[☆ More.New.Most.Fast☆None.Pop-up.Window☆Full.Free.Fee]

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 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. ◎WWW.◎△ Top Novels, the users of mainframe computers are mainly banks, airlines, government departments and other institutions 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, the dominance of the minicomputer market was DEC Corporation, but since the 70s, it has been strongly challenged by DGC (General Purpose Jù) Corporation. Several of the founders of DGC were originally employees of DEC and later quit their jobs and started their own businesses, defeating their old employers. This is by no means uncommon in the American IT industry, such as Zilog, which developed the Z80 processor, and several founders are former employees of Intel, which also killed the 8080 processor of the old club.

However, as a giant that defeated IBM and dominated the minicomputer market, DEC 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 computers, the performance of DEC company 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 known as a personal computer, is a bulky small computer that requires a dedicated climate-controlled studio. 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. Workstation computers compared to regular personal computers. Although it is not much different in terms of appearance, 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 of memory. MIPS here does not refer to the MIPS architecture, but the English abbreviation of "processing millions of machine qì language instructions per second".

We often hear that the higher the frequency of a certain CPU, the faster it runs, and the higher the price. In fact, MIPS is a more accurate indicator of the processing speed of the processor than frequency. For example, the 5MHz 8086 processor can complete 330,000 computer instructions per second, which means that it runs at a speed of 0.33mips.

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

Professional workstation computers have appeared in the U.S. market as early as last year, and Boston-based Apollo Computer Company 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 MC68000 processor introduced by Puppet Torola in 1979 has a computing speed of 1.4 mips. Just last month, Motorola cooperated with Japan's Toshiba to improve lithography technology, and the new MC68010 with a frequency of 12.5MHz was launched. The computing rate has been increased to 2.4 mips.

Of course, the computing speed does not represent the full performance of a processor, for example, the computing rate of ERM-1, even if it is higher than the latest version of the MC68010 processor, but the actual performance is slightly worse than the previous MC68000 processor.

The main reason for this is that the structure of the ERM-1 chip is too simple. It's not so much a microprocessor as a microcontroller. When the ERM-1 chip was designed, many functional units were simplified. For example, its efficiency for floating-point arithmetic is mediocre.

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

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and the cost of MC68000 is much higher than that of ERM. The ERM-1 chip can be used in the ABC series of computers to seize the personal computer market, but the MC68000 is 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 the MC68000 will be gone forever. The 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 addition of two internal cache chips inside the processor.

Li Xuan did not really propose the cache design of the ERM architecture until the subsequent ERM-2 development, and it was still 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 produced using the first 1.25 micron S 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's strategic cooperation plan with IBM. IBM's wafer fab is responsible for the OEM production of a portion of the 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 designs in the research and 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 slow to make progress on the new PC-AT PCs that were previously being developed 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 executives have not given up on their ambitions for 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 a person named Patterson in imitation of CP/M. 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 poses a 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.

In the past, when Aikang Company was arguing with IBM Company, he secretly notified the digital research company of the news of the alleged infringement of the CP/M system of the 86-DOS operating system used on the PC 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 has suffered 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, Digital Research took Microsoft and IBM directly to court. (To be continued......)