The meeting is over. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

As Benjamin returned to IBM headquarters with his team, a piece of news quickly spread throughout the industry, and the magazine Popular Electronics immediately reported on the situation.

"The cooperation between the blue giant and the software tycoon, the passionate collision between IBM and Microsoft!"

The picture accompanying the article is a moment when Bill Gates, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, shook hands with Benjamin, director of IBM's marketing department. In the background was a Microsoft conference room, surrounded by a group of people with a telephone set on the table.

As soon as this article came out, computer enthusiasts all over the country suddenly became excited, although no one knew what the hell that "Internet operating system" was, but the fame of IBM and Microsoft was enough to make everyone boil.

One is the industry leader established at the beginning of the century, the blue giant with a market value of 100 billion, and the other is the emerging king of the software industry founded by college dropouts. Such a powerful cooperation immediately attracted tens of millions of people to talk about it.

But then, questions were put on the table.

Why would these two companies develop such a project?

What exactly is the "Internet operating system" all about?

Newspapers and magazines in the IT industry, led by "Popular Electronics", immediately began to popularize knowledge, and suddenly, more and more people realized that the scope of Internet laying in the entire United States is far from being comparable to "a few days ago". According to the data provided by some professional sources, it seems that it will not take 2000 for every household in the United States to have access to the Internet.

Therefore, it is natural that Microsoft and IBM are developing such a system at this time.

Of course, the public's thirst for information is far from satisfying, and when the next issue of "Popular Electronics" is published, another company quickly comes into the eyes of the general public.

Cisco Systems, Inc., registered in San Jose, California, is mainly engaged in the development and sales of Internet hardware, and its main product is called routers. It is a low-cost, small-footprint instrument that is easily compatible with different types of network protocols and has a wide range of applications in the enterprise office.

When this issue of "Popular Electronics" came out, if the public was only slightly surprised, then the industry was shocked.

A company that was founded just last year has only been established for a little more than a year as of the end of August. But in such a short period of time, it has become a "behemoth!?" with more than 50 employees and a million-dollar monthly profit.

Indeed, this achievement is nothing, but after comparing it with the time of establishment, this huge contrast almost compares Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and even IBM and other IT tycoons!

Because, many people in the industry have quickly realized that Internet hardware, this is completely a no-man's land in the industry!

"Even if it is a no-man's land, it is by no means possible for ordinary people to expand the market so quickly. ”

On a weekday afternoon in late August, in the most central conference room of IBM headquarters, a board meeting was being held.

"According to the survey, Cisco Systems' first business was done at last year's Los Angeles University Consortium, and this is their product. ”

At the end of the conference table, the head of the technical department, Almin, carried a suitcase-sized instrument onto the table: "The technical level of the other party is very good, according to the research of our technical department, this is a fully mature product, the software code has almost no room for improvement, and the only thing that affects its efficiency is the computing power of the CPU." ”

It was a simple statement, but it made all the members of the board look at each other.

"What does it mean that software code doesn't need to be improved?"

One director asked, "You're not going to tell us that deleting even a single piece of code is going to crash the system, and that the code design is so refined that you can't reverse engineer it at all?"

Almin's face was embarrassed, this man who had been at IBM for 20 years, and served as technology minister for five years, had a rare time when he was sweating like now: "I'm sorry, Mr. Remus, but the situation is ...... That's true. ”

"The programming code is so concise, and the logic is absolutely ...... The level of breathtaking. To put it figuratively, it's like graphic design, on the one hand, it's absolutely concise, just like Nike's logo is just a check sign, and on the other hand, it's that kind of creativity, just like after seeing a certain logo design, many people feel that they can design it, but if they really want to start it, they can't start at all. ”

Armin's description is clear.

Graphic design is often like this, and when customers see the results, it's easy to say things like "That's it." It's like Nike's logo, Apple's logo, or any product of such and such a style, people will see it and think that those designers are nothing great, and they can design it themselves.

But really let those people design...... But nothing was designed.

This is where Armin's feelings about this router are, after seeing the perfect code of the other party, although he still doesn't know who the author is, he seems to have a shocking impulse.

The code of this router is so ingenious that it is like a perfect circle, or like the golden ratio of the human body, and every additional stroke is a snake addition, and every subtraction is a tyrannical thing.

And, just like a phenomenon common to many design fields, many people will suddenly realize that there is such a design. But if you really let yourself create the same work, it's impossible to say anything.

"Armin, you're an old man in the company, and you're responsible for what you say. Is this router's program as exaggerated as you say?"

Faced with a director's question, Armin nodded: "I know that directors will definitely have this kind of question, so long before the meeting started, I asked the secretary to print out part of the code, please browse it." ”

It turned out that Armin had been preparing for a long time, and all the directors were surprised, and they all took the information handed by the secretary and looked at it.

Then when I looked at it, I couldn't raise my head at all.

As the minutes ticked by, Armin sat down silently as he looked at the solemn expressions of everyone in the audience.

He sighed softly.

The more details, the more it can reflect the strength of an enterprise. Although Cisco is not very big now, it is an ant compared to the blue giant, but it has such an excellent programmer in ......

Armin secretly speculated, I'm afraid that it was Bill Gates in the early years, and the talent he showed when he came to prominence was not so good, right? He had no doubt that the other party was a newcomer to the industry, otherwise he would have been well-known in other companies a long time ago, and would it be his turn to let a small business that had just been established for a year throw out a product of this level?

Sure enough, it wasn't just himself who was curious and worried, beside him, Benjamin of the marketing department whispered: "Can you write this level of code?"

Armin shook his head and said, "Impossible. Although after seeing the finished product, I thought it was very simple, but if I wrote it myself, no one in the whole company had this level. ”

"It looks like there's a big name in Cisco Systems, do you have any clues?"

Armin looked at him, "Do you have one?"

Benjamin blinked, but didn't answer.

It's just that Almin was a little surprised to find that Benjamin, who had always been steady, trembled his fingers.

And he also noticed that even after returning from Redmond, Benjamin always looked preoccupied.

What's going on?

Time passed little by little, only three pages of A4 paper, but all the members of the board of directors read it for half an hour, and when everyone looked up, the director who spoke earlier sighed: "It's really good, Armin, has the other party applied for a patent?"

This was not addressed to Armin, with another director saying, "It's a pity. According to our spies, Lucent Technology also hit Cisco's idea not long ago, but it didn't make any big moves in a short period of time, mainly because Cisco's awareness of patent protection is too good. ”

"The decision-makers at the target company obviously knew the size of the router market for a long time, so they had already registered a patent for the product before launching it. And the most hateful thing is that the registrant actually applied for all the technologies that we could learn from, and the other party must be an industry genius, who can not only program it, but also guess how we might exploit the loopholes!"

After speaking, the whole audience looked at the chief.

Arkol, the president of IBM at the time, just took office this year, and the cooperation with Microsoft was proposed and implemented by him. But now, faced with the company, called Cisco Systems, there is no doubt that the new president faces a big challenge.

"First of all, we must admit that this is not a mistake on the part of the marketing department. ”

"Cisco Systems has only been around for a year, and for us with decades of history, there are so many companies like this that marketing can be forgiven for not noticing it," Akol said. Benjamin, don't be too stressed. ”

After reassuring his subordinates, he continued: "However, since we have cooperated with Microsoft, how about cooperating with Cisco?"

Everyone looked at each other, and one of the directors said, "You mean...... Acquire it?"

Arkor smiled slightly: "Oh...... That's not what I said, but it's a good idea. ”

As the words fell, a low laugh rang out in the conference room. (To be continued.) )