[Xiangjiang arcade frenzy, who is fueling the flames]

Yesterday was Labor Day, and the hall of Hong Kong's famous Lido Cinema was crowded with people, with hundreds of people queuing up at the scene, and even several brawls broke out, and the police had to urgently dispatch special personnel to maintain order.

The reporter saw at the scene that it was not any movie that was released that caused this wave, but an unprecedented video game machine placed in the hall.

An unnamed player at the scene told reporters that there are two kinds of intellectual games on these ten game machines, which are extremely interesting and suitable for both men and women.

So the reporter also lined up to participate in a handful, sure enough, as he said, the game is really fun, and it is very convenient to get started, but unfortunately it took 1 hour to queue, and it took only 10 minutes to play three games with 6 milli coins, which is really unsatisfying.

Some readers may still remember the name Daheng, which was well-known in the market last year, and its manufacturers, Daheng Printing Paper and Daheng Technology, are companies under the same group.

Mr. Lu, a senior engineer of the R&D department of Daheng Technology located at the scene, introduced that this electronic machine for single and double games is called an arcade machine, which is the latest high-tech product developed by Daheng Technology Company with global patents, which will be fully listed in Xiangjiang and Asia in the near future, and will be promoted to developed countries such as Europe and the United States in the second half of the year.

Lido Cinema owners and arcade operators told reporters that after the original empty hall was equipped with arcades, it not only added new income to the theater, but also brought additional foot traffic, which was also very beneficial to the original main business of the theater.

However, a sergeant at the Wan Chai Police Station, who maintained order at the scene, privately complained that due to the large number of people gathered by the arcade, it might bring new law and order problems, which was undoubtedly a huge challenge for the owners and the police.

About the arcade machine and Daheng Group, the reporter will continue to report for you. ”

On May 2, as soon as Zhang Heng went to work, He Jie smiled and put the report of Liao Shuning, a reporter from the "Industrial and Commercial Daily", on his desk.

"Sister He, communicate privately with reporter Liao, if there is any negative news about the arcade, be sure to notify us in advance. After reading the report, Zhang Heng frowned and pondered for a while, and ordered.

"I understand that the company will keep an eye on the relevant situation, and will also urge Hongtu Company and relevant on-site owners to do a good job of order. He Jie nodded and said, "By the way, Boss Meng called this morning, and they will send someone to pull the goods again in the morning." ”

Yesterday, Hongtu has completed the distribution of all the theaters of the Shaw Brothers Cinema Line, and today it began to distribute the goods in the business premises under its control, and in two days, Meng Dahai ordered a total of 300 arcade machines.

That is to say, in just two days, Daheng Technology has created sales of 2.4 million Hong Kong dollars, and according to the cost of an arcade machine of less than 3,000 Hong Kong dollars, the profit is as high as 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

Zhang Heng also smiled and ordered two things:

The first is to immediately prepare for the construction of an arcade store in Akihabara.

The second is to recall Bai Shaoyi, who is still running around in South America, and formally establish the business department of Daheng Technology, ready to open up the markets in Europe, America and Japan.

He Jie took the order and left, and Zhang Heng called to invite Fa Jin.

"Federico, thank you for your efforts on this project, this is a little bit of the company's heart. As soon as Fajin came in, Zhang Heng smiled and handed over a check for $5,000.

Fakin's monthly salary in Intel is 1200 US dollars, this business trip Intel gave a monthly subsidy of 300 US dollars, after his family came to Xiangjiang, in addition to high accommodation and family subsidies, Daheng also paid a monthly post allowance of 500 US dollars, and this time paid a one-time bonus of 5000 US dollars, the price is very expensive.

But Fajin is definitely worth the price.

During his more than three months in Xiangjiang, he led Lu Yun and others to complete the circuit and PCB substrate design of the first arcade machine, and the two game programs were also debugged under his leadership.

In addition, he also designed a unique anti-piracy circuit and supporting detection program for this set of substrates, which is an unprecedented work for the immature R&D team of Daheng Technology, and he really can't do it without him.

Fajin glanced at the check casually, his expression was not too excited, and he hesitated for a while before saying: "Zhang, I am very grateful for your care of me and my family at this stage, but it's a pity that ......"

According to the previous agreement with Intel, Fakin will return to Silicon Valley at the end of this month, and he has compiled a thick memo about the technical data about 8008 from the arcade design process into a thick memo to take back to Silicon Valley.

"yes, I'm sorry too. Zhang Heng also sighed, "I don't know if you have any suggestions for the arcade project?"

When it comes to technical issues, Fakin is full of interest and talks endlessly.

"I think that in the future, as the complexity of games continues to increase, it will be necessary to greatly improve the graphics and sound processing circuits, and the internal structure of the CPU related to the main program operation of the game will also be optimized to a greater extent. ”

"What do you mean, we can design a CPU dedicated to arcade machines?" Zhang Heng keenly understood what he meant and the key points.

More professional sound cards and graphics cards, whether for arcade machines, video game consoles, and personal computers in the future, are the meaning of the right, Daheng Technology will naturally step up research and development.

In the future, the second generation of games will also be designed with a new PPU (Computing Co-Processor) to assist the CPU in faster image processing, and if you follow Fajin's suggestion, this part can be put inside the CPU.

There is also an anti-piracy circuit, which is currently made on the substrate outside the CPU, but it is just a identification circuit that is fully covered with a special glue, and the mechanism is to judge whether there are signs of external read operation in the ROM program after booting, and judge whether the preset serial number in the CPU is consistent with the substrate, so that the circuit can be locked after suffering from external brute force decoding or replacing ROM.

If a pirate takes the time to study the substrate carefully, he can still skip this part, but if a part of the dedicated circuit is set inside the CPU, the piracy will be greatly increased, after all, it is much more difficult to reverse copy a CPU than a PCB board.

Fakin nodded: "Yes, given the good prospects for the future of this product, I think you can bring it up to Intel." ”

Zhang Heng pondered.

In the previous life, arcade machines and video game consoles mainly used three CPUs: Z80, MOS6502, and M68000, which were produced by Zilog, Mostec and Motorola of Fajin, respectively, and the latter two CPUs finally occupied the mainstream market.

At that time, the mainstream manufacturers Nintendo and Atari adopted these chips only because they were cheap and versatile, and they also had the idea of redesigning their own dedicated CPUs, but they were soon pushed by the rapidly expanding market to choose existing chips that had matured.

This design solution brings convenience and efficiency, which allows these manufacturers to quickly make a lot of money, but it also brings a huge hidden danger, that is, piracy.

Because of the high versatility of these chips, pirates in Asia and Eastern Europe soon reversed the circuit board, copied the game programs in the ROM, and then produced a large number of pirated products at a cheaper cost.

Of course, these products can only be sold in the region, and it does not affect the mainstream market of genuine products, but this also prevents genuine products from opening up these markets that have no potential for the time being.

For example, in the Chinese mainland market, Nintendo completely gave up at the beginning of the previous life, and did not officially enter until the 21st century, allowing imitation products such as Xiaobawang to be popular for nearly 10 years in vain, and obtained amazing huge benefits.

Zhang Heng intends to become one of the first foreign companies to invest and set up factories in the mainland after 78 years, whether considering political or economic significance, this is what he must do.

"It's only 73 years now, and it's still too late to prepare for a rainy day, Daheng Technology must have its own dedicated CPU, whether it's a game or a computer. ”

Zhang Heng finally made a decision and said to Fajin: "I agree with your point of view, please you and the project team to sort out a detailed technical requirements file, I will hand it over to Intel as soon as possible, I hope they can take over this project, and I hope that this project is still in charge of you." ”

Fajin said goodbye with a smile, and Zhang Heng looked at his back and fell into deep thought again.

Digging Fajin to design this dedicated CPU is what he really wants to do, but he hasn't officially proposed it yet, because if he does, if he refuses, there will be no turnaround.

Under his hints, the design team has vaguely expressed this hope to Faggin in their daily work, and He Jie is also constantly doing Madame Fakin's work through the hired service staff.

"Next, it's up to Noyce and others to reply, I hope it satisfies me. ”

PS: Thank you to your friend [st10083, Carving Boat Son] for the monthly pass, thank you friend [Streamer for Guarding 3] 500 reward again, sob!