"Pangea, as if it was groundbreaking, created a new world, and many years later, I still remember the emotion of that time. www.biquge.info No, even now, the first generation of the disc game "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", which is standard on the Pangu console in 82, is still a classic!" More than 20 years later, a netizen in the Internet era published an article that resonated with countless netizens.

"Top, the Pangu console is so strong that it has no friends, and the whole world's game industry was dumbfounded, so I don't play like this!"

"The collapse of Atari was caused by Pangea hosting. Originally, Atari was almost a monopolist of home consoles, and neither the C64 nor the PC could challenge the Atari 2600 in the home console market. But it seems that not long after Pangu came out, it was rumored that Atari went from huge profits to huge losses in the second year, and declared bankruptcy after a few years. ”

"Not to mention that the game console industry is dumbfounded, even the PC has also been hit by a huge impact. If there is no Pangu console, presumably the Chinese market is also using PC, right? ”

"Of course, there are application tools on the PC platform, and Pangu consoles can find similar ones. Most of the software used by domestic enterprises is software on the Pangu platform, and they will not be able to work without the Pangu platform. There is a convenient, easy-to-use and powerful Pangu computer, who would be stupid to change to a cold, noble and difficult to use PC. A few decades ago, those international giants probably never dreamed that the Chinese market would develop to such a point, and Pangu relied on monopolizing the Chinese market and occupying a niche market in the world, which was enough to share the world equally with the PC. ”

……

On November 11, 1982, the Pangu console was officially launched in Hong Kong, but it was limited to 1,111 units per day.

There is no doubt that this has been criticized by many consumers, strong performance, low price, why can't you buy it!

The entry version of the Pangu console is priced at $199 in the global market and HK$1098 in the Hong Kong market, which is about the same price as the Atari 2600, but its performance is more than 2600 streets of the Atari console.

Even compared to the current C64, which is known for its gaming performance, it is a miserable beating, not to mention the PC camp. Just compared to CPU performance, the Pangu host can beat all the computer hosts in the entire PC camp, yes, all! Some high-end PC models may have more powerful display chips and memory. However, the CPU performance of the x86 architecture is not good, so the overall performance will definitely be beaten by the cheaper Pangu console for $199 entry version.

Of course, the PC can win the market, and it is by no means a performance advantage. Otherwise, if there is less than $600 for the C64, why can a PC with worse performance win the market? To put it simply, the victory of the PC lies in compatibility, and under the call of IBM, the world's mainstream software and hardware manufacturers have begun to move closer to the PC camp and transplant the software of various other platforms to the PC platform. In addition, in the United States, buy IBM products, even if they buy expensive, they will not be blamed, so many companies are purchasing office computers, even if they know that their cost performance is not high, but they will not hesitate to buy IBM PC, because as long as they say "this is an IBM product", then, the procurement staff does not need to bear any blame.

As for the high-end version of the Pangu console, the reference price in the global market is 399 US dollars, which makes the market crazy price. Not to mention that the hardware of the Pangu host itself is definitely high-end, just the CD drive itself is enough to make many people feel that it is worth it. Because, the cheapest CD player on the market today costs $299. Game consoles with CD drives can also be used as CD players.

Therefore, on the day of the listing of Pangu console, it was coaxed by a large number of consumers in Hong Kong.

……

"Comrade, can you transfer this Pangu computer of yours to me?" a middle-aged man with a mainland accent struggled to communicate with a Hong Kong player who had just bought a console.

"Why?" the Hong Kong player scoffed, "how much can you give?"

"2,000 Hong Kong dollars, is it enough?" said the middle-aged man from the mainland.

"HK$2,000?" The young player seemed to be a little hesitant, he only bought the entry-level version of the Pangu console, and he made nearly double the profit when he changed hands, which was a good deal.

"Don't sell it to him, I'll pay 2,500 yuan!" another scalper said madly.

"3,000 yuan, no more!" another scalper waved a banknote.

"You ......," the middle-aged man from the mainland stomped his feet, a little overwhelmed. Because, 2,000 Hong Kong dollars is already the largest amount of money he can get his hands on.

The middle-aged man watched the scalper buy the Pangu host, and he was a little sad.

"This comrade, I see that you are very enthusiastic about the Pangu host, why do you want to buy a Pangu host?"

"Huh?" the middle-aged surprise because the accent heard was standard Mandarin without a Cantonese accent, "You're also from the mainland?"

"Now I am a Hong Kong person, and after 97 I am all Chinese. It was Lin Qi who spoke, not long ago in the factory in Shenzhen, so that the chip factory and the host assembly factory were able to achieve industrial mass production within 1982.

Of course, the monthly production capacity is only 100,000 units, and when the chip factory really enters full production, the monthly production capacity of the Pangu host can only be increased to about 500,000~600,000 units.

This is mainly because the chip factory with 3 micron process also needs to rely on internationally imported equipment. A complete set of not too advanced semiconductor mass production equipment, the total expenditure actually reached 150 million US dollars.

Moreover, according to Moore's Law, the cost of semiconductor factories will also rise rapidly in the future. In the late '60s, you could open a semiconductor factory for $1 million, but by the mid-'70s, mainstream chip factories were already starting at $10 million. By the early 80s, the entire production line cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the future, an advanced production line will even gradually rise to the level of hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars, or even billions of dollars!

Therefore, if you don't take the autonomy of process upgrading into your own hands, you will not only be stuck by international competitors, but even if you are sold to you, you will be slaughtered as a fat sheep!

That's right! Xinchuang Electronics has been slaughtered as a fat sheep by international semiconductor equipment manufacturers!

At present, it takes hundreds of millions of dollars for mainstream chip factories to be put into production, but at least it is a 2 micron ~ 1.5 micron process.

Lin Qi paid $150 million to obtain only a 3-micron production line, which was also a helpless move. At double the price, the relationship was opened up and the equipment arrived in Hong Kong. After that, it will be transferred to the Shenzhen factory, and the equipment company in Europe can be regarded as not knowing.

As for Lishan Semiconductor, a partner of Xinchuang Electronics, although it strives to improve the process level in accordance with the law of Moore's law. However, at present, the most advanced process of Lishan Semiconductor only reaches the 5-micron process, which is already the highest level in the domestic chip mass production line.

The 5 micron process can only process X8 chips. X16 (XRM16) chips, on the other hand, require at least a 3-micron process to be produced. After all, the number of integrated transistors on the X16 chip also reaches more than 43,000.

Lishan Semiconductor is constantly following the law of Moore's Law, while producing, while improving the process. However, it can currently inherit up to more than 10,000 transistors. It is estimated that it will take two years to upgrade the technology to manufacture the X16 chip, which integrates 43,000 transistors.

During Lin Qi's stay in Shenzhen, he constantly encouraged Lishan Semiconductor, not only to give profits and orders, but also to share a bunch of technology, so that Lishan Semiconductor Company firmly upgraded its production process independently in accordance with the law of Moore's Law.

Most of the semiconductor companies in the country are not only small and scattered, but also most of them are passable, and the completion of the plan and goal set by the superior is considered to complete the task, and the domestic high-level plans for semiconductors are too conservative and far from keeping up with the law of Moore's law. The technological level of many other industries is rapidly catching up with the international advanced level, but the semiconductor process in the 80s, the technology generation gap between domestic and overseas is widening.

The middle-aged man was a little disappointed and said: "Hong Kong's prosperous world is indeed more attractive than China......

Lin Qi smiled and said: "People like me stay in China, and their contribution is actually very limited, and the domestic market restricts my development, so I can only go with the flow." But being in Hong Kong, after liberating a lot of environmental constraints, I can make more contributions to the country. ”

"Ah......" the middle-aged man finally recognized Lin Qi and said, "You are ......"

"That's right, I'm Lin Qi. You already know, then, what about you?" asked Lin Qi.

"My name is Yan Yuanchao, a technician of the Sixth Research Institute of the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry......" The middle-aged man introduced himself, and the first sentence made Lin Qi stunned.

Yan Yuanchao, a god-level programmer in the 80s, wrote CCDOS, a Chinese operating system, in 83 years, laying the foundation for the popularization of microcomputers in China.

Without CCDOS, there would be no Great Wall 0520PC, and there would be no Great Wall Computer Company. In the early days, the first generation of China's self-produced Great Wall computers used the CCDOS operating system developed by itself.

In the DOS era, the domestic operating system is self-developed CCDOS, and the most commonly used office software is the domestic WPS. It's a pity that in the era of windows, Microsoft relied on its platform monopoly advantage, which not only defeated the domestic operating system, but also allowed WPS to survive, until the Internet era, WPS gained a large market share by relying on the free for ordinary users. However, WPS in the Internet era is definitely rogue software, with frequent advertising pop-ups, and the degree of rogue in domestic software is also high.

Yan Yuanchao's contribution to history is not only as simple as a programmer, but also opens the era of Chinese display of computer systems.

Of course...... The current Pangu host has long solved the problem of Chinese display, do you want simplified or traditional Chinese?

On the surface, the Pangu console emphasizes that it is a game console, but its highlights cannot be concealed. Especially in the Chinese market, computers with the same interface of English operating systems are very unfriendly to users of other languages. In this era, Apple, PC, and any computer, including PC, will not write an operating system with a Chinese interface for the Chinese market.

It is precisely because of this that the biggest obstacle to the promotion of computers in China is not only the price, but also the language.

In the current buyer's market, most of the computer manufacturers are for the technology leaders for the most hanging, if you can't understand English and can't use it, it must be your own problem, I will not develop a system for you.

In this case, the Pangu host has hit two major pain points - cheap price and Chinese operating system interface!

Yan Yuanchao is just to buy a set of Pangu host and go back, ready to study it and develop a little practical program. After all, PCs are too expensive, and although Pangu consoles need time to learn and adapt, he believes that just spending more time studying, he can buy a cheap console with a performance that will blow up a few streets of PC, which is still very worthwhile.

"Has Mr. Yan ever learned C language?" asked Lin Qi.

"This ......," Yan Yuanchao said embarrassedly, "I have heard the C language, and I have never been able to learn it." ”

"The Pangu console can be purchased in C language CD, which is cheaper than game software, only 49 Hong Kong dollars. Lin Qi said, "It contains C language libraries, compilers and a large number of C language textbooks. ”

Lin Qi knew that after the advent of the Pangu host, Yan Yuanchao's CCOS was not expected to shine.

After all, the biggest pain point in the current Chinese computer market may be Chinese display. In the 80s, most domestic programmers developed various software and hardware around Chinese displays.

The operating system of the Pangu host, although it is also very simple, is a graphical operating system, which is more convenient than various DOS systems. Therefore, writing DOS with a Chinese interface is definitely no fun.

Therefore, Lin Qi gave Yan Yuanchao guidance and made Chinese office software, believing that even CCDOS can be written by capable people, learning C language, and then, writing a set of word processing software that can run on the Pangu console platform, is not very difficult.

And why didn't Lin Qi let people do it himself?

This is actually to give the opportunity to other entrepreneurs, not a company monopolizes the motherboard, CPU and other hardware, it is not enough to program the operating system by itself, and the entire platform and various application software are written by themselves.

So what about it...... How big is the company, and how many programmers do you need to hire?

Moreover, in this way, it is equivalent to fighting against other platforms on its own. This approach, no matter how strong a company's technical level is, will eventually not become the mainstream of the market.

On the contrary, adopting a PC-like approach, opening up technical standards, and giving away profits from all kinds of software and hardware, quickly became the mainstream standard in the microcomputer market.

directly declared that he wanted to compete with the PC for the market and the right to speak, Lin Qi would not be so stupid. On the contrary, he needs to show weakness in the international market, "although my hardware is so strong, it is really not a computer, just a home game console".

In the domestic market, software programmers and hardware manufacturers are encouraged to discover, "Although it is a game console, it is stronger than a computer, and we can develop application software and hardware for it to be used by computers." ”

In this way, in the international market, the Pangu console is mainly used as a game console, and game developers are encouraged to make games on the platform. In China, many programmers have enriched the entire ecosystem by developing various application software for the Pangu platform, and at the same time, it has also incubated the rise of domestic computer software and hardware manufacturers.

After gradually cultivating a large number of application software manufacturers in the Chinese market, and then translating some excellent software into foreign languages, foreign users can gradually realize that "the original Pangu game console can be used to do the same work as a computer." ”……

At this stage, Lin Qi does not plan to confront the PC camp head-on, but to take it step by step, first to expand the market of the Pangu console. Retreat is a powerful game console, and Advance is a formidable competitor to a PC computer!