King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

On Sunday morning, the entrance of Chaohui Electronics Service Center in Zhongguancun was still bustling with people.

Unlike the first time, Chen Jianghe felt more confident and scrutinized.

Now, with the D Department's identification tag in his pocket, his perspective on this rough and tumble world has changed.

"Hey, Xiao Chen's here! President Zhong has been waiting for you!"

Standing at the door, A-Yuan, wearing a turtleneck sweater and flared pants, led him directly to the small warehouse behind the shop.

The warehouse was filled with the scent of pine resin from new circuit boards and the pungent smell of solder.

Several workers are manually welding and assembling.

Chung Chao-fai, with a Marlboro in his mouth, was looking at a printed circuit board against the blueprints.

Two weeks later, his eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night, but he was even more energetic.

His whole body radiated the excitement of preparing to hunt!

"Brother Chen! Come and see!"

Upon seeing Chen Jianghe, Chung Chao-fai immediately threw away his cigarette butt and picked up the board.

"A Chinese character card! This is the first sample card I ever made, even if it meant selling everything I owned! It was made according to your ideas!"

Chen Jianghe took the board.

The PCB workmanship is fairly neat, and the arrangement of the core components is not much different from what is marked on the drawings.

The front clearly displays the following: [Chung's Type I High-Compatibility Chinese Information Processing Card]

【Long Card】!

The name is straightforward!

He flipped it over to the back, and his brow furrowed involuntarily!

Next to several key 74-series high-speed logic ICs, several low-speed chips that are obviously salvaged parts were mixed in!

The solder joints also appear somewhat rough.

"How is it?"

Chung Chao-fai looked on expectantly, "To rush the IPO and seize the opportunity, I had a few pieces hand-assembled and tested!"

"It really displays Chinese characters! It's much faster than those slow ones on the market!"

"What about the risk of burning the motherboard?" This is what Chen Jianghe is most concerned about.

"Tested it!" Chung Chao-fai said proudly, patting a compatible computer next to him with its casing open.

A rudimentary Chinese character testing program is running on the screen.

"I had my guys run it in shifts for three days straight, and the motherboard is perfectly stable! Your parity check is fucking effective!"

Chen Jianghe carefully examined the screen's stability and heat dissipation.

I also noticed that a rough aluminum heat sink had been added to the card body.

It is indeed basically stable.

However, the crudeness and ruthlessness resulting from cost-cutting were fully exposed.

"What about performance metrics? What type of EPROM is used in the font library?"

"this…"

Zhong Chaohui grinned, a hint of cunning in his eyes.

"Just as you requested, we used a new, smaller-capacity film, and the font bitmap is absolutely optimized! The effect is fantastic!"

He didn't mention any specific metrics, nor did he provide any files or parameters for burning the font firmware.

He's playing the technology barrier game!

At the core level, they deliberately held back a trick!

It seems that Chung Chiu-fai does not want to completely relinquish control of the technology!

Chen Jianghe immediately understood.

Chung Chiu-fai values ​​the huge profits that his technology brings, rather than the technology itself.

Although the cooperation between the two parties is based on shared interests, there is zero mutual trust between them.

"How is the hardware platform compatibility testing scope?"

Chen Jianghe continued to ask about the key points: "There are all sorts of models on the market, the slot standards are not uniform, and the power loads are also different."

These issues directly point to obstacles to product implementation!

"This…"

Chung Chao-fai's smugness subsided somewhat.

"We only tested it on a few machines that we assembled ourselves. The Great Wall 0520 was able to power on."

"As for compatible PCs... we can only launch them first to test the waters! We'll address any problems as they arise! The market waits for no one!"

His eyes gleamed with the light of a gambler.

Sell ​​first, seize market share through volume, quickly recover funds, and create market pressure!

As for possible returns and repairs, that's a matter for later!

This is a typical "wild growth" strategy!

Break through the impasse with brute force through cost and speed, and mitigate risks with sheer volume!

"What about the pricing?"

"Eight hundred and eighty!" Chung Chao-fai declared decisively. "We'll reduce the cost to less than three hundred! Eight hundred and eighty will absolutely shatter the market!"

"Currently, imported ones cost over 1,500! Domestic ones cost at least 1,000! And their performance is terrible!"

"Our clock cards are powerful, stable, and affordable! That's our selling point!"

Exorbitant profits!

Net profit exceeded 500!

No wonder Chung Chiu-fai works so hard!

Chen Jianghe's breath hitched: "How are the profit sharing calculated?"

Chung Chiu-fai's eyes flickered for a moment, then he smiled.

"Brother Chen, we agreed on technology-for-equity investment!"

"Okay, for the first three months, I'll give you ten percent based on the turnover!"

"If sales pick up in three months, we'll sign a formal contract and split the profits according to shareholding!"

"We're in the early stages right now, so I hope you can understand!"

He patted Chen Jianghe on the shoulder, as if to say, "Let's share the good fortune."

This is a worthless check!

Drawing a pie in the sky!

The "ten percent" of revenue in the first three months sounds pretty good.

But Chung Chiu-fai will definitely exaggerate the actual sales figures.

The "ten points" you actually receive may be greatly reduced!

He wanted to turn Chen Jianghe into his own unbridled "humanoid technology compiler," a technical laborer capable of continuously generating core optimization ideas.

They tightly bind him to the low-dividend stage, slowly squeezing out his technological dividends, instead of treating him as an equal partner!

The murky nature of the commercial world was laid bare before Chen Jianghe for the first time.

Chen Jianghe sneered inwardly, but his face remained impassive: "Boss Zhong is very generous. We'll deposit the points for the first three months."

He randomly threw out bait, "I just happened to have an idea that could further improve the startup speed of the [Clock] and reduce CPU usage."

"Especially for some older models. I'll write a detailed explanation and send it over later."

"Oh? You have an optimization plan? That's great!"

"But I'm quite busy lately, so I might not be able to get away. I'll wait until I'm less busy..."

Chung Chao-fai's face immediately showed disappointment, but his eyes gleamed with even greater greed. "Then... you go ahead and do your work! The project is important!"

"I'll save the money for you! Don't worry! You won't miss a single penny, brother!"

Chen Jianghe gave a few perfunctory words and then left [Chaohui Electronics Service Department].

Stepping out of the warehouse, which reeked of money and solder, the air felt icy cold as I breathed it in.

The first real business collaboration turned out to be nothing but scheming, empty promises, and exploitation!

Chung Chiu-fai's ambition and desire for control far exceeded his expectations of this unfamiliar era.

He took out a small stack of ten-yuan bills that Zhong Chaohui had just given him, which amounted to a little over a hundred yuan, and stuffed them into his pocket.

No!

We must regain the initiative!

Technology should not be given to wolves for free!

Chen Jianghe's mind raced!

We must maintain control over Zhong Card's core competitiveness while ensuring the confidentiality of core technologies and preventing Zhong Chaohui from fully mastering the compression algorithm optimization strategy!

Perhaps... we could try something fancy?

In subsequent firmware updates or specific device adaptation procedures, leave some "tricks" that only you can unlock...

But this requires extremely sophisticated embedded programming skills.

It is triggered by a specific sequence of instructions and hidden within normal functions.

Perfect for dealing with "unorthodox" people like Chung Chiu-fai...