Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 233: Diverting Trouble to the East, Chip War

"Japan?"

When this word appeared, the other four people at the scene all frowned.

They tilted their heads slightly and glanced at each other, each seeing confusion on the other's face.

Because in the current international situation, the relationship between America and Japan is very tense.

In the past decade, Japan's economy has been booming, and its share of foreign exports has skyrocketed. And since America is the world's largest economy and the world's largest consumer country, many of Japan's products are actually sold to America.

The most famous of these are cars produced by Honda and Toyota, televisions, tape recorders and record players produced by Sony, and cameras produced by Nikon and Canon.

When the products of this book were like locusts passing through, madly devouring the market share of major consumer goods industries in America, all related industries were complaining bitterly.

To put it simply, the capitalists can no longer make money and they feel they can no longer survive. If they broaden their horizons, they will realize that the loss of the market will cause many people to lose their jobs.

Because of this, half a year ago, when Ethan Jones released the sales performance of his own products in the book, all major media immediately wrote about it and made MGM look bad. It's not that Warner Communications and MGM have lost their control over the media, but that it's not easy for them to intervene in such matters.

When major companies moved their factories to South America in order to reduce their product costs in exchange for a larger market share, the companies that stayed in America to produce locally were all warriors, and those who were able to export in the process of solving employment problems, especially to Japan, were heroes!

In the face of such a trend, they would only take action when they were tired of living. It was not that they were incapable of shutting everyone up, but that Ethan Jones was not self-made! If Ethan Jones had no one behind him, they would definitely suppress his momentum. But when one of the heroes of World War II was still walking around Stanford with a cane...

Ha ha.

"So...Steve, you are not planning to set up a company in Japan and then export a lot of junk games to us in the name of export, right?" The chairman of MGM understood his friend's idea, "You want to transfer the public opinion risk to Japan?"

"But this thing is too difficult to operate, right?"

Ron Miller shook his head and said, "Steve, although you can use the public's disgust with the game to cover up your actions, when the public finds out, or Ethan Jones finds out, that the junk game comes from the game, they may think that the game manufacturer of the game can no longer withstand the impact of the Destiny game and is fighting back fiercely in order to compete for the market."

"But if you want to be truly invisible? Then you need to solve two problems."

"The first problem is that the Japanese companies that produce junk games must be controlled by Japanese people. Only in this way can we label them as malicious competition."

"The second question is, if you didn't do this yourself, then I want to know, how did the people in the book get the patent drawings of Johnson's home console?"

"You gave it to them?"

"But isn't it you who took the initiative?"

"It makes no sense!"

Ron Miller spread his hands and looked around.

His words also caused the people around him to nod their heads.

"That's right. If you don't take action, how can our company, which has no legal disputes with Destiny Game, get the design drawings of Johnson's console?" asked Jack Tramiel, the boss of Commodore.

"But if you do it yourself, Ethan Jones will definitely know about it immediately." Rockwell's chairman Willard Rockwell Jr. shook his head with a look of regret, "Steve, Cornelis, although your idea is good, but..."

“I think the success rate after execution should not be high.”

Willard Rockwell Jr. pursed his lips and tapped the table with his index finger.

As the clicking sound appeared, he also expressed his thoughts, "Of course, if you have an ally of Benzi, and this guy has business dealings with the Destiny Game, and he is willing to join us, then I think... the success rate of this plan may increase a lot."

"I think……"

"You should understand what I mean?"

Willard Rockwell Jr. raised his eyebrows and stared at the CEO of Philips with a smile.

Cornelis Vanderkrucht and Steve Ross looked at each other, and the next second, they smiled at the same time, "We know what you mean." Cornelis Vanderkrucht said, "Willard, I can even tell you that we had already looked for him before we came here..."

Five days ago, Kyoto.

While Ethan Jones was talking enthusiastically with his suppliers, Hiroshi Yamauchi at Nintendo's headquarters also received an invitation from across the ocean.

After he received the letter from Hiroshi Imanishi, the general affairs director of Nintendo, he threw the letter into the shredder after reading the contents. "Milohua wants to meet me."

"What do you think of this?"

"I think there are only two reasons why Milova came to us," said Hirofumi Imanishi, "either to discuss the patent issue of Milova Odyssey or to study Ethan Jones."

"And these two..."

"It has nothing to do with us, does it?"

Hiroshi Imanishi looked at the boss with a smile on his face.

Standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back, Yamauchi Hiroshi kept nodding.

"Yes, these have nothing to do with us."

He looked at the cherry trees in the courtyard, snorted and said, "Those people want to use me? Haha, what a pity, I, Yamauchi Hiroshi, am not an ordinary person without power--"

After sighing, he turned his head and looked at his chief steward, his eyes sparkling with joy behind his brown lenses, "Go tell them that we at Nintendo will never betray our allies. We never did before, we won't do so now, and we won't do so in the future..."

"If they want to fight, let them fight."

"And we..."

“Just watch!”

"What? That Yamauchi Hiroshi actually said that he had never betrayed his allies?" Commodore's boss Jack Tramiel was shocked. "Isn't their COLOR TV GAME infringing on copyright?"

Comodor has always had business dealings with Benzi. The Casio calculators sold in North America were introduced by them, so they certainly knew about the product COLOR TV GAME.

In their view, since Nintendo can kick out its allies without hesitation for the sake of profit, then when greater benefits appear, they may not be unwilling to kick out Ethan Jones, but now...

That guy Yamauchi Hiroshi actually stood firmly on the side of the game of fate?
Maybe they have already betrayed Milova once, so they simply don't dare to believe that Philip will extend an olive branch to them at this moment without holding a grudge?

"There is no conclusion on this matter yet." Philips' CEO shrugged.

"However, in the future, if they want to sell their products to America..."

"Then we will definitely take them to court."

No one present seemed to understand the dispute with Philips.

After they learned that the best backstab target, Nintendo, was unwilling to join their team, they felt that Steve Ross's plan had little chance of success.

Just when everyone thought that today's meeting might end in vain and the second meeting might not be held, Steve Ross slapped the table and said, "I admit that if Nintendo joins us, it would be good news for us."

"But even if he doesn't join us, our plan can be implemented smoothly."

As he spoke, he also turned his gaze to Jack Tramiel, the owner of Komodor.

"Jack, you, Komodor, have a long-term cooperative relationship with Benzi, so you should know how the popular CPU on the market was created, right?"

Steve Ross's eyes were deep, and his gaze on Jack Tramiel was sharp at this moment. "At the same time, you who are running the personal computer project should also know that the war related to transistors has just begun, right?"

"So far, no one knows who will be the real winner in this war..."

Steve Ross's words were somewhat profound, and several people present did not understand them.

But Commodore's boss Jack Tramiel was clearly not one of them, because when he heard about the Transistor War, his eyes widened instantly!
The sudden surprise enveloped him like crazy!
And almost in an instant, he stood up!
"Steve Ross!"

He stared at Warner's boss with surprise!

"is it necessary?"

He asked loudly: "Are you crazy? Can we do this kind of thing?"

"Everything you said is treasonous!"

As he roared, a knowing smile broke out on Steve Ross's face.

"Selling out your country?" The Jewish guy who got his start in gangland slowly stood up, put his hands on the table, and stared at the boss of Commodore seriously: "Hasn't Texas Instruments been sold once?"

"and--"

"Aren't you Jewish?"

The riddle-like conversation made the boss of MGM, the president of Disney, and the heir to Rockwell look confused, while Steve Ross and Jack Trammell stared at each other without giving in. , the CEO of Philips also knocked on the whiteboard, signaling the confused crowd to look at him.

Then he said, "Steve's idea is very simple. He hopes that Komodor and Rockwell can provide the 6502 patent for free."

After hearing these words, Willard Rockwell Jr., the chairman of Rockwell, changed his expression instantly. Just as he was about to curse, Cornelis Vanderkrucht of Philips spoke faster and said, "Because the current notebooks are a bit biased..."

"We all know that computers have been around for a long time. America developed transistor computers decades ago. The speed of the notebooks is not slow either. In 64, their Beichen Electric produced a KB transistor machine."

"A year later, in 1959, Texas Instruments showed the world its integrated circuit design. In 1960, Westinghouse Electric said that semiconductors were the future."

“So, from that time on, many countries in the world began research in this area.”

Although Cornelis van der Krucht is a Dutchman, as a member of the high-tech industry, this history is easy for him to master.

Putting down the oil pen in his hand, he walked to the conference table and calmly introduced to everyone present: "At that time, a lot of semiconductor-related technologies were in Fairchild, so even if the Japanese government took the initiative to lead and brought in well-known Japanese companies and universities to launch an attack on integrated circuits, they still could not bypass Fairchild's patent barriers and solve the problem of integrated circuit manufacturing. Therefore, in 1962, Japan had no choice but to surrender and purchase transistor planar lithography production technology from Fairchild to produce integrated circuits."

"After they received technical support, their integrated circuit production increased dramatically. In 1961, they could only produce 50 integrated circuits throughout the year, but in 1962, it soared to 11,800. In 1965, it reached 50,000. In 1970, the number reached a terrifying 39.96 million."

"The continuous development of integrated circuit technology has also enabled them to make major breakthroughs in the field of high-tech. They used the 15-micron production process on calculators. Companies such as Sharp and Mitsubishi have accumulated countless wealth in this technological revolution..."

"but……"

“That’s not really their reward.”

"because……"

At this point, the CEO of Philips North America paused.

He looked at the boss of Komodor with a smile. Jack Tramiel sighed and said, "Their real harvest came in 1966. At that time, Texas Instruments directly gave its integrated circuit patents to BenQ in order to open up the BenQ market."

"Because Texas Instruments thought that the notebook was not good enough, and even if they obtained their patents, they would not be able to develop anything outstanding. But... they were wrong, and they were very wrong."

In order to protect the country's nascent electronics industry, the Japanese government has resolutely implemented trade protectionism in the electronics industry. They prohibit domestic companies from importing large quantities of electronic components from outside, and only allow low- and medium-end integrated circuit components below 200 yen to be released. At the same time, they also use the method of raising import tariffs and issuing import licenses to restrict American companies from impacting the Japanese market.

Under such circumstances, Texas Instruments, which wanted to enter the notebook market, started to have crooked ideas. They tempted notebooks with their own integrated circuit patents, saying that as long as notebooks opened up the market, they would hand over all their core IC process patents to them.

Sony was indeed tempted, but at the same time they kept a clear head and only agreed to let Texas Instruments enter the Sony market in the form of a joint venture. Finally, Texas Instruments agreed, and in April 1968, Sony President Masaru Ibuka and Texas Instruments Chairman signed a contract to establish a joint venture company in which each held 50% of the shares. It was also agreed that within three years after the establishment of the company, Texas Instruments would need to disclose all its technical patents to Sony, and that Texas Instruments' market share in Sony would not exceed 10%.

"Hey……"

Commodore owner Jack Tramiel sighed.

He doesn't want to recall this history.

After all, it was the U.S. Army that rescued him from danger.

Steve Ross, on the other hand, showed appreciation, knowing that Komodor's boss had chosen his own people.

So, after the other party stopped talking, he took over the conversation and said, "No one knows what Texas Instruments was thinking at the time, but their action made Japan develop rapidly in the semiconductor field. Before that, they were not as good as America in any technology, but later, Japan's Japan Electric was the first to develop static random access memory using NMOS technology, while Intel, which was invested by Lawrence Rockefeller, did not come up with a similar product until two years later. After Intel developed 1KB memory, Japan Electric came up with the same competing product the following year, and the price was only % of Intel's."

"But even so, all the companies in this country combined could not beat Intel in the early 4001s. They wanted to develop an integrated chip that included ROM, RAM and CPU. Then Intel came up with dynamic memory code-named 4002, read-only memory code-named 4003, register code-named 4004, and microprocessor code-named 8008. Then, as if inspired by God, they developed based on these products and saved Texas Instruments from its mistakes."

At this point, Steve Ross, who was still leaning on the table with his hands and staring at Commodore's boss Jack Tramiel, sat down, leaning back in the soft sofa chair with his hands on his abdomen.

His leisurely look seemed to be appreciating Intel's achievements, but it was more like he was confident in his own layout. "Seventy-five years ago, Intel alone could beat the semiconductor industry in Japan to a pulp. Similarly, seventy-five years ago, IBM alone could make all the major computer companies in Japan declare bankruptcy."

"But all this changed after January 1, 1975."

"Since the launch of Altair 8080, the computer industry has changed from the research and development of large computers to the competition of personal computers. The launch of 6502 not only brought personal computers into people's homes, but also caused Intel and IBM to lose their technological advantages, because they serve enterprises..."

“No value for money!”

Even if Steve Ross didn't say what happened next, everyone present could guess it.

Japan may not be able to compete with America in terms of cutting-edge technology, but America will never be able to beat Japan in terms of cost-effectiveness, because when the monthly salary of high-tech personnel in America is 380 US dollars, the average monthly salary of Japanese technical personnel is only 30 US dollars.

This huge gap gives Benzi an advantage.

At the same time, after discovering that Intel was too strong in the chip field and Motorola could not be underestimated, Chuck Petrus and others who defected from Motorola drove the price of civilian-grade CPUs to the bottom of the earth. Knowing that there was no money to be made in the CPU field, they focused their attention on memory.

“Then they really found success.”

The CEO of Philips North America said: "Two years ago, Japan launched a national project called 'DRAM manufacturing innovation'. Five major companies, Japan Electric, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Fujitsu, invested 40 billion yen in the national research institution 'VLSI Technology Research Institute'."

"Their short-term goal is to produce civilian-grade 64K DRAM and 256K DRAM, and their long-term goal is to surpass Intel and be the first to produce civilian-grade 1M DRAM."

"This year, Intel, IBM, Texas Instruments, and Mostek all came out with 64K memory, and at the same time, notebooks with 64K memory were also on the market."

"But even so, they couldn't build a complete computer."

"Because, they lack CPU!"

The CEO of Philips North America looked around and said with a smile, "So we want to know if you are willing to take out the 6502 and cooperate with the computer company in this book? The world's cheapest chip plus the world's cheapest memory will give you the greatest advantage in the computer industry."

“What are the advantages of Apple computers?”

"Their previous products had no value for money at all! They were so popular with the public only because of Ethan Jones's good publicity, which implanted the concept that Apple computers could be a productive force in the public!"

“What are the advantages of Apple computers now?”

"Disk II disks? Can they make better games?"

"This lead may give you, Komodor and Rockwell, a lot of headaches, but as long as you adopt our ideas, everything will be fine!"

"As long as you use the memory of Benzi and cooperate with them, you can make the cheapest machine that can make games! You may still not be able to beat Apple in our country, but it doesn't matter. If you cooperate with Benzi, you can gain countless fans there!"

"Then, we at Philips can work with you using our optical disc technology and try to implant a disc that can hold half a movie into your computer!"

"When our cooperation is reached, your computer will have a price that is unmatched by Apple computers! The same functions as Apple computers! And even more data storage space than Apple computers!"

"This will allow you to return to America like a god descending from heaven! It will deal a fatal blow to Ethan Jones's personal computer business and semiconductor business!"

"At the same time, when the drawings of 6502 were circulated wildly in the notebook..."

"Those who want to surpass America in the semiconductor field will definitely not miss this opportunity! They will definitely start researching and developing this chip! Also..."

"The video game industry will also have a party!"

"When Ethan Jones discovered that his advantages were gone..."

"Do you think he will sue those Japanese companies?"

"As long as he takes action to stop this, we can let Benzi's company get their patent!"

"Next..."

"It's time for Ethan Jones to prepare for the sea of ​​garbage!"

"Oh!"

Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, slammed the table hard!
The dull sound made the chairman of Commodore and Rockwell breathe rapidly!

Because they really didn't expect that Philips and Warner would even sacrifice the patented technology of Leading Book in order to strangle Ethan Jones? This is too crazy!

Although it was unpleasant to give up the 6502 that they had worked so hard to obtain, it was still possible for them to enter the notebook market and fight back in this way. Even if they persisted in the Americas for a long time, they probably would not be able to gain enough market share from Apple. What's more, what they really wanted was the -bit chip!

As long as Chuck Petrus can make that thing, then their previous business will not be a loss!
And the cheapest 16-bit chip ever combined with the cheapest memory and storage from Philips?
Oh--

Who can beat them?
Almost instantly, Rockwell and Komodor were attracted.

But they didn't make a decision immediately and continued to look at Steve Ross.

"Steve, you should know that our identity is somewhat sensitive," said Willard Rockwell Jr., Rockwell's chairman. "A lot of our company's revenue comes from the American government."

"so……"

"It's very simple. My personal suggestion is that you and Komodor set up a joint venture." Steve Ross knew what he was worried about and said with a smile: "Then contact Benzi in the name of the joint venture. This way you can avoid a lot of trouble."

"Of course, direct contact doesn't matter. For example, didn't Lockheed do business directly with Benzi before? And then it caused the scandal of the century."

"Then how can we contact Benzi?" asked Jack Tramiel, the boss of Commodore. "After all, so far, their memory research and development has been a national project."

"Directly contacting the five companies of Benzi Electric may cause problems."

"Then that's your job, isn't it?" Steve Ross shrugged and said, "After all, we at Warner don't have as many connections with Benzi as you do."

"But, I personally think that Casio cable should work?"

This answer made Commodore's boss Jack Tramiel's face freeze.

He didn't expect that Steve Ross had already been eyeing his relationship.

But on second thought, he felt it was normal.

Since Steve Ross was able to bring them together and thought of using the relationship between Philips and Nintendo to deal with Ethan Jones, he should have already figured out everyone.

In this case……

"Okay, I'll take care of this."

He didn't hesitate and nodded for tomorrow's sake.

Following his response, Kirk Kerkorian, the boss of MGM, and Ron Miller, the actual controller of Disney, also expressed their participation. When everyone focused their attention on Willard Rockwell Jr., the chairman of Rockwell, he pondered for a while and said, "I have two more things to say."

"You say." Steve Ross waved his hand generously.

"I want to know, who is the company that you just mentioned that can get the patent of Johnson's home console?" Willard Rockwell Jr. stared at Steve Ross with twinkling eyes.

This question made Steve Ross frown slightly, as if he was unhappy.

But the next second, he smiled calmly and said, "There is a game company in Japan, which is not owned by the Japanese. Not only that, its founder is from the same clan as mine..."

When this was made clear, representatives from Disney, MGM and Commodore all suddenly understood!

"Taidong?" Ron Miller spoke directly.

“Yeah~” Steve Ross nodded slightly and said, “Since he wants to stay there and keep climbing up, he will definitely accept our ‘good intention’.”

Although Rockwell's chairman, Willard Rockwell Jr., still didn't understand, he didn't care. He pursed his lips, looked at Steve Ross seriously, and said, "Second question."

"Can you help me with the Department of Defense threat?"

"..."

This question made Steve Ross stunned.

But soon, he burst into laughter.

"Oh - Willard, you don't mean Evelyn Johnson's teacher?"

“If it’s him…” Steve Ross tapped the table with his index finger.

The smile on his face grew even wider, "Don't worry, he'll be in trouble soon."

"I promise."

Note: ① Looking back at history, Texas Instruments was indeed the culprit for the explosive growth of the semiconductor industry in Japan. This was really for the sake of profit. It was a typical example of capitalists selling the rope to hang themselves. But the price of memory didn't really come down until the mid-64s. I looked through HP's procurement report in 0.75. At that time, the price difference between Japan Electric, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Intel, and Texas Instruments was only 1978%. It was not until 64 that Japan reduced the price of 1979K memory to $, and then "Contra" was successfully born. ② In , Japan did release K memory, but they didn't sell it normally until , so the protagonist of the previous article didn't know about it. At the same time, even if you use their memory, you can't make a complete "Contra" because they also sell it for more than . ③ Although Komodor makes computers, their nature is more commercial, but this is normal, after all, the boss is Jewish. ④ The scandal of Lockheed is to bribe Japanese politicians to let them purchase their own aircraft, which is a traditional skill. ⑤There are many reasons why Benzi does not make CPUs, including strategic misjudgment, insufficient technology, no profit from cheap chips, etc. The reasons mentioned in the article are just abbreviations.

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(End of this chapter)