Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 280 Codename: Bluebird

In Ethan's memory, no matter whether it is the current era of Japan or their future selves, it is impossible for them to produce their own microprocessors. The reason is simple. Japan is a country with excellent tactics but poor strategy. From a historical perspective, every time they risk their lives to gamble on the fate of the country, they will lose miserably in the end. No one can explain the reason, but most people can only respect this fact.

Therefore, even if Ethan in this life acts as a butterfly in South America, he does not think that his existence will affect Neon's strategic layout and prompt them to change track.

Therefore, after searching his past life memories, Ethan knew that the Japanese in this era must be researching read-only memory, and it was impossible to make a central microprocessor. In this case, Japanese companies don't want their chips? This is simply outrageous!
"Are all companies gone?" Ethan asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Julis replied affirmatively.

"How much does the MOS 6502 sell for in Japan?" Ethan tried to analyze the reason. "Did Nintendo raise the price of the chip? And then it caused public outrage?"

"No." Julis denied Ethan's guess and said: "Since Nintendo obtained the agent, they have set the price of the chip to the lowest value that can be widely used in accordance with the requirements in the contract."

“That is, it is directly anchored to our U.S. dollar selling price.”

"At first, it was 2,599 yen, which is just over 10 US dollars. It's not as expensive as our country's 12 US dollars. Later, as the yen appreciated, they adjusted the price to 1,699 yen. Now, it's 1,399 yen."

"Under the impact of low prices, other chip manufacturers in Japan have stopped making microprocessors, so the sudden unexpected situation will make Yamauchi communicate directly with us."

Julis' words brought back Ethan's memories.

He and Chuck Pettle were friends when Nintendo acquired the agency for MOS 6502.

At that time, Chuck Petrus was always talking about changing the world, so when the two parties were negotiating cooperation, Ethan respected their wishes and prohibited Nintendo from monopolizing chips in Japan and playing the free pricing game, and wrote "common people" and "popularization" into the pricing plan.

Later, even though they parted ways with Chuck Paido, Bill Mensch still maintained his sincerity, so in the new contract, Ethan still deprived Nintendo of its right to increase prices.

If Nintendo cannot adjust the price, the cheap MOS 6502 will definitely inhibit the research of microprocessors by Japanese companies. In this case,

"Why don't other companies want chips?" Ethan muttered to himself.

"Did Intel sell the chips to Neon?"

The next second, he denied it again: "But this is not right!"

"Even if they sell the chips, they have no advantage!"

"The cheapness of MOS 6502 is not comparable to that of Intel. It is impossible for Japanese companies to give up the cost performance for some performance, so... what went wrong?"

He couldn't figure it out.

Julis couldn't answer this question either.

Therefore, Ethan had no choice but to give up and ask Julis to continue paying attention and report immediately when there was any news.

Perhaps it was because the matter was too strange that the truth could not be hidden, but it was also possible that this strange situation affected Nintendo's business, and Yamauchi had to find out, so, only thirty-six hours later, Ethan was awakened by the ringing of the phone while he was sleeping.

The person who called was still Julis, and the news she brought this time was...

Very shocking!
"Boss, Yamauchi Hiroshi has already investigated the matter thoroughly. The reason why those companies canceled their orders is because they found a better alternative, a chip with better performance and cheaper price than MOS 6502."

"The chip supplier is Casio."

"Since they have never released their chips to the public, there is no news about their chip research on the market. Their sales are carried out quietly. Since last month, they have been communicating privately with those chip demanders in Japan and showing them their chips one by one."

"According to Yamauchi Hiroshi, Casio's chip is named Bluebird, which means hope, because they think their chip will be Japan's hope in the central microprocessor."

"Yamauchi Hiroshi doesn't know the specific parameters, but it doesn't matter because he is already trying to get the chip. He asked me to tell you that he will send it to California immediately after getting the chip. He hopes that you can let the technicians test it clearly to see how much more powerful the Casio chip is than the current MOS 6502..."

Ethan felt a little pain in his teeth after hearing these words.

Even though it was already late at night, he still got up and leaned against the head of the bed.

Because he really couldn't understand why Casio would get involved in chips!

In his memory, doesn’t Casio sell watches?
A company that sells watches makes chips?

This is even more bizarre than farming and doing space exploration!

When this strange news occupied Ethan's brain like a tsunami, his sleepiness disappeared immediately. Wanting to find out what was going on, he directly called Ballmer's home phone and woke up the sleeping bald man, "Are you not busy now? I'll arrange a job for you."

"Go collect some information about Casio from Neon for me. I want it tomorrow morning."

“The more detailed, the better.”

As the clicking sound occurred, Ballmer, who was wearing pajamas and a nightcap, looked confused.

"Aren't you busy now?" The bald man repeated Ethan's question, and then glanced at the clock beside the bed. The fact that it was four in the morning made him suspect that he was sleepwalking.

After blinking twice to confirm that he was indeed awake, Ballmer immediately looked up to the sky and sighed -

"Boss! I'm sleeping! Tell me if I'm busy or not!"

The painful wails could make anyone who heard them cry and feel sad, but even so, Ethan, who had hung up the phone long ago, could not hear the helplessness of his subordinates.

After sighing twice, Ballmer finally chose to get out of bed. Although the work on the Destiny game exhausted him, the excitement and thrill that came with it also made him fascinated.

Ballmer believed that there would not be another company in the world that could develop as tortuously as the Game of Destiny, and that Ethan Jones' four years of experience was equivalent to a lifetime for other companies.

After working in such a company for a few years, when you leave, whether you start a business or find a job, you will feel at ease, because the biggest difficulty in life is to violate the rules, and this kind of thing...

He, Steve Ballmer, has experienced it.

He went into the bathroom, washed his face with cold water, brushed his teeth, and then drove away from home.

He communicated with the archive room he visited every day and went into the filing cabinet at five in the morning. When the sun was high in the sky, he presented a freshly-made Casio report to Ethan.

Casio was founded in 1946 as an electronics company. In 1954, it released its first product, an electric calculator. In 1965, it officially announced its entry into the computer industry and launched its own desktop computer. However, since Intel had not yet released the microprocessor, their progress was very slow.

However, the calculator war was in full swing at the time, and seeing the bright prospects of the calculator industry, Casio resolutely joined in and launched the world's first handheld calculator, CASIO MINI, in 1972. Then, this product became an instant hit, selling 8 million units in the past seven years, bringing huge revenue to Casio.

In 1974, they launched the world's first digital watch with a fully automatic calendar function that did not require adjustment for long and short months and leap years. This product allowed them to officially enter the watch industry.

Since Casio already had a dominant position in the Japanese market, they began trying to expand outward from the mid-1970s. Like Sony, Toyota, and Honda in Japan, they also wanted to sell their products to North America. But unlike them, Casio did not try to operate the North American business independently. Instead, it licensed its products to Komodor, which sold them in North America.

So, at present, all Casio products in North America are actually produced by Komodor.

The concise information made Ethan nod slightly.

If Casio had been researching personal computers more than a decade ago, they might have been able to develop a microprocessor. In his previous life, the reason why these news were not popular might have something to do with their failure. After all, those who are written about in history books are usually winners.

And Casio suddenly intervened and disrupted his business?
This kind of thing made Ethan sigh.

Although he knows that a company in a single field and a group company are two different concepts. The competitors of the former are relatively fixed, and the pressure faced by the latter will continue to increase as the number of industries involved increases, but this increase is like It's like the endless monsters in the game that give people a headache.

"Okay, I got it, thank you, you can go ahead and do your work."

He put down the documents, thanked Ballmer, and as he left, Ethan leaned back in his chair.

Now that the opponent has appeared, the right thing to do is to fight against it.

There's nothing we can do about it, it's just the way shopping malls are.
If you want to become bigger and stronger, you can only step on countless bones to get to the top. If you want to be content with the status quo and enjoy the life of a rich man, you must give up your business.

Ethan couldn't do that, so...

"Ugh……"

"Yamauchi Hiroshi... please get the chip to me as soon as possible..."

"Only by seeing Casio's products can I know what they are like..."

At this moment, Ethan suddenly felt that choosing to cooperate with Nintendo seemed to be the right thing to do.

Hiroshi Yamauchi may be full of ambitions, but he has the strength and background to carry out his ambitions!

Not to mention anything else, in Neon's small piece of land, he can at least get his name heard!

This is enough!

And Yamauchi Hiroshi seemed to have heard Ethan's call. On the morning of the 9th, as soon as Ethan arrived at the company, Nintendo's North American liaison officer Arakawa Minoru appeared in front of him.

Without any small talk, Arakawa Minoru directly handed Ethan a black chip. The chip was about the length of an index finger and the width of a knuckle. The flat surface was marked with neon words "Bluebird" and the Casio logo.

Ethan was very happy with Yamauchi's speed. He called Ballmer and asked him to send the chip to Western Design Company in Arizona. Then he asked Arakawa to wait for a while and talk about other things after the results came out.

Arakawa Minoru had no objection, but he said that waiting was boring and he wanted to take a look at the Destiny game.

If it was any other time, Ethan would definitely hesitate, but now...

He called a secretary and asked him to guide and accompany him.

No matter where Arakawa wants to look, it won't be a problem, because the biggest secret of the Destiny game is not the "Star Wars" sequel that is being developed, nor the "Pac-Man" and "Star Wars" that are being ported, but the "Super Pac-Man" series in Evelyn's hands.

And this thing, before it is released, it is impossible for anyone to see it.

It takes about twelve hours to drive from Palo Alto to Arizona, so Ballmer flew there on a chartered plane. He left at nine in the morning, landed at eleven, gave the chip to Bill Mensch at twelve, and Bill Mensch called him at two-thirty in the afternoon.

"Oh William, you researched so quickly?" Ethan, who had been waiting for a call in the office, was surprised.

He couldn't wait to ask, "Are Casio chips bad?"

Before he could finish his words, a loud shout came from the other end of the phone.

“Bad?”

"Oh! Ethan! If you insist on using the word "bad" to describe Casio's chip, then it is simply an insult to the word! Because this chip is not developed by themselves! It is copied!"

"What?"

This answer was beyond Ethan's expectations.

And the next second, Bill Mensch yelled again: "And what they copied is MOS 6502!"

"When I took the chip apart and put it under a microscope, I found that the transistor circuit diagrams inside were all designed by me! Yes! They are a new chip! But that is only based on the optimizations made to my design!"

"MFxxk!"

"These beasts!"

"Oh no! They are thieves! Burglars!"

"Although I don't know how Casio did it, I know that Casio is stealing my things now! Ethan! You must contact Nintendo! Let them sue Casio! Nintendo has an agency agreement for chips, and we will win this lawsuit!"

Ethan's eyelids twitched at the crazy roar.

The word plagiarism made him frown.

The self-developed chip launched by Casio is actually a copy of 6502?

No wonder they can offer a cheaper selling price than Nintendo!
Because plagiarism means R&D costs are almost zero!

"ok, I know, thank you."

After finding out the situation of the Bluebird chip, Ethan wanted to hang up the phone and call Arakawa Minoru to discuss the issue of rights protection with him, but before he hung up the receiver, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

He picked up the receiver again and asked if the other party was still there. After receiving a positive reply, Ethan asked again: "William, I want to know, in your opinion, does Casio have the ability to crack our chip?"

"Or in other words, do they have the ability to upgrade MOS 6502?"

As if he felt that his description was not accurate, Ethan added: "Let me put it this way. Before, when Chuck Pete and MOS betrayed me, Motorola called me."

"Their CEO Robert Galvin told me that if I needed it, Motorola could provide me with the chip, which is the same MOS 6502 as on the market."

"Motorola has the technology to reproduce it, I believe this, because MOS 6502 was developed based on the original Motorola chip, but they didn't do it before I was short of chips, because Motorola calculated that replicating MOS 6502 would not bring much profit at all."

"Since Motorola knows about this, why would Casio want to crack it?"

"And you upgraded MOS 6502?"

"If they have the ability to hack and upgrade, why don't they develop it themselves?"

“It’s a question of both technology and cost.”

"..." This question caused silence on the other end of the line.

"What do you mean?" Bill Mensch reacted, "Casio should not be able to do this, or no Japanese company should have this ability..."

“I’m not bragging, I always think I’m the best architect in the world.”

"Unless I tell them the manufacturing principle, they won't be able to crack the chip in a short time. It's just like Wozniacki. Few people can crack his design in a short time."

"That's Commodore." Bill Mensch's answer made Ethan pick up the document again and looked at the notes on it. His tone was unusually sure, "Or, it's Chuck Paido. "

This answer made Bill Mensch frown. After saying "Wait a minute", he quickly rushed out of his office. About an hour later, Ethan's phone rang again, and this time Bill Mensch gave him a positive answer -

"That's their style." Bill Mensch said in a low voice.

He was suppressing his anger.

"I understand." Ethan took a deep breath.

Hang up.

As the clicking sound rang out, his expression darkened.

Note: ① The world's first handheld calculator is the Casio mini. The HP-35 I wrote before is the world's first handheld scientific calculator. These are two different things. I didn't write it wrong. ② Using a microscope to read circuit diagrams is really a thing. There was a person on YouTube who made a series on this. CPUs before can be clearly seen with a microscope. This was also the wildest way people used to identify whether their CPUs were copied.

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(End of this chapter)