The Osborne-1 computer opened up a completely new category of computers, the portable personal computer. As a result, it is uniquely positioned to avoid the fierce competition in the PC market.

The Osborne-1 computer body and keyboard can be folded together to look like a white briefcase, which has attracted the favor of special users who have portable needs for computers as soon as they are launched.

Li Xuan didn't know much about this Osborne-1 portable computer, and according to the company's technician's disassembly report, it was a computer with a relatively good design. Li Xuan was deeply impressed by another portable computer developed by three engineers who had resigned from Texas Instruments, the PaqPortable. This computer really opened the curtain on PC-compatible machines, and the computer company founded by these three engineers is called Compaq.

It was Compaq that kicked IBM off the throne of personal computers. It was one of the world's most well-known PC manufacturers throughout the eighties and nineties, and it was not until it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard that it disappeared into the long smoke of history.

Under Li Xuan's guidance, Aikang began to develop portable personal computers long ago, and originally planned to sell new computers before the end of the year. But the unexpected appearance of Osborne-1 forced Akon to speed up the launch of the new computer.

The new portable computer will continue to use the name of the ABC series, which is directly called ABC-P4, or P4 computer for short. P stands for the abbreviation of the English word "portable".

The P4 computer is also powered by an ERM-1 processor, 128K RAM, a 5.25-inch floppy drive, and a 10M hard drive. But it has a screen that is designed to be integrated with the body and only 10 inches, compared to the 17-inch display of the average ABC-3 computer. The keyboard of the P4 computer is detachable. A number of jù lines are connected to the main unit.

The ERM architecture plagiarized by Li Xuan inherits the advantages of ARM's low power consumption, which also means that the ERM-1 processor does not heat up when it is working. This allows computer designers at the Akon company. There are great advantages when designing a portable computer.

They don't have to leave much space for heat dissipation, and they can design the layout of the computer to be more compact. Therefore, although the P4 prototype manufactured by Aikang Company used a 10-inch screen, it was smaller than the 5-inch Osborn-1 computer.

The unmarketed P4 computers of Osborn-1 and Akon can only be said to be the ancestors of future laptops. They are actually very different from the laptops of a few decades later. Today's laptops can only be called laptops, not thin and light laptops.

Truly thin and light laptops will not appear until the LCD technology is mature. The LCD screens widely used in computers and mobile phones in later generations are still in the development stage of the real Yàn room, and now the computer monitors are all CRT picture tubes. Anyone who has ever taken apart an old TV knows that most of the volume of a TV is occupied by a picture tube. Other circuits require just a thin printed circuit board.

After the New York launch of the ABC-3 computer, the other executives have left New York. And Li Xuan stayed and didn't leave, naturally it couldn't be that he was specially watching the IBM PC press conference, he wasn't bored to this point.

He stayed in New York to talk to RCA about working together. RCA is arguably one of the most senior electronics companies in the United States, and has profoundly influenced the way people transmit and communicate information, from the radio age to the television age.

In the sixties, RCA was also the world's most powerful television producer. It holds a large number of patents for shade-mask CRT color televisions, which completely envelop the entire television industry. At that time, almost all the enterprises in the world that produced color televisions. All need to purchase patents from RCA.

But with the development of the ultra-delicate CRT by Japan's Sony Corporation in 1968, RCA's TV empire began to collapse. In the sixties, RCA was able to rely on its patent advantage to barely resist the low-price attacks of Japanese companies. But from the seventies. RCA has also lagged behind Sony in technology, and was forced to pay patent fees to Sony to obtain the production authorization of the special picture tube.

Since then, the only thing that can protect RCA's market share has been the U.S. government. Relying on trade protection, RCA companies managed to survive under the strong attack of Japanese television companies. The root cause of this is the high cost of labor in the United States. The constant struggle of the unions has improved the labor treatment and welfare of American workers. However, it has harmed the competitiveness of American goods.

In recent years, RCA, the former TV giant. The share of the domestic TV market in the United States is also shrinking. RCA executives have decided to save themselves by moving all manufacturing operations to neighboring Mexico, where labor is cheaper.

"Good afternoon, Peter, you seem to be in a good mood!" As soon as Li Xuan got out of the car, he hugged a white man with a tiger's back warmly. Peter Charleson, a director of RCA, is also the head of the television business.

"Bruno has just been drafted as a quarterback for the Harvard varsity team, and he's my oldest son, and that's the most exciting news of the year!" Charleson laughed.

"It seems that your son will definitely inherit your mantle and continue to beat the Yale people!" Li Xuan complimented.

"Haha, yes, I'm sure he's going to make a good quarterback!"

Charleson was obviously very happy after listening to Li Xuan's words. Don't look at him in his fifties, but he maintains a very good figure, he is an athlete, and his muscles are as good as those of Mr. Bodybuilder.

Charleson previously told Li Xuan that one of the things he was most proud of was that when he was in college, he was the main quarterback of the Harvard football team, and twice beat up the Yale people in "thegame". "thegame" is the name given to the annual football match between Harvard and Yale's rival universities. The game is hailed as one of the oldest and most intense college sports rivalries in the United States, even though the two universities are not tied for the best level of football.

There is a strong alumni culture in American society, especially when a large proportion of private university funding comes from generous donations from alumni. If your parents are alumni of a certain university, then you will have an advantage when applying to this university.

Many families with several generations and dozens of members may have graduated from the same prestigious private school. And with the fierce competition for admission to prestigious private schools in the United States, whether these people are really so good, everyone can just laugh it off.

The recent intersection between Oriental and RCA is not small, and the two sides have cooperated a lot in the fields of picture tubes, semiconductors and computers. In the sixties, RCA was also one of the well-known companies in the field of mainframe computers. Unfortunately, it ran into the booming IBM company at that time, and was defeated by the IBM 360/370 series of computers, and was forced to announce its withdrawal from the computer field in 1971.

Although RCA has been out of the computer business for nearly a decade, its real room still holds many important computer-related patents, which are incomparable to Dongfang Electronics and these century-old stores.

From the concept to the maturity and practicality of a technology, it needs to be continuously explored and improved. This will create a series of patents that will require any company that wants to use these new technologies to obtain the relevant patents. This feature is particularly prominent in high-tech fields such as computers. Dongfang Electronics' subsidiaries have been spending money to obtain the authorization of a large number of basic patents of major companies.

Of course, the main purpose of Li Xuan's visit to RCA this time is to negotiate business cooperation with CRT. Orient Commercial is already one of RCA's most important CRT sourcing clients in Asia. Last year, it purchased 300,000 CRTs from RCA, and this number will at least double this year, so RCA can't help but pay less attention to it.

"Ten-inch monochrome picture tube, no problem, we will definitely give our partners the best price!" Charlison couldn't help but smile when he heard that Li Xuan had brought a new contract.

Li Xuan only needs to reach a general intention with RCA, and as for the specific procurement details of the P4 computer CRT contract, there will naturally be someone responsible for negotiation. He quickly asked another question. "Peter, how are the negotiations for your RCA company to open a new factory in China going?"

Charleson shook his head and said: "The company has canceled its plan to build a factory in China! The Chinese government wants to get a controlling stake in the joint venture factory, and at the same time wants us to open up key technologies such as picture tubes, but it also limits the sales quota of products produced by the joint venture factory in China. The conditions are so harsh that we have decided to build a new plant in Mexico!"

RCA's purpose in setting up a factory in China is to develop the red market, which has great potential. If RCA's Chinese factories produce TVs, they cannot be sold in China on a large scale, but will have to be sold back to the United States. Then it doesn't make much sense for them to set up factories in China. Because if it is only for the sake of reducing costs, it can choose to set up a factory in neighboring Mexico. At least Mexico is much less politically risky to U.S. companies than Red China, and here it is entirely under the protection of the U.S. government.

Li Xuan actually knew very well that the RCA's negotiations with the mainland had broken down, and this was just the reason for him to divert the topic. He then asked straight to the point: "Is it possible for RCA to establish a joint venture with Dongfang Electronics in the form of technology equity to jointly produce CRT picture tubes?"

"Set up a factory in Hong Kong?no, no! The price of land in Hong Kong is too expensive, and the box-like industrial building is only suitable for light industrial plants, not for the production of picture tubes!" Charleson said, shaking his head. He had been to Hong Kong and was not ignorant of the city's situation. (To be continued......)