Los Angeles, California Polytechnic University.

"Mike, come on, my computer seems to be wrong again!" Jane shouted her boyfriend, who had just shared an apartment with another couple near the school, and it was on good terms, but the landlord had a strange temper and didn't allow them to use a desktop computer in his room, stubbornly believing that the computer would explode easily and would burn down his house, God knows where he got this knowing.

"Mike, what are you doing? I've called you several times. Jane was a little angry, her boyfriend didn't know what he was doing in the living room, and he called him for so long, but he didn't reply.

Jane angrily pushed the door open, only to see her boyfriend Mike sitting on the couch watching TV with another couple, "Mike, there's a problem with my computer, come and take a look." "There were other people around, and Jane was embarrassed to have a seizure with her boyfriend.

Mike said perfunctorily: "Okay, wait a minute, I'll finish watching this press conference." ”

Jane was a little unhappy in her heart, but seeing Mike so concentrated, she couldn't help but look at the TV twice.

"What is this?" asked Jane, who was immediately attracted by the chic look of iCom on TV.

Mike exclaimed, "iCom, it's a new personal computer from a company, oh my God, it's so fast! ”

"Is this a computer?" Jane also thought it was a little incredible, but for her, she was more fascinated by the appearance of the iCom than by its super performance.

"It's so beautiful, it's just a work of art. Mike, where is this computer sold?" Jane compared to her own computer, which was constantly broken down and tattered to avoid the landlord's inspection, and this personal computer called iCom was too attractive.

Evan, who shared a room with them, shrugged his shoulders, "What is being broadcast live now is the press conference, and it has not been said where to sell it, and it is estimated that it will not be cheap." ”

Mike nodded in agreement and said regretfully, "yes, it's definitely not too cheap, do you guess it's going to cost you?"

Evan put his arm around his girlfriend: "They compare Compaq's 3200Q, it will definitely not be cheaper than the 3200Q, I think it will be at least more than $2400, right?"

Two thousand four hundred dollars? too expensive. Jane hesitated for a long time, but still felt that it was too luxurious to spend more than half a year's rent to buy a computer.

But even so, Jane went to Mike's side, "Who is this guy in a black turtleneck?

Mike's eyebrows danced: "This is Zack, there were subtitles when he first appeared, but he never introduced himself, probably because he didn't want to steal the limelight of the product." ”

"Zack, who is he?" Jane knew little about the tech upstarts.

Mike said helplessly: "The founder of ICQ, didn't we know each other from ICQ?"

Jane suddenly realized, "Ah, he's so young, he looks quite handsome." ”

Mike rolled his eyes, and he couldn't complain about his girlfriend's personality, which only looks at appearances.

Stephen Berkeley's eyes were red, his fingers were flying, and he kept typing on his notebook, and Jennifer looked at his computer screen: iCom is coming, and another Steve Jobs?

Jennifer pursed his lips and looked at his peers around him, almost half of them used this kind of title, as a veteran fan of Jobs, Jennifer naturally hated people who were associated with Jobs at every turn.

But Jennifer must also admit that iCom is indeed a rare product in this market, both in terms of design and performance, it is very eye-catching, but if it is revolutionary, how can it be compared to Jobs's Macintosh?

Look at the clothes he wears, what does it look like? It is too disrespectful to everyone to wear it like this at such an important press conference.

The shutter sound and noise in the venue came and went, and after waiting for a while, Zhang Chen spoke: "Everyone, the press conference is not over yet, you can take pictures later, and your manuscript can also be sent back after a while." Also, please turn off the flash, I'm almost blind in both eyes. ”

In a burst of laughter, Zhang Chen clapped his hands: "Okay, back to the topic, speed." ”

The venue that can accommodate 2,000 people gradually quieted down, and Zhang Chen walked to the side of iCom: "A computer, the most important thing is the running speed, I just said, iCom will be the fastest computer in the world, where is the speed? I think we can make a comparison, what do you think?"

In the shocked eyes of everyone, Zhang Chen walked to the long table on the other side of the platform and said to Bob Mansfield, who was standing in the corner, "Bob, is there the fastest brand computer that can be bought now?"

Bob Mansfeld laughed like Maitreya Buddha: "Of course, Compaq's 3200P, priced at $2500, I just bought it, their highest configuration." ”

Zhang Chen smiled: "Okay, we can make a comparison between iCom and this ugly thing called, come on, run the same 3D test program." ”

iCom and this Compaq computer started to run a set of OpenGL-based 3D test program at the same time, and now Microsoft's D3D is not yet mature, it is difficult to reflect the speed of the two surprised, Matrix technicians, under the leadership of Andy Rubin, rewrote an OpenGL-based 3D test program, which can more accurately and vividly test the speed difference between the two computers.

As soon as the operation began, Compaq's 3200q entered a state of stuttering, and the picture was basically played frame by frame, while in the exclamations of the audience and the media, iCom's 3D image test was extremely smooth, whether it was water surface rendering or maze polygons, the picture was always above 30 frames, and when iCom completed the test in less than 30 seconds, Compaq's 3200q was still stuck on one-third of the progress and kept flashing.

There was an uproar in the field, how could there be such a big gap? Although the CPU used in the 3200q is not Pentium II, it is also the second-top Pentium MMX233, is the gap between the two CPUs so big? Or is there something wrong with the Matrix test software?

After waiting for dozens of seconds, Zhang Chen shrugged: "Do you need to wait any longer? Maybe you can wait a little longer, by the way, this test software will be an open source software, we will open the download of the program on the official website, and the source code will also be published, interested engineers can go to our official website to download." ”

This sentence basically dispelled everyone's suspicion that the test software had been passive, and in this case, if Matrix dared to hack Compaq and other manufacturers on the test software, it would be sued for bankruptcy.

Zhang Chen looked at Compaq's 3200q, "Okay, I'll go on, this computer is estimated to crash with a blue screen in a while." ”

Compaq's 3200q is an office computer, although it is indeed the most expensive model sold by Compaq, but it has no 3D computing power at all, and is equipped with a 2D display chip from SIS. Compared with Compaq's office computer with the Riva128, which has powerful 3D computing power, the only result can only be hanging.

Zhang Chen paced and said, "There is a question, why do we run 3D programs so fast? As we all know, 3D is the future, Matrix not only equips iCom with the best CPU and the best monitor, but also equips it with the fastest and most advanced graphics card - riva128. ”

Riva128?What kind of graphics card?I've never heard of it.

The people present are all insiders, and they are all familiar with the mainstream graphics cards on the market, but they have never heard of any riva128, is it Matrix's own development?

Zhang Chen said: "I am very grateful to our partner nVidia, it is the unremitting efforts of their excellent R&D team that have contributed such an excellent display chip to us. This chip can generate 1.2 million polygons per second, which is one of the fastest 3D display chips in the world, not inferior to Voodoo, and more importantly, it also integrates a high-performance 2D chip, which can replace all current mainstream graphics cards. ”

"I've tested the performance of this graphics card in the software test just now, and as for how it actually works, I want to demonstrate it with a game. ”

Zhang Chen double-clicked a shortcut on the desktop that looked a bit like the Chinese word "enter", "This is a demo of a 3D shooting game, the picture is very good, let's see how iCom performs on this game." ”

After the dazzling opening animation, entering the game screen, Zhang Chen quickly clicked on the game's menu, "By the way, this game called Half-Life, although it is only a demo, is really fantastic, I almost can't wait to see them officially released." ”

"You see, this is the game's graphics, all in 3D, using the Quake engine, and everything you see is generated in real time, great textures. The most important thing is that the resolution of 1024*768 has improved the picture so much that you can see it with your own eyes. ”

There is only one level of the game's demo, Zhang Chen skillfully uses the keyboard and mouse, shooting the enemy one by one, the fire from the muzzle and the blood splashed after hitting the enemy and the surrounding environment are constantly interacting, just like a real world.

Change magazines, switch daggers, throw grenades... In less than five minutes, the first level was cleared.

The audience erupted in thunderous applause.

Zhang Chen quit the game and stood with his hands down: "This is iCom." ”

Mike's eyes are red when he is watching TV, it's too tm-ting, this kind of smooth and delicate picture, as a lover of electronic products, Mike knows, after the resolution is increased from 640*480 to 1024*768, the calculation of polygons is increasing geometrically, and it cannot be completed without super computing power.

Jane and Evan's girlfriend Chloe was even more interested in Zhang Chen herself, and Chloe held her heart in both hands: "Jane, don't you think that smile he had just now was simply fascinating?"

Jane held a bucket of potato chips and nodded as she ate.

The two old men would not eat this kind of flying vinegar, but they would inevitably sneer at each other, but at this moment, they heard Zhang Chen on TV say again: "This is iCom, and finally, the most important question, the price." ”

Several people hurriedly stopped playing and looked at the screen calmly.

Zhang Chen smiled: "We have been thinking about it for a long time, how to price such an epoch-making product? Someone once suggested that according to the quality of the iCom, it should be set at around $3,000, which is indeed a good price. ”

Whether it is the audience in the venue or next to the TV, such as Mike and Jane, they all gasped, three thousand dollars, too expensive, but looking at the design and performance of iCom, it is indeed worth the price, but I definitely can't afford it, and my heart can't help but be full of regrets.

At this moment, I heard Zhang Chen say again on the screen: "But I think that such a great and beautiful product should be available to more consumers, and the price of $3,000 is too expensive." Therefore, we have set the pricing of iCom at 。。。。。 ”

Zhang Chen pressed the remote control in his hand, and a big number appeared on the screen, $1699!

$1699!

Zhang Chen smiled: "Yes, $1699, you can log in to the official website of Matrix at any time to place an order on it, and you can also log in to Amazon to make a purchase, whether you buy on the official website or on Amazon, you will enjoy our door-to-door delivery service." Of course, if you can't place an order through the Internet, you can also choose our more than 1,500 dealer channels across the country to buy and pick up the goods yourself. By the way, even a girl can effortlessly lift the iCom into the car, yes, very light weight. Zhang Chen took the handle of iCom and showed it around, and then put it on the booth.

"Moreover, this is only the price of the top configuration, iCom also has a relatively low-end configuration, the CPU uses the Pentium MMX233, and the memory has 16M, but only the configuration of these two parts is different from the top configuration, priced at $1499. ”

Matrix's official website address and Amazon's purchase address appeared on the big screen.

The audience was silent at first, and then the applause, whistles, and shouts shook the sky, and they couldn't stop for a long time.

Four young people watching TV could barely believe their ears, $1,699? How could it be? Such a product should be priced at least $2,000 or more?

Jane quickly calculated her credit card bill in her heart, and gritted her teeth: "Darling, I must buy an iCom, I think your computer also needs to be replaced, why don't we buy one together?"

Mike nodded without hesitation: "Of course, I'll go to Matrix's official website to place an order now." With that, he walked towards the bedroom.

Jane suddenly remembered and shouted from behind, "Mike, don't forget to help me see what happened to my computer." It will automatically restart in 10 minutes. ”

Mike waved his hand: "I guess the fan is loose, I'll take a look later, as long as iCom buys it, I'll go to eBay and sell your computer." ”

Chloe and Evan made a color, and the two ran back to the bedroom to see if they could buy an iCom from Matrix or Amazon.

After five minutes, Mike's complaining voice came from the bedroom: "God, the snap-up page won't open at all, I'll see if I can ping this address." ”

Jane just wanted to go over and take a look, and saw someone walk up to the stage and whisper a few words to Zhang Chen on TV, Zhang Chen was obviously a little stunned, and said to the camera: "I just got a message that Matrix's official website has been paralyzed due to too many users visiting it for a while. More than 50,000 users visited at the same time, far exceeding our server limit, and now I have asked the technicians to urgently fix and add more servers, and it is expected that the fault will be eliminated within 10 minutes. However, due to the fact that our first batch of products is only 20,000 units, this batch of products will be shipped one after another before the end of May, and there may be a considerable number of customers who cannot buy iCom in the first time, but it doesn't matter, we have notified the factory to step up production and solve the problem of insufficient product supply as soon as possible. ”

Evan excitedly said, "I'm logged in!"

When Mike heard this, he was even more anxious, and kept refreshing the page, and finally, the purchase page was slowly refreshed, but the purchase button was gray, and the display status of both configurations had become "sold out".

Evan's excited voice came from next door again, "I grabbed !! top-of-the-line iCom!"

Mike angrily slammed the keyboard!

(End of chapter)