In terms of his experience in the field of microprocessors, Bill. Mensch is definitely a veteran, and his career designing CPUs can be traced back to the 1970s when Motorola developed the MC6800 to compete with the Intel 8080.

Because the MC6800 also took the route of a high-end microprocessor with a price point of several hundred dollars, the R&D team planned to work on a low-cost, energy-efficient product, but Motorola's management refused.

In this way, after the MC6800 was completed, the R&D team split up, and some people switched to MOSTechnology to continue their technical dreams. Mensch is one of them.

MOSTechnology was formed by some people in Texas Instruments, and it was originally based on the opportunity of the second supplier of Texas Instruments, which is a bit similar to AMD's relationship with Intel.

As a result, Bill. The Mensch team was really strong and successfully launched the MOS6502, which was only $25, which can be described as a slap in the face of the old club Motorola.

Coincidentally, the CPU R&D team on Intel's side also had an awkward relationship. Fagin dissatisfied with Andy? Grove's management philosophy, from Intel, came out of the commercial market 8-bit CPU performance king Z80, but in terms of price, there is no MOS6502 more advantage, and the two have reached a tie.

These two CPUs coincided with the key nodes of the second phase of the development of personal computers, thus replacing Intel's Intel 8080 and Motorola's MC6800, respectively, to become the most popular microprocessors on the market.

RadioShack, which has been acquired by Tang Huan. At that time, Z80 was chosen as the CPU of Tangdi Computer TRS-80.

As for MOS6502 more simply. Because of the poor management of MOSTechnology, there is an economic crisis. It was directly acquired by Commodore, CommodorePET's dedicated CPU.

Watts took a fancy to the MOS6502's low price, so this microprocessor also caught the fast train of Apple's Apple II.

These three companies led the development of personal computers into a new phase, and the MOS6502 and Z80 played a major role.

After the turmoil at MOSTechnology, the MOS6502 R&D team broke up again. With the creation of the WesternDesignCenter, Mensch continues to develop optimized microprocessors that are compatible with MOS6502.

This is because Commodore manufactures MOS6502 through MOSTechnology and manufactures its own personal computers. According to this vertically integrated industrial advantage, competitors are squeezed in terms of price and cost, so manufacturers who use MOS6502 try to purchase from the channel of the second supplier. For example, Apple and Atari bought MOS6502 compatible CPUs from Synertek.

Tang Huan is also a big user of MOS6502, of course he will not suffer the dumb loss of Commodore, in addition to finding a more high-quality and inexpensive second supplier in Japan, he is also looking for a target in the United States.

Bill. The WDC65C02 designed by Menshi not only eliminated some bugs in the MOS6502, but also further improved the performance and reduced the power consumption, which won Tang Huan's favor.

The use of this low-power microprocessor is not limited to personal computers and video game consoles. There is also a broader field of embedded systems.

After working together for a period of time, Tang Huan decisively took over the small company of WesternDesignCenter. And commissioned Bill. Mensch developed a 16-bit CPU that was compatible with MOS6502, and the result was the W65C816 he suggested AppleIIGS use.

At the moment, the W65C816 is also at the stage of sampling, and there are still some defects waiting to be eliminated.

Apple summoned all technical forces to visit, in essence, to coordinate and solve these problems.

The CPU of AppleIIGS is a 16-bit W65C816 with a memory capacity of 256KB.

Due to the use of the standard ISA bus of Fangyuan computer, AppleIIGS can directly use the expansion card functions on the Fangyuan computer platform, such as CD-ROM/CD-R drive, Zip drive, Sony 3.5-inch floppy disk drive, Epson printer, Seagate hard disk, sound card, modem and other external devices, all have the opportunity to show their skills.

Invisibly, the research and development progress of AppleIIGS will be accelerated a lot.

When the discussion was almost over, when everyone began to eat, Woz talked to Tang Huan about the music festival with great interest, "Tang, you really got the matter of connecting the musicians in the Soviet Union, then our music festival will definitely be more interesting." ”

For this music festival, Tang Huan and Wads jointly invested 15 million US dollars, which is definitely a lot of money to build, which can be said to be for their own personal hobbies, and they have taken the loser to a new height.

But then again, how could the event that the two billionaires have joined forces to prepare be shabby.

At first, Woz was just for fun, but Tang Huan felt that with the energy of the two of them, he could make this event an iconic cultural feast in the San Francisco area every year.

This goal moved Wolds at that time, after all, when people are rich, they have to get a name, which is a reflection of the value of life.

There is no doubt that this kind of event, no matter where it is, will be very popular, not only will someone pay for the funding, but also increase local attention and stimulate economic development, which can be said to be a great joy for all, San Francisco officials have not hesitated to cooperate, and the media is enthusiastic about it, and it will officially start next month.

Since the goal is to build an annual cultural event, the first edition will invest some more funds and do some basic work. It's still well worth it.

Wads' money is mostly spent on personal interest and fame. Tang Huan has more goals.

First of all. Tang Huan wants to use the gimmick of combining technology and art to demonstrate the ability of Fangyuan computer in audio processing, and at that time, MIDI-driven electronic musical instruments will be a big highlight that attracts people's attention.

Secondly, in the name of DreamWorks, Tang Huan invited some people from the Asian Chinese music scene to attend this event, which can be regarded as an exchange and learning. Of course. Tang Huan had to pay for this fund out of his own pocket.

Seeing Tang Huan and Woz spending a lot of money and talking highly, and Gates, who entered the industry earlier but accompanied the last seat, couldn't help but feel a little sour.

It was not good to be a little brother, so Gates made an excuse, left the dinner table, went out to breathe, and didn't want to meet Jobs who seemed to be coming on purpose outside, and the other party asked meaningfully, "AppleIIGS's BASIC business, you have already won?" ”

"yes." Even Jobs, the temperamental Gates. Nodding cautiously.

"It looks like getting such a trivial business. It makes you very satisfied, and it seems to have a smile on your face. Jobs teased unceremoniously.

"This business shouldn't be small." Gates, who was ridiculed and felt a little inexplicable, patiently explained: "According to the design goal of AppleIIGS, it will successfully introduce the Apple II series of personal computers from the 8-bit CPU era to the 16-bit CPU era, and become the successor of AppleIIe, and the sales are very optimistic." ”

"Then I ask you, when will AppleIIGS be available?" Jobs snorted, not caring about Gates' explanation.

"According to the plan, it's next year." Gates answered honestly.

"Next year? Next year the Lisa computer will come out, and my MAC will be on stage. Jobs muttered disdainfully, "I don't know what Mike thinks, AppleII is already a thing that is about to be phased out, why do you have to invest resources in tinkering and upgrading?" It's better to transfer it to the MAC project team. ”

The shrewd Gates finally understood what was going on, and it turned out that Jobs, who was the president of Apple, was not waiting to see his next generation of Apple II, which was too strange.

"Because I think that the consumer groups faced by the product are different." Gates, who didn't want to cause trouble needlessly, agreed vaguely and casually.

"Duplicate investment, waste of resources." After Jobs finished his evaluation without any scruples, he stared at Gates and said, "What's the point of developing BASIC for AppleIIGS?" Go, I'll take you to open your eyes. ”

As soon as he heard this, Gates, who had already reached the level of instinct in stealing teachers, couldn't help but move in his heart, quickly followed Jobs's footsteps, and asked tentatively, "Where are we going?" ”

"You'll know when you arrive." Jobs tilted his head and sold a pass.

"You just pretend, besides the MAC project, what else do you have that is worth showing me? I really thought you were the only smart person. Gates couldn't help but sneer.

……

As Gates had guessed, Jobs led him into the tightly guarded MAC project team.

"Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and get ready to witness the miracle I've shown you." Jobs commanded mysteriously.

Gates endured the extreme discomfort in his heart, did so, and then followed the side of Jobs's finger and looked at the computer monitor.

The color of the screen is black on a white background, which is very close to the appearance of a book in real life, but it seems to be slightly harsh.

Above is a document with a slider at the edge, drag this thing with the mouse, and the lines of text will move smoothly vertically, refresh quickly, and the flickering and pause are barely noticeable to the naked eye.

This display method is very different from the technical methods commonly used nowadays. When there is a lot of content to be processed in the document, the latter is displayed on a split screen, and you need to press the page turn button once to switch between the content of each page.

It is undeniable that the display method of MAC is closer to the natural form in real life, which is definitely a pioneering feat.

"THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE MANY FEATURES OF THE MAC." Seeing the look of surprise on Gates' face, Jobs smiled with satisfaction, "This is an epoch-making product, what do you think?" ”

Gates hesitated slightly, but nodded his head in agreement;

In fact, Gates did open a lot of eyes when he stole from Tang Huan, and he already knew concepts such as graphical user interfaces.

At this stage, Zheru's various software has added a lot of graphical interface elements. Its commercial slogan in the market is "Menu Driven".

As the name suggests, users do not need to memorize too many obscure DOS commands, and then hit the keyboard to send them to the CPU for execution, but through the coordination of the mouse and menu, as well as parameters, to complete the daily work.

Compared with the previous DOS command-driven computer operation, the menu driver is much more image and labor-saving, which is very popular with users and has become a major feature of Fangyuan computer platform.

But this is not a graphical user interface in the true sense of the word, and the "Xerox Star" released by PARC last year is a real example.

On the Fangyuan personal computer platform, the operating system FreeDOS itself does not provide a graphical user interface mechanism from the inside out, and the friendly interface that users see is completed by each program separately, and a shell provided by FreeDOS - a shell program that helps command execution - File Explorer is the most famous one.

Of course, these programs will use a public library provided by FreeDOS.

As for the more advanced product, Fangyuan Personal Server, the operation used by it is Vientiane, but it provides some interface programs that are closer to the graphical user interface effect of the "Xerox Star".

Gates has reason to believe that Zheru must have been working on graphical user interfaces as well, but he has been acting conservatively because of the current hardware performance.

Thanks to Charles. Simeone made no secret of his vigilance, and as a result, Gates's plan to steal the teacher was repeatedly thwarted, and naturally he was not able to spy on further information.

The MAC in front of him can be said to have vividly demonstrated to Gates, guiding him to a clear direction of graphical user interface development.

In the field of innovation, from 0 to 1, Gates' performance is often lackluster; But from 1 to the rest of the matter, that's his specialty.

I was thinking about whether I would also do a graphical user interface project, when Gates suddenly heard Steve Jobs say, "Would you like to develop software on such a great personal computer platform?" ”

"Of course I can't ask for it." Gates smiled and nodded.

"Well, I'll give you one such chance." Jobs condescendingly crumbled, "I asked Microsoft to develop software for MAC spreadsheets, word processing, databases. (To be continued......)