In September 1980, the handheld sample of "China Cube" was successfully developed and placed on Lin Qi's desk. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

This handheld quickly conquered the hearts of the company's employees, and every day there were employees lining up to be the game's closed beta personnel. As the handheld computer becomes more and more perfect, many employees ask the company to issue a handheld computer as a benefit.

"No problem at all!" Lin Qi said very generously, "After mass production, all employees who cooperate with the game test will receive a handheld as an internal benefit." ”

"Long live the boss!" cheered the many employees.

At present, the most critical issue in the success or failure of the "China Cube" handheld machine is the cost, which accounts for two-thirds of the cost of the entire machine, which is the 6502 chip worth $10.

The 6502 chip was originally a high-performance chip for a price war, and it was listed at a low price of $25, which instantly muddied the market pattern of the CPU industry. Since its price was low at the beginning, the rate of price reduction over time was much lower than Moore's Law.

Even now, the 6502 chip is still the most cost-effective 8-bit CPU chip, however, it still accounts for too much cost for handheld computers. A handheld with a retail price of about $20 cannot accept a chip for $10.

The remaining LCD screens, memory chips, batteries, speakers and other components add up to less than a fraction of the 6502 chip.

So, you want to reduce the cost of handhelds...... The most important thing is to cut the price of the 6502 chip.

It is impossible to negotiate a price reduction with MOS Technology in the United States. MOS Technology launched the 6502 chip in 75, and the two giants of Apple and Atari since 77 have joined the 6502 chip camp of MOS Technology.

However, in order to maximize profits, MOS Technology licenses patents to semiconductor manufacturers around the world, and as long as the patent fee for 6502 chips is paid, they can produce 6502 chips by themselves.

As a result, more than a dozen factories producing 6502 chips have been launched around the world...... Each factory produces millions to tens of millions of chips per year, and the total annual production capacity of 6502 chips in the world even exceeds 100 million!

Such a huge production capacity, of course, is excessive. As a result, the factories producing 6502 chips are unevenly warm, some factories are full of orders, and some factories have spent tens of millions of dollars or even hundreds of millions of dollars to put into operation a large factory, but because of the lack of orders, they continue to suffer losses caused by equipment depreciation and depreciation......

Lin Qi knew that there was a factory in this state, so he was ready to "send charcoal in the snow" and smash the order!

Of course, the premise is that the other party promises to supply 6502 chips at the lowest price in the market......

……

September 20, 1980.

On the flight from Hong Kong to Japan, Lin Qi arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, with a business delegation composed of bodyguards and secretaries.

Soon after getting off the plane, I saw a group of Japanese holding a Chinese sign that read, "Welcome to the friendly visit of Mr. Lin Qi, chairman of Hong Kong New Venture Electronics Company."

These little Japanese bowed again, and spoke blunt and "standard" Chinese, greeting Lin Qi and others.

These little Japanese are outwardly polite, but that's just the appearance. Today I can respectfully treat you as a guest, and tomorrow I may kill you in the mall.

Europeans and Americans in this era have tasted the bitterness of Japan. Household appliances, automobiles, semiconductors, steel, machine tools, chemicals, and other industries are all based on European and American companies. Since modern times, Japan has been very good at absorbing foreign technology, either by sending it to the government or by visiting schools around the world at the expense of the private sector out of patriotism, and helping the country steal foreign technology.

Introduce what can be introduced, and steal what can't be introduced, this is the secret of the rapid rise of Japanese industry!

After World War II, out of the Cold War mentality, Japan was maintained as the largest pawn in the Far East, so Europe and the United States connived at Japan's massive introduction of technology and did not even mind Japan's theft.

It was not until the beginning of the 80s that Japan began to wage a price war with the United States in the fields of automobiles, home appliances, semiconductors, etc., at this time, in addition to showing vigilance, the United States also felt that the sheep that had been raised for decades were finally fat!

During the honeymoon period between China and the United States in the 80s, China contained the Soviet Union, and the United States found that Japan's value had dropped sharply, so it began to officially cut wool from Japan, creating an uncontrolled surge in the yen in the short term, which in turn stimulated the uncontrolled expansion of Japan's real estate, finance and other industries. In the whole process, American investors made a lot of profits, and then they began to burst the bubble again, and shorted Japan to make a lot of money.

After the continuous decline of the Japanese economy, many assets have depreciated to two or three folds, especially the real estate in Tokyo, Japan, which has also depreciated to an unreasonable undervalue. Since the end of the 90s in the United States, a large number of financial companies have copied the junk bonds secured by real estate in Tokyo, Japan. These junk bonds have depreciated to about two-tenths or three-tenths of their face value. Buy these bonds at a discount of 20% and get the collateral for the bonds - a real estate project in Tokyo!

After the United States bought these non-performing assets, the real estate in Tokyo, Japan, miraculously recovered, and at the beginning of the 21st century, the real estate in Tokyo has recovered to the prices at the beginning of the 90s, when the real estate bubble collapsed.

Japan was later tossed so badly by the United States, not because "the Japanese can say no" stimulated the United States, but because its lifeblood was in the hands of the Americans, and moreover, it was too fat.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Lin Qi, and he is not the Yankee who dominates the ups and downs of Japan!

Lin Qi came to Japan this time, mainly to solve the problem of mass production costs of handheld computers. The price of $10 for a chip is not expensive for a computer, but it is too expensive for a handheld computer.

Because, the market price of the handheld in his plan is more than 100 Hong Kong dollars, and at the exchange rate at this time, 10 US dollars of chips already account for 58 Hong Kong dollars. Of course, this price is unacceptable, so he is ready to bypass those second-tier traders in Hong Kong and place orders from manufacturers who can produce 6502 chips.

At present, several major semiconductor factories in Asia that can make 6502 chips are basically in Japan. Among them, Ricoh has just introduced a production line of 6502 chips and obtained production authorization.

But here comes the problem, there are a bunch of manufacturers around the world who have been authorized to produce 6502 chips, this is a good chip, but Ricoh is a rookie who has just entered the CPU field, and the quality and production capacity of the products have not been tested by the market, so the chips produced by Ricoh, in addition to the annual digestion of hundreds of thousands of their own products, most of the production capacity is limited because there are no orders.

With an investment of tens of millions of dollars, idleness means that the loss of equipment depreciation cannot be offset by production, and Ricoh is also very anxious!

Lin Qi wants to buy 6502 chips, while Ricoh wants to sell the 6502 chips it produces.

The two sides hit it off, and only then did Lin Qi have a trip to visit Japan.