeng nodded, "then there are two basic scanning magnifications. In the future, they will develop optical drives with higher scanning magnifications."

Louis and Robert glanced at each other wrongly, and both saw the disbelief in each other's eyes.

What they couldn't believe was not the scanning speed of the CD-ROM drive, but its price.

Too cheap~

A floppy disk with a capacity of about 1MB can be sold for two to three hundred dollars, and a floppy drive can be as high as 400 dollars.

In this way, Hongchuan Electric's optical drive looks more like charity.

"Mr. Hongchuan, he had to remind me that that price is too low."

The black-hearted capitalist Louis was completely dissatisfied with Hongchuan Electric's pricing strategy and felt that it was a bit too cheap.

"What I meant, Mr. Lewis, is that they want to make it a standard feature of PCs and popularize it to the public.

The excessively high selling price is not conducive to the promotion of CD-ROM. Especially if you want people to change the habit of using floppy disks, you must come up with something exciting."

In fact, Hong Chuanfeng already feels that he is black enough. The cost of an optical drive is much lower than that of a CD player, with a four-speed drive costing no more than $50.

Now it sells for 200 US dollars or more than 400 US dollars. Is that a huge profit? Who knows that IBM is very kind-hearted.

Hearing what Hongchuan Feng said, Louis rolled his eyes and then came up with an idea.
To be continued...