PS: I'm sorry.,I can't write it when I sit in front of the computer at night.,Until half past one.,Finally write a chapter.,Tomorrow will be three more to make up for the one signed today!

The entire computer industry can be divided into mainframe computers, minicomputers, and microcomputers according to the size of computers. The users of mainframe computers are mainly banks, airlines, government departments, and other organizations that need to process massive amounts of information.

IBM is the well-deserved overlord of the mainframe, starting from the launch of the System/360 computer in 1964, until Li Xuan's crossing, IBM's market share has been more than 90%, firmly monopolizing this lucrative market.

Originally, DEC was the dominant player in the small computer market, but from the 70s onwards, it was strongly challenged by DGC (General Purpose jù). Several of the founders of DGC were originally employees of DEC but later resigned and started their own business, defeating their old employers. This is by no means uncommon in the American IT industry, such as Zilog, which developed the Z80 processor, several founders are former employees of Intel, and the result is also the 8080 processor of the old club.

However, DEC, as a giant that defeated IBM and dominated the minicomputer market, still has a strong technical background. Relying on the VAX series of small computers developed in the 70s and the original PDP series of small machines, DEC's performance is still quite good.

The real threat to DEC is the emergence of workstation computers, which are already poised to compete with minicomputers.

A microcomputer, also called a personal computer, is more important than building a dedicated climate-controlled studio. Small computers that are bulky, microcomputers are much smaller. It was originally created as an amateur toy for computer enthusiasts. That's why it's called a personal computer.

But with the rapid advancement of semiconductor technology, the performance of microcomputers is also changing with each passing day. A workstation computer is not much different from a regular PC in terms of appearance, but it has a faster processor and more memory.

When the first generation of workstation computers appeared, the industry used 2M to summarize its performance. The so-called 2M means that the workstation computer has a working speed of 1MIPS and 1M memory. MIPS here does not refer to the MIPS architecture, but is an abbreviation for "processing millions of machine qì language instructions per second".

We often hear that a certain CPU is more frequent. The faster you run, the higher the price. In fact, MIPS is a more accurate measure of the processing speed of a processor than frequency. For example, the 5MHz 8086 processor can complete 330,000 computer instructions per second. That is, it runs at 0.33MIPS.

The ERM-1 processor launched by the Oriental Research Institute last year has a computing rate of 3MIPS. As for the new MIPS architecture developed by the Oriental Research Institute in cooperation with Stanford University, its first commercial microprocessor S-100 has an astonishing computing rate of 6MIPS, which is completely popular with all processors on the market.

Professional workstation computers appeared in the U.S. market as early as last year. Boston-based Apollo Computer Company. It is now the number one supplier in the workstation market. Boeing and General Motors have purchased its new workstation computers as a complement to their small computers.

Apollo workstations use Motorola's MC68000 processors. The 8MHz version of the puppet Torola company introduced in 1979 MC68000 processor with a speed of 1.4 MIPS. Just last month, Motorola cooperated with Toshiba Corporation of Japan to improve lithography technology, and the newly launched MC68010 with a frequency of 12.5MHz increased the computing rate to 2.4MIPS.

Of course, the computing speed does not represent the full performance of a processor, for example, the computing rate of the ERM-1 is higher than that of the latest MC68010 processors. However, the actual performance is slightly worse than that of the earlier MC68000 processors.

The main reason for this is that the structure of the ERM-1 chip is too simple, not so much a microprocessor. It's better to say that it is a micro-controlled zhì device. The ERM-1 chip was designed with many functional units simplified, such as its average efficiency for floating-point arithmetic.

Li Xuan chose to develop ERM at that time, and positioned it as cost-effective. The entire ERM-1 chip integrates only 30,000 transistors, while the MC68000 chip integrates nearly 70,000 transistors.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, the cost of MC68000 is much higher than ERM, ERM-1 chips can be used in ABC series computers to seize the personal computer market, but MC68000 are used in high-end products such as workstations.

Now, with the advent of the second MIPS architecture series of processors of the Oriental Research Institute, the good times of MC68000 will be gone forever. S-100 is not a simple 32-bit processor like ERM-1, and Li Xuan's initial positioning for him was aimed at the mid-to-high-end market.

In addition to a processing core, the overall design of the S-100 integrates two coprocessors, of which the CP0 coprocessor is responsible for storage management and system control tasks, and the CP1 coprocessor is dedicated to floating-point arithmetic, in addition to the processor has two internal cache chips.

Li Xuan did not really propose the cache design of the ERM architecture until the subsequent development of ERM-2, and it was still in the way of using a lower-cost external cache. However, the S-100 processor integrates two internal cache chips in one go, bringing the total number of transistors integrated into the entire chip to 100,000.

For highly integrated transistors, the S-100 processor is manufactured using the first 1.25 micron COMS process technology. Dongfang Semiconductor Company, a subsidiary of Dongfang Electronics, is still under intense construction of the latest process fab, so the first batch of S-100 processors rolled off the assembly line in IBM's wafer factory.

This is also part of Dongfang Electronics' strategic cooperation plan with IBM. IBM's wafer fab is responsible for the OEM production of some S-100 processors for the Oriental Research Institute. The Oriental Research Institute provided IBM with information about the S-100 processor, so that IBM could use it to develop related computer products.

This is a lot of pressure on Aikang, which also uses the S-100 processor to develop workstation computers. However, after Dongfang Electronics Group has the previous experience in the research and development of ABC-3 computers, it has been able to coordinate the research and development progress of various subdivisions such as processors, operating systems, and computer structure design in the development of workstation computers this time, so as to achieve more efficient synchronous advancement.

IBM's efficiency is lackluster, and its internal bloat has made it not very fast to develop new PC-AT PCs based on ERM-1 chips, let alone new workstation computers.

The AT in PC-AT is an acronym for "Advanced Technology" in English. The name also shows that IBM's top management has not given up on the ambitions of the PC market. As for how much market share IBM can seize from the fierce personal market next, Li Xuan is not optimistic.

He is more concerned about the two companies in another time and space that have created the rise of heroes because of PC compatibility - Microsoft and Intel. The operating system that IBM used in PCs was developed by Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation.

But Bill Gates did not develop it himself, but bought the QDOS operating system developed by CP/M from a man named Patterson. Then he took the software he bought and modified it according to the BIOS provided by IBM, and it became the 86-DOS sold on the PC.

86-DOS has a strong imitation of the CP/M operating system developed by the previous digital research company, and Bill Gates did not obtain a deep license to the CP/M software through the acquisition of guò as Li Xuan did before, which leaves the risk of infringement.

In another time and space, after IBM's PC sales were booming, the digital research company quickly sued IBM for infringement, and finally IBM paid a lot of money to reach a settlement with the other party. Li Xuan is very aware of this allusion, so he naturally has to use it well.

Previously, when Aikang Company had a dispute with IBM, he secretly notified the digital research company of the 86-DOS operating system used on the PC and the suspected infringement of the CP/M system in an anonymous way.

As a result, the digital research company did not disappoint him, and after asking the technician to analyze it, they found that the anonymous letter was true, so they immediately took IBM to court.

The infringement lawsuit between IBM and Aikang has not yet been completed, but he is suffering from the enemy. After the lawsuit, the already tepid sales of PCs fell further. This is also one of the important reasons why IBM directly gave up the PC and chose to reconcile with Dongfang Electronics and join the Eastern camp.

IBM's abandonment of PCs has had the greatest impact on Microsoft and Intel. Microsoft has just filed a big thigh, and as a result, IBM is dissatisfied with Microsoft because of the 86-DOS infringement lawsuit. Under the continuous PR of Oriental Software, support for the East-DOS operating system simply began.

In another time and space in Li Xuan's memory, the digital research company seems to have only recognized IBM and did not pay much attention to Microsoft, the culprit. And now, Li Xuan knows the truth that if you don't die, you will suffer from it. In his anonymous letter, he added fuel to the line of Microsoft's illegal practices. Influenced by his anonymous letter, the digital research firm took Microsoft and IBM directly to court. (To be continued......)