Chapter 1550 The Origin of the New Era (Second update, please subscribe)
Sometimes the world changes quietly.
When the "Star Wars Project" quietly kicked off, for ordinary people, they had no feelings.
It cannot be said that when the new year arrives, many people have truly felt the impact of the future world.
In the past few months, email has become a very fashionable and trendy "thing" in various universities, and this popularity on university campuses has spread to society, making newspapers and other news media pay attention to this seemingly new thing for the first time. Something that seems inconspicuous.
Around the New Year, newspapers are filled with news related to email and the Internet. People will also discuss these issues when reading newspapers.
Even in subway stations, while people are waiting for the subway, there will occasionally be a few people there discussing the Internet, e-mails, and of course long-distance calls - with the putting into use of submarine optical cables, the island Long-distance calls to outer islands suddenly moved from the exclusive domain of the rich to the homes of ordinary people. Although the price is still high, it has at least become a consumption that ordinary people can afford.
"Long distance calls, emails, the Internet..."
While waiting for the subway, Luo Mingjie listened to people's discussions and couldn't help but become curious about it.
The subway slowly entered the station. It was around four or five o'clock in the afternoon. People poured into the station like a tide. The carriage was as crowded as a sardine can and was as dark as a can.
At the connection between the two carriages, Luo Mingjie stood there, thinking about the news he had heard before.
"E-mail... is quite new. You can go to the computer center to try it later..."
He couldn't help but want to try it, and soon turned his attention to chips again. It has been more than two years.
In the past few days, he has been promoting the research of new low-cost processors. Although he secured venture capital from the "Growth Ladder Fund", because the development time was too long, all the angel round investment had been spent. To be able to keep the company running, he not only got all his belongings, but even gave the car to a second-hand car dealer.
What is the result of this desperate move?
It’s basically that we are at the end of our rope.
"It depends on this once..."
While Luo Mingjie was thinking about this, he took another look at the newspaper. There was an inconspicuous small advertisement on the advertising page of the newspaper.
A strange advertisement was published, claiming that a technology company would sell microprocessors at a local electronics enthusiast exhibition and at a low price. The person who published the advertisement was none other than Luo Mingjie himself.
This is also the first appearance of the 6502 processor on the market - if this kind of gathering of enthusiasts can be considered a market.
Just a week ago, the first batch of trial 6502 processors were finally produced.
Now, the only question is - how to sell the processor!
In order to sell his processor, give investors hope as soon as possible, and win a new round of investment, he could only spend the last amount of money on advertising, which was this advertisement in the newspaper. The advertisement lasted for five days. There are only a few simple words in total.
The core has only one sentence - the cheapest processor ever, so stay tuned!
In order to advertise this, he sold his car to a second-hand car dealer.
It's tomorrow!
Luo Mingjie is full of expectations when he thinks of tomorrow's electronic technology enthusiasts exhibition.
Early the next morning, Luo Mingjie took his wife's car and rushed to the exhibition together.
"Honey, what do you think we should do if the chips can't be sold?"
While driving, Luo Mingjie said worriedly.
After listening to her husband's words, the woman smiled and said.
"If you drop it, you can't sell it. At worst, I will support you."
His wife's answer made Luo Mingjie couldn't help laughing, nodded and said.
"That's it, you must support me when the time comes."
The woman nodded vigorously.
"Don't worry, husband."
Soon the car arrived at its destination.
Not many people attended the exhibition for electronic technology enthusiasts. After all, this is still the pioneering era of electronic products.
Soon, Luo Mingjie found a location - an open space, and then he directly laid out a picnic cloth as if having a picnic in the park. This was done to save money, so he thought of setting up a street stall for sale.
Just when I was about to set up a stall, a security guard over there came over and stopped me:
"Okay, sir, stalls are not allowed here. There is a fee for booths here."
Luo Mingjie didn't speak here, but his wife standing aside asked:
"How much does it cost to rent a booth?"
Then I paid for the booth fee.
On this day, Luo Mingjie was insufficiently prepared in terms of manpower and material resources. In order to save money, he even planned to set up a street stall to sell directly. Only when he arrived at the scene was the organizer notifying him of the ban. In the end, Chuck had no choice but to pay for a regular stall.
In order to recruit more people, he even roped in his wife to hawk with him.
On this day, he was like a vegetable seller in the vegetable market. His products were displayed on a small, humble table.
The 6502 chips sold don't even have decent packaging. The chips encapsulated in DIP-40 are squeezed into a transparent glass can like pickled cucumbers.
The most egregious thing is that only the top layer of the large number of chips can work properly, and the rest are empty shells that are just fake - hence the paragraph at the beginning of the article. In fact, this kind of "appearance" method is not new.
Although the stall was shabby, Luo Mingjie and his partners knew that they had a winning weapon - the super low price of 6502 of only 100 yuan - and they only needed this only weapon to defeat the enemy with one move.
"The cheapest microprocessor ever made."
The most eye-catching thing on this stall is this string of words written with a brush.
Although it is very simple, it is definitely full of impact. Like many electronics enthusiasts, Rebus has always hoped to assemble an electronic computer that is cheap enough. In fact, in the past year or two, he has been buying electronic computers assembled from various parts and then putting them together. Electronic computers are sold to others.
Compared with computers from Wang An or other brands, the computers assembled by Rebus and his friends are about 15% cheaper than the market price.
But even so, the price of electronic computers is still extremely expensive, and not everyone can afford it.
"We need a cheaper electronic computer."
In Rebus' view, computers must be cheap enough to be used in every household. However, it was too difficult to make cheap electronic computers.
Like many electronics enthusiasts, Rebus will not miss such trade fairs. After all, you can always see some new products at trade fairs.
Yesterday, when he was shopping at the exhibition, a string of words suddenly caught his eye.
"The cheapest microprocessor ever made."
Cheapest microprocessor?
Rebus walked to the stall with some confusion and looked at the microprocessor in a glass bottle.
This is too crude.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
"Hello, are you interested in him?"
Seeing a customer coming to the door, Luo Mingjie greeted him warmly.
"The 6502 processor, this is the latest product launched by my company. It has thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight DRAM cells!"
"What, thirty-two thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight!"
Rebus said in surprise,
"How come,,"
The reason why he was so surprised was that the Athlon processor from two years ago only had more than 18,000 DRAM cells.
Although two years have passed, as far as he knows, there are definitely no more than 10 microprocessors with more than 30,000 DRAM cells.
How could he not be shocked that this company he had never heard of actually produced a similar processor?
While shocked, Rebus was more concerned about the price.
"You said it is the cheapest microprocessor ever, so how much does it cost?"
According to the current market price, its price should not be less than two thousand yuan, right?
Just when this idea came to Rebus's mind, he heard a price that shocked him.
"100 yuan."
Luo Mingjie said:
"You only need 100 yuan to buy a 6502 microprocessor!"
What? At this moment Rebus didn't even know what to say?
He opened his eyes wide, looked at the processor in the glass bottle with incredible eyes, and then said:
"Are you serious?"
The reason why he was so surprised was because where in the other party's quotation was the microprocessor? They are clearly selling cabbage.
"That's why I call it the cheapest processor ever. Are you interested?"
interest!
How could you not be interested!
Looking at the microprocessors in the glass bottle, Rebus even came up with the idea of wrapping all these processors in a circle.
But his reason told him not to do this. After much hesitation, Rebus still purchased 10 6502 processors.
But what he didn't know was that Luo Mingjie only brought a total of 20 microprocessors that day.
After Rebus left, another young man came here. When he learned that this processor only cost 100 yuan, the young man immediately bought the remaining processors and took Luo Mingjie's business card, saying that he would return it in the future. Will purchase his processor.
In just over an hour, all the processors were sold out.
After selling the last processor, his wife looked at the silent Luo Mingjie and asked:
"Husband, now that we have sold all the processors, have we made a good start?"
Shaking his head, Luo Mingjie said:
"I don't know, I think we have to wait a little longer. We also need a development board to help engineers make computer prototypes and other devices, and yes, it also needs to be cheap enough."
In this way, Luo Mingjie found a new goal. As soon as he returned to the company, he started working in this area.
That day, among the people who came to buy the freshly baked 6502, apart from Rebus who came first, the latter was Song Mingxuan, the inventor of the arcade machine. After getting this processor, he immediately studied how to apply it to games. on board.
After Rebus got the processor, he plunged into the laboratory to design circuit boards and other components. Until the end of the year, in the utility room below the university dormitory, Rebus connected the 6502 to the main circuit. plate. When the power supply of 110 volts is turned on, the 32,768 DRAM cells wake up, and information flows between the forty pins; the heart of the computer trembles for the first time, and then begins to beat at a frequency of one megahertz. .
This is the world's first cheap computer, and its price is only 1,800 yuan!
Before this, even the cheapest electronic computer cost at least four times more to buy.
But on this day, everything changed!
It was also from this day that mankind truly entered the era of electronic computers, and the dawn of the era truly came to this world on this day.
God said, let there be light, so there was 6502!
(End of chapter)