Chapter 151: Layout of Computer Industry

Moreover, it is also necessary to gradually establish research and development centers in the mainland. After all, Hong Kong has always lacked reserves of science and engineering talents.

In the future, we will definitely need to introduce relevant technical talents from the mainland, otherwise it will be difficult for Hong Kong’s research center to achieve results.

"Mr. Liu, I have something to report to you." Huo Haiqing said suddenly.

"You say." Liu Zhicheng took a sip of tea and said.

"Our intelligence center has learned that the French company Bull (B) has developed an IC card. We suggest buying the patent, at least the patent rights for the Southeast Asian market, and then developing and utilizing it."

Liu Zhicheng knew that this card was the smart IC card of later generations, so he nodded and motioned Huo Haiqing to continue.

"This card embeds a microelectronic chip into a standard card base, which can identify the data pre-stored in the identifier. I suggest that after we get the technology back, we continue to digest their achievements, develop and utilize them, and apply them to all aspects of our lives."

"And after analysis by the intelligence team, this can be used for bus card payments, ticket purchases, etc." Huo Haiqing said.

"Well, if you think you can do it, just go for it. Don't be indecisive. Some things are fleeting. If you miss them, there will be no chance. You are in research and development. There are some things that you must try." Liu Zhicheng said slowly.

Of course he knew the benefits of IC cards. Wasn't the famous Octopus card in his previous life just an IC card?

Liu Zhicheng did not talk about the benefits of the IC card today because he wanted to cultivate Huo Haiqing's ability and responsibility. In the future, it would be impossible for him to make decisions after consulting him on everything.

"Mr. Liu, I will immediately form a negotiation team and fly to France to obtain this technology."

When talking about IC cards, Liu Zhicheng's fingers kept tapping on the table. Since he wanted to develop IC cards, he would definitely need a matching computer system.

Although now is not a good time to develop computers, it is still possible to enter the field. Since the mainland has already started to reform and open up, the demand for computers will increase greatly. I wonder if you should start as an agent in the past few years?

"There is one more thing. I am planning to enter the field of personal computers. Do you think we can develop it with Hong Kong's scientific research capabilities?" Liu Zhicheng asked Huo Haiqing after thinking for a moment.

"Mr. Liu, are we going to make personal computers now?" Huo Haiqing thought for a while and asked.

In fact, he had long known that Orange Technology would not be satisfied with its current achievements and would enter the personal computer market sooner or later, because his boss had mentioned this to him many times in private.

"The personal computer market is so huge that it may become a cash cow for Orange Technology in the future.
If Orange Technology wants to develop, it must diversify. I predict this will be a market worth hundreds of billions of US dollars. "Liu Zhicheng said slowly.

The current semiconductor industry is in a period of rapid growth, and many laws and regulations in the United States are not very perfect.

Only when high-tech companies such as semiconductors and personal computers demonstrate great development potential will the U.S. government introduce policies to protect technology companies.

Strict restrictions have been imposed on foreign investment in the technology industry. The regulations clearly state that foreign investment can only hold no more than 5% of the shares of a U.S. technology company, and the total foreign investment in the technology company cannot exceed 25%, etc.

Although there are ways to circumvent this regulation, there is no need to take the risk. It is difficult to control a high-tech company.

Therefore, the high-tech companies in the United States can only be regarded as an investment, and the relevant rights are owned by others.

Just like Apple, Liu Zhicheng had no chance to intervene.
The United States will never allow foreigners to interfere in the management of their high-tech companies.

Not to mention the Chinese, even Europeans are not allowed to do so, and even immigrants to the United States are not allowed to do so.

If you want to reap rich rewards in the personal computer market, you have to participate in it yourself.

The reason why we didn’t make advances in previous years was mainly because the technology was still mature at that time.

Moreover, I cannot be the first to do so, otherwise, when the technology is not mature enough,
If I have a halo, the American government can easily "Iai" me.

No matter how powerful the time traveler is, he cannot influence the general trend. Facing the capital of the beautiful country, you will always be just a small ant.

Just like Alstom in Europe in the past, it was also "Iai". This is the power of the big stick plus capital.

But now, with the rise of Apple, companies such as IBM, HP, DEC, MITS, and Texas Instruments have all joined in, and the market has begun to compete.

At this time, the United States will not care too much about the emergence of computer companies overseas. First of all, the computer industry is not yet a strategic industry for the United States.

Secondly, be more low-key.

In addition, with the rapid development of chip technology, computer performance has been greatly improved, and you can gradually realize your own ideas.

It's time to implement some of our own plans. Take games for example. Orange Technology now has many patents and can develop the same computer version.

Even some software ideas from previous lives can be brought out and used to get a piece of the pie in the market.

Naturally, now is the best time for Orange Technology to enter the personal computer market.
At worst, we can give up the US market. Other markets are also not small.

Take the mainland market for example, if you occupy part of the market in advance, it will be a gold mine.

"Hong Kong's research and development capabilities are somewhat insufficient, and we still need to set up a relevant team in the United States." Huo Haiqing said after thinking for a while.

Today's personal computers are not what we knew in the past.

In the past, as long as you had some basic computer knowledge, you could buy accessories and assemble them.

It’s not possible now. Computer hardware is basically not universal and standards have not yet been established.

Therefore, in terms of hardware research, Hong Kong is lagging behind.

If Orange Technology wants to develop such complex electronic products, it will have to rely on technical talents from the United States for the time being.

"Okay, the computer hardware research and development team will mainly be established in the United States.

Hong Kong will also send people to learn. As for the software, it can be developed by Hong Kong.”

Liu Zhicheng took a sip of water and continued, "We are already behind in hardware.

But we still have certain advantages in software, for example, we are best at game software development, and we are not worse than them.”

"So, our next breakthrough will start with game software or some more convenient office software."

We are definitely no match for so many giants in the United States in terms of hardware technology, and will easily attract their attention.

At this time, IBM's PC architecture had not yet been launched, and Liu Zhicheng was not prepared to pretend to be a prophet and talk about the standard architecture of the PC.

But in the actual research and development process, he would silently follow this architecture to avoid detours.

In this era, personal computers were just emerging and the official name was still microcomputers, or microcomputers for short.

It was not until IBM launched the PC architecture and it became the industry standard that the industry gradually began to call it "Personal computer."

At this time, the development momentum of the microcomputer industry was mainly focused on the development of CPU functions.

It already basically has the complete hardware architecture of later personal computers.

There is only one last piece of the puzzle left, and it has not appeared yet, and that piece is the hard drive.

It was not until 1983 that IBM launched the first PC model equipped with a hard drive, and the entire PC hardware architecture was truly complete.

It is only with the advent of hard drives that PCs have sufficient storage space.

The ability to pre-install a variety of software reduces the difficulty of using PCs and makes PCs quickly popular.

The most important factor in the rapid popularization of PCs is the emergence of the Windows system. With the Windows system, users no longer need to learn computer languages.

You can directly use various functional software, which will make PC truly enter thousands of households.

Then we can only compete on software creativity, and Liu Zhicheng’s computer will be assembled by purchasing parts in the United States.

Of course, appropriate investment will also be made in hardware research and development.

However, it will mainly follow the assembly trade route, relying on Jingxi's continuous development to open up sales channels for its products.

So Liu Zhicheng didn't have a particularly detailed plan, but he already had a preliminary plan:

First, the personal computer industry is developing very fast now. The United States is the most advanced country. The markets in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and other places are expected to explode soon.

Therefore, I plan to start as a distributor and make use of Jingxi Electric Appliances stores.

Computers from the United States, especially Apple computers, are sold in these areas.

In this way, we can first establish our own sales network by using the products of the United States.

Second, although personal computers are system-level products, when broken down,
Many components have begun to be standardized, and the easiest entry points at present are actually the motherboard and software.

This can actually be matched with the R&D plan of our game company, although the computer company will be independent.

However, the research teams of the two companies can still communicate with each other.

Third, the computer industry is a system-level product, which requires continuous optimization of the matching degree between components to fully exert the system performance.

This cannot be done too hastily, so Liu Zhicheng plans to spend two years to develop a computer.

"Computer games? Software? Mr. Liu, could you give me some advice on how we should plan it?" Huo Haiqing asked.

At present, Orange Technology has developed dozens of games.

The most popular ones are Liu Zhicheng's ideas, but the games developed by organizing people on his own look similar.

But once they were released on the market, they were basically flops, and only a few games made a profit.

"We can develop some chess and card games. You can go around and find out what kind of chess and card games you want.
If we find something that is playable, we can turn it into a video game.”

Liu Zhicheng tapped his fingers and continued, "As for software, our future market will mainly be in the mainland.

You can find a way to develop a Chinese input method, or even develop our own computer operating system."

Throughout the PC era, the ones that truly established a monopoly advantage were:
It's not just PC manufacturers like IBM. Even after the new century, the PC industry has become a low-end assembly industry.

In the PC era, there were only two real winners.

One is Intel, a leading manufacturer that controls the core hardware CPU.

The other is Microsoft, which has a monopoly on operating systems.

If we can’t occupy the European and American markets, how can we occupy the Chinese regions in Southeast Asia?
You can even take a step ahead and build your own 'LAN' in Southeast Asia.

Although making money is important, the kind of person who has infinite wealth,

But they say "I don't care about money", which is just treating others as fools.

But making money is definitely not the only thing, and Liu Zhicheng does not want to be a "pure businessman" like Li Chaoren.

Making money is just a means, a way to control resources. In Liu Zhicheng's mind,
There has always been a more far-reaching goal, which is to change the course of technology in the next few decades.

"Okay, I will ask the game development department to set up a special team responsible for computer games, as well as a software development team." Huo Haiqing nodded and said.

"A small group is not enough. You need to adjust the personnel arrangement appropriately and build a large team. Computer games,
In the future, the market for home game consoles will be squeezed to a certain extent, and this area must be taken seriously. "Liu Zhicheng paused and said.

"Okay, I understand." Huo Haiqing nodded.

"In addition to these problems, there is another problem. There is a technology called local area network in the United States, and we also need to obtain relevant authorization."

Liu Zhicheng glanced at everyone and continued, "We first considered using this technology to connect several computers together.
Then we play games together. The board games we developed are games that can be played by several people together.”

"Local area network?" Huo Haiqing said, "Okay, I'll go find out."

All Liu Zhicheng is doing today is to guide everyone towards the concept of the Internet and hopes to make a difference in the future.

“Yes, regarding this computer technology, we need to keep a close eye on North America.

In addition, I have already reached a research and development agreement for programmable computers and pagers in the mainland.
If you have limited talent, you can also entrust them with the development." Liu Zhicheng said.

In fact, research on personal computers is not difficult.

The difficulty lies in developing a computer that is acceptable to the market and has low cost, which is quite challenging.

Previous arcade machines did not have this feature because the game was protected by patents.

This prevented others from making the same arcade machine, thus creating an exclusive market.

If computers also had this patent protection, they would definitely make huge profits.

That's why Liu Zhicheng thought of developing an operating system.

"Then can we directly recruit people from China? If these people come to Hong Kong, research and development will be much more convenient." Huo Haiqing asked.

"A few people should be fine, but don't overdo it.
Otherwise, the mainland will have objections, so you'd better try another approach and discuss it with these universities or the Ministry of Education.
We provide them with US dollars and ask them to support and guide us. Isn't it better to win together?" Liu Zhicheng thought for a while and said.

With the living conditions in Hong Kong and the treatment that Orange Technology can provide to R&D engineers.

If we go to poach people, I'm afraid a lot of people will come.

If this is really done, it will affect the image of Orange Technology.

It is extremely disadvantageous for their development of the mainland market.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng tactfully rejected Huo Haiqing's proposal and tried to proceed through cooperation.

In a few years, as the mainland's reform and opening up deepens, the operation will become more convenient.

…………

After returning from the capital, Yang Minli felt that she was beginning to get sleepy.
I also felt like vomiting, so I secretly went to the hospital for a check-up and found out that I was really pregnant.

Her relationship with Liu Zhicheng is not shameful, but she does not want it to be exposed.

　Asking for a monthly ticket! Asking for a monthly ticket! Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)