Rebirth of the Tech Madman

"Thank you for your consideration of ea. After a full financial calendar year, we can discuss it again." Tang Huan smiled and waved his hands. "Now, let's continue talking about Apple computers."

Tang Huan glanced confidently at the crowd. This action was different from Jobs’s provocation just now, but a kind of perplexity, “Even if I say more, I’m not as good as you who often deal with money figures. I bought Apple computers and used spreadsheet software to experience a profound experience. If you are reluctant to invest in this, then you are in danger of being overtaken by your peers, because they can make reports more conveniently and win the favor of customers."

Speaking of this, Tang Huan snapped his fingers, "The reason why everyone needs Apple computers is so simple. Just think about how cars have spread to middle-class families."

Watching Tang Huan, who was good at dancing with long sleeves, flicked from the upper side of the stage with a hammer and a pick, the people below could even listen with gusto, and Jobs almost got his nose crooked.

"Look at how Tang pleased these bankers!" Markkula glared at Jobs angrily. "In the beginning, you obviously gave a good speech, but why do you have to turn down and offend these powerful figures on Wall Street? ."

"I am also considering the interests of the company. The subscription price has been underestimated. Isn't there less financing?" Jobs was a little unconvinced.

"Then discuss with Morgan Stanley in private, what are you doing to put pressure on these people in public." A black line appeared on Markkula's forehead.

After the meeting ended perfectly, Tang Huan said to Markkula: "Mike, maybe we can make a small change. We can use reverse auctions to price Apple stock. At that time, the price may be increased a bit. To a higher financing amount."

"Then let's discuss with Humber and Quest first, and if feasible, then bring Morgan Stanley to discuss together." Markkula readily accepted the suggestion.

As soon as they boarded the plane returning from New York to San Francisco, they began to exchange ideas about this change, but Tang Huan did not intend to get involved too much. Apple founders such as Markkula and Jobs were obviously more motivated and came up with an idea. That's interesting enough. Don't worry so much.

What's more, now that ibm has announced that it is developing the next generation of personal computers, Tang Huan has to pay more attention to the 386 project.

...

Located in Sunnyvale, Atari headquarters in the Silicon Valley area with Cupertino.

Gates and Ray Casa here have just finished negotiating a contract for the development of Atari personal computers.

As he walked out, he recalled the scene of receiving a few visitors from ibm at Microsoft headquarters a few days ago. The two parties spent more than three hours without discussing any substantive content. The other party just consulted Microsoft's Operation status, and discuss the development trend of computers. Then ended the inspection.

This makes Gates, Ballmer, and Allen very depressed, and they can clearly guess that the other party must act on personal computers. But it's just scratching their feet, and there is no chance for even the slightest cooperation.

Seeing that Apple is preparing to go public in full swing, the founders of Markkula, Jobs, and Woz are definitely going to make a fortune. Gates would be too deceived to say that he is not envious.

Go to the headquarters of Apple and Zheru in Cupertino to see if there is any business, Gates sighed secretly.

As soon as he walked to the door of the building, Gates suddenly heard someone calling him, "Sir, your company's phone number is here, please come and pick it up."

"What is going on in such a hurry." Gates was secretly surprised.

"Bill, ibm is going to send someone to investigate again. I think there is an article in it. Come back soon. Let's prepare." Ballmer over the microphone was almost shouting.

"Okay, I'll return to Seattle immediately." Gates lifted his spirits.

...

Sure enough, Gates was not disappointed this time. Sams, the chief representative of ibm, first took out a legal text and seriously asked them to sign, because only in this way can we continue the topic below.

Gates and Ballmer took a look at the document and saw that it was a confidential contract that was obviously beneficial to ibm. The general requirement is that Microsoft must agree to keep everything confidential for ibm people, and ibm has the right to use any signature. Information provided by people.

In a word, a typical overlord clause.

Seeing these guys like ibm take things so seriously, Gates became more curious in their hearts. Moreover, Microsoft is now a small company, far behind Apple and philosophers. Those who are barefoot are not afraid of wearing shoes. They sign it. Maybe there is a lot of it. The big opportunity.

After the ibm representatives read the signatures, they put away the documents with satisfaction, and Sams finally came out of his intentions-the chess project under development requires a programming language, and Microsoft's was selected.

It's really a big opportunity. Being able to cooperate with a giant enterprise like ibm is naturally very desirable. Gates and Ballmer glanced at each other and couldn't hide their joy.

So, when the ibm representative proposed the delivery time, Gates patted his chest to ensure that it was no problem.

Seeing that young people like Microsoft took the lead, ibm representatives were very satisfied, so Sams asked if Microsoft could provide software in three high-level languages ​​at the same time.

Gates nodded and said in deep thought: "Microsoft can run on the operating system and load it through read-only memory directly when it is turned on. However, software in these three high-level languages ​​requires an operating system, that is, digital research. The company’s cp/m coordination."

"Then there is no problem." Sams waved his hand and smiled: "We are going to the digital research company next stop."

"Although cp/m has a monopoly on the operating system market, it can only run on Intel's 8-bit CPUs." Gates' eyes flashed, seemingly kindly reminded, "But. I have one. My friend. I also built a similar 16-bit operating system."

The reason why he did so. It's because Microsoft is in conflict with the digital research company.

Originally, the relationship between Gates and Kildare, both Seattle natives, was very strong. The two once drove a sports car on the highway together, and Gates even got a ticket for speeding.

Therefore, they naturally reached a tacit understanding that Microsoft's programming tools and digital research company's operating systems did not cross-border each other and developed in coordination.

Everyone was fine at first, but just last year, the digital research company added language tools to the operating system catalog. So Microsoft retaliated, bought the license from AT&T, and came up with a so-called operating system to fight against.

"I believe that digital research companies will be willing to modify their own software." Sams, with ibm's peculiar arrogance, replied indisputably.

...

The ibm representatives did have the confidence to speak this way, but when they came to the headquarters of the digital research company in Pacific Grove, Monterey County, they did not meet the boss Kildare, and the other party went on a business trip.

Sams is a little unhappy about this, haven't we already contacted in advance. The chess plan is most afraid of wasting time needlessly.

Fortunately, the vice president of a digital research company, Kildare's wife, Dorothy, can call the shots. So the two sides started negotiations.

As always, the ibm representatives solemnly revealed their overlord confidentiality clause, which frightened Dolucy at once.

After consulting with the company's lawyer, she decided to refuse to sign the document.

As a result, the two sides obviously had nothing to talk about, and Sams got up angrily and left.

However, Dolucy also knew how powerful ibm was, so she hurriedly said some good things and mentioned that Kildare would be back soon.

Because cp/m is the most popular and mature operating system on the intel8080 platform, Sams can only bear it and decides to wait for Kildare.

However, when the two sides met again, Kildare did not immediately sign a non-disclosure agreement, but first chatted casually.

Although the representatives of ibm cannot divulge the contents of the chess plan without authorization, Kildare has guessed the intention of the other party. After all, the news that ibm is developing the next generation of personal computers is spreading more and more. Up.

In fact, ibm was completely frightened by anti-monopoly litigation, and only then used legal provisions to protect itself in advance, but the side effects are also very obvious.

Fortunately, Kildare is not ordinary smart, knowing that these people should want to be able to run on the 16-bit version of cp/m on intel8086, and digital research companies are also developing such an operating system.

So Kildare gave an introduction to his company, which made Sams overjoyed.

Look, without the **** overlord's confidentiality rules, the two sides have also achieved the goal of smooth communication.

However, when Sams proposed the delivery time that ibm hoped. Kildare hesitated.

There are many reasons for this, but summed up, they are nothing more than the following points.

First of all, the development of intel8086 version of cp/m is technically difficult, and it is not a simple code transplant that can solve the problem.

Secondly, relying on the market monopoly of cp/m, Kildare has already lived the life of a rich man, and toys such as small private jets are available, and he is also happy to enjoy the comfort at the moment, wanting him to stay day and night. Working overtime is a bit difficult.

Finally, Kildare is too real. His company is already busy. Many computer manufacturers are waiting in line for the cp/m corresponding to their computer platform. The delivery time of ibm seems a bit difficult, even if The jump in the line may not be completed on time, if it annoys the blue giant and goes to court, it will be a pain.

In this way, Kildare told the truth that the delivery time was too strict and it was a bit difficult for him.

Compared to the impression that Microsoft's young people are aggressive, Sams is dissatisfied with Kildare's carelessness, but has nothing to do.

Before getting on the plane, Sams remembered that Gates had said that he had a way to get an operating system, so he found a phone call and asked.

At this time, Gates was excitedly discussing cooperation with ibm with Ballmer and Allen, when he understood what Sams meant. Gates suppressed his excitement. Slowly said: "Sir. If ibm promises to let Microsoft become the operating system supplier, I will naturally be willing to help."

Sams agreed with little thought.

I have to say that sometimes the world is so wonderful. The eager chess planning team, for the sake of the progress of the project, will give full play to the doctrine, and the little Microsoft who dares to take risks and speculate. He saw the opportunity, took advantage of this gap, hugged his thigh, and his destiny began to change from then on.

"Guys, it's unbelievable. We reached an intention to cooperate with ibm so easily." Gates put down the phone and shouted.

"It's really hard to imagine." Ballmer murmured to himself.

"Then contact Seattle Computer Products and get that." Allen suggested.

The one he mentioned is also a small company, very close to Microsoft. It only takes about 20 minutes to drive, and there is a computer expert named Tim Patterson working there.

When Intel introduced intel8086. Tim Patterson developed the interface card for the Altair computer's s100 bus. In order to test whether it could work properly, he found Gates who had just filed a copyright lawsuit and moved the Microsoft headquarters back to his hometown of Seattle. Find a set that can run on intel8086 for testing.

At that time, Microsoft just used the intel8086 emulator on the minicomputer pdp- to develop the intel8086, but there was no actual equipment to verify the quality of this version.

Tim Patterson's visit is tantamount to someone bringing a pillow when he is dozing off. The two sides immediately hit it off, each cooperated as needed, and after a series of adjustments to their respective products, the verification work was completed.

During this contact, the two parties left a deep impression on each other, and Tim Patterson, who had benefited a lot, began to consider developing an operating system suitable for intel8086, and he was in a market monopoly position, which can be called the industry de facto standard cp. /m, naturally became the target of reference.

When Tim Patterson completed this crude operating system, he named it ——, to the effect of "fast and evil operating system", but after the official commercial release, he called it 86-.

Gates was not stunned by the pie falling from the sky. After listening to Allen's suggestion, he was convinced and decided to immediately start an action and contact Seattle Computer Products.

...

In Boca Raton Industrial Zone, Florida, at the Chess Project R&D Center, Bill Lowo nodded with satisfaction after hearing the information Sams brought back, "Very well, I am going to report to the management committee on the progress of the project."

Having said that, Bill Lowo sighed, "I'm going to be transferred. Although I can't share the honor of the successful chess plan, I still have to arrange things as well as possible before I leave."

It turned out that the general manager of an IBM factory with 7,000 employees in Rochester died because of a heart attack. The management committee preferred Bill Lowo to take over this position, compared to the current chess plan. People, this is a big promotion, and Bill Lowo has no way to refuse.

However, Bill Lowo’s remarks made the members of the chess project team think differently. For example, people in the inner circle such as system chief designer Liu Ogbrecht feel that they are Should be qualified to take over the vacancy left by Bill Lowo.

Bill Lowo didn't know what he felt, and sent some undercurrents to the project team. He hurriedly took the compiled information and reported to the management committee.

In fact, the status of the chess project is still not stable, so Bill Lowo was bombarded by various problems again.

When someone noticed that the project team had handed over all the software development of operating systems and high-level languages ​​to a small company like Microsoft, they questioned it.

"Although Microsoft is not large in scale, it already has many successful software application cases. The company's operations are very mature." Bill Lowo, with excellent eloquence, replied unhurriedly.

At this time, and Bill Gates’ mother Mary Gates, who is a member of the National Board of Directors of the United States Joint Fundraising Organization, will soon take over as Frank Cary, and John Opel, the president, said, "Bill does not Is it Mary's son?"

So ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ the voice of doubt about this issue suddenly disappeared.

This is "time and earth are all in the same force, and heroes are not free to transport." Gates may not be able to play with his own deliberation. It also needs Kildare's inadequacy, Tim Patterson's, and John Opel, the noble man, happened to interject.

I have to say that just by multiple coincidences in the dark, Gates is a man of energy.

At the end of the meeting, it is natural to talk about the question of who will take over as the head of the chess project team after Bill Lowo has been promoted and left.

"There is no doubt that Don Ethridge is the most suitable successor." Bill Lowo firmly gave his recommendation.

Obviously, as the current project leader, Bill Lowo's opinions were decisive, and the chess plan that was allowed to circumvent the company's rules was an alternative, so the appointment was passed easily. (To be continued...)

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