Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

SIC's processor for Fujitsu has a profit of about 45 US dollars, or 11,250 yen.

Initially, Fujitsu placed an order of 100,000 pieces, but the current stock of FM-7 is only tens of thousands of units, and the remaining chips are lying in Fujitsu's warehouse.

They need to reserve a part of the chips to meet the assembly of their own computer production lines. After all, each generation of computers will be sold for a long time.

But this has nothing to do with Bai Chuanfeng, as long as the chip gets out of him, Fujitsu needs to pay.

100,000 pieces is a profit of more than 1 billion, which is too fragrant.

Moreover, chips are not terminal consumer goods, and there are no offline channel distribution, after-sales, marketing and other links.

Once the chip is designed, someone else places an order, and the SIC is delivered, the transaction is completed.

Compared with Shirakawa Electric's consumer electronics products, there are many fewer necessary links in the middle, which can also save a lot of operating costs.

But as far as the profits of the two are concerned, they are almost the same.

It can be seen how high the profit of the chip industry is, which is also a unique bonus for high-threshold and high-technical difficulty industries.

As long as you enter the industry and have a market, you can basically just lie down and make money later.

With one order, a profit of 1 billion yen fell into the pocket, and Bai Chuanfeng was in a pretty good mood.

Even the bulky big-ass computer in front of him looks much more pleasing to the eye at the moment.

It's a pity that Fujitsu uses the 8-bit enhanced version of the SIC chip. If it is the 16-bit SIC8081, the profit will be even more generous.

It's not that Bai Chuanfeng didn't try to persuade Fujitsu to directly launch the high-end version of the SIC8081, but the other party was very cautious.

I am only willing to use SIC8089F on low-end computers first, and see how the market feedbacks before making plans.

After all, the quotation of 16-bit SIC8081 is as high as 260 US dollars, so they can't help but be careless.

But the price is actually very low. Intel's 16-bit chip costs more than $300, and SIC is still a big drop in conscience.

But for the time being, Bai Chuanfeng didn't force it, and digested what he ate in his mouth first.

In order to test the text editing function of FM-7, the staff here took a small boxed device from the side and plugged it into the computer.

Soon the system recognizes that the peripherals are in place, and a small window pops up, prompting that the font function can be enabled.

Staff Sang clicked on the window, and began typing on the keyboard quickly. At the same time, lines of Chinese characters are displayed in sequence on the computer screen in front of me.

"It seems that the Chinese character reading and writing card is also running normally, and there is no downtime." Bai Chuanfeng nodded with satisfaction, and HAL also has two brushes.

"It's really reliable, we tested it ourselves. The failure rate is very low, and it can support long-term operation."

Tokita Ryuji on the side also recognized it a little bit, at least the hardware provided by the other party has nothing to say in terms of reliability.

That's right, this small external device is a Chinese character ROM card developed by HAL Research Institute.

The current Microsoft system does not support Chinese character editing. In fact, not only Microsoft, but all systems currently on the market do not support Chinese character editing.

However, Neon is still using a lot of Chinese characters at this time, especially for business transactions. Most of the content on the company's document forms is composed of Chinese characters.

This has brought inconvenience to many business clubs to use computers, but there is a market if there is demand.

You see, isn't the Chinese character reading and writing card of the HAL Research Institute born?

Don't look at the HAL Institute where there are young people, but all of them are hands-on experts with extraordinary creativity.

It is too simple to develop an external device that supports Chinese character editing based on the DOS system.

Store the font library of Chinese characters in the ROM card in advance, and call it directly when needed.

And it is such a small palm-sized device, which costs 29,800 yen.

Don't be too expensive, this kind of thing is usually purchased by the company.

As long as any product is related to business office, as long as it is related to company procurement, it is normal for the price to be higher.

Moreover, Chinese characters are indeed an indispensable communication tool in business dealings. Having a reading and writing card will greatly facilitate the work content and improve efficiency.

Then it is normal to spend some money to solve work needs.

This kind of small peripheral, Shirakawa Kaede suggested that Fujitsu integrate it directly into the computer and sell it as a complete machine.

However, Fujitsu was worried that the high price would affect word-of-mouth and sales, and finally decided to make it an external device.

In this way, customers can choose and add according to their own needs.

Although Amway did not succeed, Bai Chuanfeng felt that Fujitsu could sell the Chinese character reading and writing card of the HAL Research Institute as an official configuration, which is already very good.

A set of 29,800 yen, two-thirds of which is profit, which is higher than the rate of return of chips.

However, due to positioning issues, most of the purchasers will be business clubs.

There may not be that many sales, but because of the super high profit, the final revenue will not disappoint Bai Chuanfeng.

In addition to reading and writing cards, office equipment such as printers and fax machines were tried in turn for FM-7.

These same products are also designed and produced by Fujitsu itself, and all of them are placed in the menu as optional configuration packages for computers.

After trying these, the staff Sang took another small machine in a square box and connected it to the computer.

Then, under the eyes of Bai Chuanfeng and others, he carefully took out a square black disk from a plastic packaging bag.

After careful inspection and seeing that there were no obvious scratches on the surface, staff Sang inserted the disk into the floppy drive that had just been connected to the computer.

After watching this series of operations, Bai Chuanfeng realized that the other party was testing the computer's disk read and write functions.

The small black square disk just now is actually a floppy disk that has long since disappeared in later generations.

In the impression of many people in later generations, U disk is the most common storage device in daily life.

But before the turn of the millennium, it was the floppy disk that took the place of that duty.

This portable mobile storage device, which appeared in the early 1970s, has always been the most important means of data transmission in office and daily life, and has been popular for decades.

Although floppy disks have been around for more than ten years, they have always been impressive in terms of capacity.

Its data storage size is generally in KB, is it hard to imagine.

For example, the Sony 3.5-inch floppy disk in the hands of the staff in front of him, Shirakawa Feng glanced at it just now, has a capacity of more than 800 KB, which is less than 1MB.

"Mazuka-san, what is the approximate price of Sony's 3.5-inch floppy disk?"

Taking advantage of staff Sang's test, Bai Chuanfeng turned his head and asked quietly.

"Eh?" Moriichi Mazuka was taken aback for a moment, what does this have to do with our FM-7?

Although he was a bit puzzled, he still explained in a low voice, "This is a 3.5-inch hard disk newly launched by Sony two years ago, with a capacity of 870KB and a price of about US$300.

The other party has great ambitions, trying to overthrow IBM's 5.2-inch floppy disk and become the standard specification for the next generation of floppy disk. "

Bai Chuanfeng doesn't care about Sony's ambitions. What he really cares about is the price, 870KB? $300?

This is so fucking unreasonable, the production cost of a floppy disk is so high?

Even if Bai Chuanfeng was beaten to death, he didn't believe it. The capacity may be limited due to technical limitations, but the cost has absolutely nothing to do with hundreds of dollars.

"Did Sony succeed?" Resisting the surprise in his heart, Bai Chuanfeng asked gossip again.

Mazuka Moriyoshi smiled, "The other party is IBM, how could it be so easy.

The mainstream floppy disks on the market are still 5.2-inch disks, and the price is similar to that of Sony, and even slightly more expensive.

However, in Neon, Sony's 3.5-inch disk still has a certain market. "

After all, it takes advantage of the local home court, and Sony is also a well-known company.

Therefore, although the 3.5 storage launched is not popular, it can also ensure the survival of this business.

The reason why Sony's floppy disks did not catch fire was because no drive manufacturers followed up.

The reason why IBM is unique in the computer industry is because it has gathered a lot of hardware equipment manufacturers around it.

For example, after IBM launched the 5.2-inch floppy disk drive, manufacturers such as Compaq and Shugart Associates immediately followed up, and soon the 5.2-inch disk became the consensus of the new generation of floppy disk in the industry.

This is the difference between fighting alone and an industry alliance. If Sony's 3.5-inch disk is to be applied on a large scale, it must be discussed with IBM, the big brother.

"Floppy disks are so expensive, what about floppy disk drives? Is there really a market for such an expensive price?"

Compared with the gossip about Sony and IBM, Bai Chuanfeng is obviously more interested in the price of the floppy disk.

"Here." Matsuka Moriyoshi pointed to the box-like floppy drive on the desktop, "It is also sold as a set of optional equipment for FM-7, and it is sold separately for about 100,000 yen.

Basically, ordinary business clubs will buy them. After all, floppy disks are much more convenient than physical materials. "

"How much?" Bai Chuanfeng's eyes widened. The price of the floppy drive surprised him.

"100,000 yen, that is, 400 US dollars, the market price." Mazuka Moriyoshi was not surprised by the price of the floppy drive.

A floppy disk of less than 1MB can be sold for $300, so as its read-write machine, it is reasonable to sell it for $400.

It's really reasonable, Bai Chuanfeng is almost drooling with envy, look at him.

It is also a computer accessory, and it is also a small box. Others sell it for 100,000 yen, which is almost the same as the price of a computer, and it is not worrying about the market.

And the Chinese character ROM card that I have worked so hard to sell is less than 30,000 yen, which is not worth one-third of others.

Still not dark enough, Bai Chuanfeng secretly sighed for his kindness.

However, as the only portable storage device, floppy disks can hardly be replaced by similar products, which may be one of the reasons why they are so expensive.

When there was no floppy disk before, what did the company use as a storage method?

Either a paper punch or a cassette tape. That's right, it's the kind of tape for listening to songs, which can also be used to store information.

These two storage methods have one thing in common. That is to use physical means to record and store in the form of signal simulation.

Complicated steps and low efficiency are its two major characteristics. It is definitely a painful thing to think about rewinding for more than ten minutes each time to find the data recorded before.

The floppy disk does not have such troubles, and the digital storage method can complete the reading and writing of information in just a dozen seconds.

Compared with punch machines and tapes, floppy disks are already a dimensionality reduction blow.

No wonder Mazuka Moriyoshi looks familiar. Only after experiencing more primitive and painful data entry methods can he experience the joy of floppy disks.

But for Bai Chuanfeng, floppy disks are not advanced to an unimaginable level.

On the contrary, after learning about the huge profits of floppy disks and the poor storage methods now, he has a new idea.

In terms of storage, a new technology that I am developing seems to be more powerful than floppy disks. Is this a problem?