Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

"This is." Nakajima Heitaro looked at the vermilion building in front of him, a little lost in thought.

"Namco?" Yamazaki Hui muttered strangely.

Bai Chuanfeng smiled, "Let's go."

He didn't explain much about the club in front of him, but led them directly into the reception hall.

Half an hour later, in Nakamura Masaya's office, Bai Chuanfeng and the others took their seats one by one.

"Bai Chuan-san, your company's handhelds have performed quite well in the market recently."

As soon as he sat down, Masaya Nakamura sighed enviously.

Since Shirakawa Electric improved the display screen of the handheld, sales have been steadily increasing.

Although Nintendo followed up on this idea only two months later, in general, Shirakawa Electric's handhelds still occupy the bulk of the market.

This kind of winner-takes-all grand occasion naturally made Nakamura Masaya envious.

Although the profit of the handheld is not too high, the advantage lies in the large quantity.

Moreover, it has cultivated its own user group and developed related industries in the future, which can be said to bring its own traffic.

At least Masaya Nakamura knew that this man was ambitious and wanted to enter the home game console market.

"It's all thanks to Nakamura-san, and Namco's games are also one of the reasons why Shirakawa Electric's handhelds are popular."

Since the two companies signed and licensed each other, the cooperation in the field of video games has become closer.

Many games on Shirakawa Electric's handheld come from Namco in front of us.

However, the more Shirakawa Electric's handhelds are sold, the more Namco's share will be.

Therefore, Masaya Nakamura still welcomes Bai Chuanfeng's arrival.

"I don't know why Bai Chuan-san came here this time. Could it be that there is a new cooperation project in the field of video games?"

"It can be said that way," Bai Chuanfeng replied with a smile.

"Oh~" Nakamura Masaya became interested, "Shirakawa-san, please tell me in detail."

He is naturally very happy to cooperate with Baichuan Electric, after all, small money is real money.

The profit obtained from Shirakawa Electric over the past year has also become a major source of Namco's income.

"Nakamura-san, I would like to ask. Which company does the chips used in the arcade machines of Namco come from?"

"Huh?" Nakamura Masaya felt very strange that Bai Chuanfeng suddenly changed the topic to arcade production.

Is Shirakawa Electric also intends to enter the arcade market?

It shouldn't be, if the other party really has such a plan, there is no need to go to Namco to discuss it with him.

So although he was curious, Nakamura Masaya still answered truthfully.

"The Z80 chip from the Zilog company in the United States."

As expected, this 8-bit chip is widely used in Neon.

Z80 is known as the longest-lived CPU in later generations, and it can be found in arcade machines, communication equipment, and automation products.

Until later generations, it is still used in some fields today.

Now it’s not just Namco, Shirakawa Kaede estimates that the chips used in the arcade machines of Taito, Sega, and Nintendo should most likely be Z80.

Bai Chuanfeng saw that Nakamura Masaya's eyes were confused, but he still didn't explain, but continued to ask.

"What is the approximate price of the Z80 chip purchased by your company?"

"Around $25~30"

As a well-known chip, its selling price has been roughly transparent, so Nakamura Masaya did not deliberately hide anything.

Bai Chuanfeng nodded, the information was similar to what he had learned.

"So Nakamura-san knows Intel's 8088?"

"Of course" this one is also a well-known chip, and Nakamura Masaya has naturally heard of it.

"How is the performance of the 8088 compared to the Z80, and what is its purchase price?" Bai Chuanfeng continued to persuade.

"Needless to say about performance, 8088 is far stronger than Z80.

However, its price is also very powerful, and the price close to 100 US dollars is really unaffordable for arcade machines. "

Obviously, as a person with a background in science and engineering, Masaya Nakamura is also aware of some of the designs of his arcade machines.

"But Bai Chuan-san, you are asking these questions for the sake of..."

Until now, Nakamura Masaya didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Bai Chuanfeng's gourd.

Bai Chuanfeng did not answer directly, but took a small blue bag from Yamazaki Hui with a smile, and handed it to Nakamura Masaya.

"This is...?" Nakamura Masaya's eyes widened slightly after seeing the contents of the bag in his hand.

"As Nakamura-san saw, this is a chip." Bai Chuanfeng finally revealed the answer.

"Chip?" Nakamura Masaya looked him up and down as if he knew Bai Chuanfeng again.

"This is a generation of commercial chips from SIC, which is benchmarked against Intel's 8088."

Masaya Nakamura finally understood the reason for Bai Chuanfeng's visit this time.

"So Bai Chuan-san wants to cooperate with Namco in the field of video games, and the new project of cooperation is chips?"

Bai Chuanfeng nodded, confirming his guess.

Knowing Bai Chuanfeng's reason for coming, Nakamura Masaya's interest dropped by half.

"Bai Chuan-san, you must know that the cost of arcade machines is already very high.

At $30 for the Z80, Namco is still in the acceptable range.

But the $100 of 8088 is really powerless for Namco. "

At present, the production cost of an arcade machine is more than 100,000 yen, and even more expensive ones are even hundreds of thousands of yen.

In addition to various production materials and props, the various chips on the CTR display and the motherboard alone will occupy the bulk of it.

CTR monitors are the big butt TV screens we used to see. The bigger the size, the more expensive it is.

Now a 14-inch TV in Japan costs about 100,000 yen, and arcade screens are even bigger, mostly around 21 inches.

So just a single screen costs tens of thousands of yen, and in addition to this, another major cost of the arcade is the game substrate, that is, the circuit board.

The approximate cost of the entire circuit board is more than 50,000 yen, and there is no doubt that the chip is the big head.

There are more than one chip on the circuit board, of course the most expensive must be the CPU processor chip.

A Z80 chip costs about 7,000 yen, and if it is replaced with an 8088 chip, the cost instantly soars to 25,000 yen.

The production cost of more than 100,000 yuan, every 10,000 yen more, the profit will be compressed a little.

Namco's arcade machines are generally sold to arcade hall owners for a complete set at a price of 300,000 to 500,000 yen.

This selling price is basically a fixed range in the market. In this case, the production cost rises, and the profit will naturally decrease.

So for the chip recommended by Shirakawa Kaede to compete with Intel 8088, Nakamura Masaya subconsciously retreated.

"Don't be impatient, Nakamura-san, why don't you ask the price of SIC's chips?"

Seeing Nakamura Masaya's expression of embarrassment, Bai Chuanfeng asked back in a leisurely manner.

"Huh?" Could it be... Nakamura Masaya looked at Bai Chuanfeng again, "Bai Chuan-san means that your company's chips have an advantage in price?"

"$40!" Without further explanation, Bai Chuanfeng directly gave his own price.

"What?!" Nakamura Masaya's first reaction was disbelief, "Bai Chuan-san, are you sure that your company's chip benchmark is Intel's 8088?"

"Of course." Bai Chuanfeng pointed to the bag in his hand, "SIC8089 has 16 bits of external bus and 8 bits of internal bus.

A total of more than 30,000 transistors are integrated, and the main frequency is 5.6MHz. "

The more Nakamura Masaya listened, the more he revealed an incredible expression. This parameter is even better than Intel's 8088.

"At the same time," Bai Chuanfeng continued to introduce, "SIC8089 is based on embedded system development and is compatible with software compilation of Intel8086 and 8088.

In addition, SIC8089 also comes with an assembler-based development system, which will greatly facilitate the development process of developers.

Of course, if necessary, SIC can also provide peripheral IC and auxiliary chip design, and even customize chips. "

Nakamura Masaya blinked and asked tentatively.

"Bai Chuan-san, if I heard correctly, the performance of your chip is better than Intel's 8088?"

Bai Chuanfeng nodded, "Theoretically, it is true. Of course, the actual test results are also in line with theoretical predictions."

"Intel8088 is priced at US$100, and the performance of SIC8089 is close to 1.5 times that, but the price is less than half of that at US$40?" Masaya Nakamura continued to confirm.

"That's right, this is SIC." Bai Chuanfeng spread his hands generously, with a confident expression on his face.

"Nakamura-san, you must also know how the arcade games developed based on the 8088 chip are different from the Z80.

More powerful computing power, capable of more complex instructions.

Whether it is the level complexity or the key delay, there will be a huge improvement. "

As an arcade game design company, Namco has the best say on this point. The importance of a high-performance chip for arcade machines is self-evident.

"But SIC is a new brand after all. None of us have used it, and we don't know much about it."

This is a very real problem, and Masaya Nakamura must be responsible for his products before they are recognized by the market.

"Of course, I understand Nakamura-san's worries. So." Bai Chuanfeng pointed to the few chips in the bag, "These SIC8089 chips are welcome for your company to try."

"In addition," Bai Chuanfeng stretched out his hand to gesture to Yamazaki Hui, "this Yamazaki Hui-san is one of the developers of the chip.

As long as Nakamura-san needs it, he can stay and assist your company in the development of game boards. "

Don't talk about the order, free trial, and the technical staff of the development team will stay for technical support.

Such a sincere approach has also greatly changed Masaya Nakamura's view of SIC.

"Well, Bai Chuan-san's sincerity is hard to refuse.

Namco will make several prototypes here. As for the final result, it still depends on the performance of the completed prototypes. "

A $40 chip is better than a $100 8088, if it turns out to perform satisfactorily.

Then Masaya Nakamura will certainly consider purchasing SIC8089, because it is too cost-effective.

With more powerful chips, Namco can design more complex games.

At the same time, the original arcade experience will be greatly improved, so its market performance will naturally rise.

Although the current arcade games have color screens, there is still a big gap between the experience and the later generations.

First of all, the delay and response speed of the picture are worrying, and a large part of it is due to the chip.

It's not that there are no better chips at this time, but because the price of good chips is too high.

With a 16-bit processor and a price of more than 300 US dollars, most manufacturers will be discouraged.

But the enhanced version of the 8-bit processor, priced at $40, is placed in front of Masaya Nakamura, and he will naturally be moved.

The cost increase of 10 US dollars, in exchange for the overall increase in arcade sales, is a good deal no matter how you look at it.

Then the price of SIC8089 is 40 US dollars, which is more than half cheaper than Intel8088. Is SIC still profitable?