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One of the major signs of the feud between Tang Huan and Jardine Matheson was the fierce competition between the two sides in early 1982 for the land where the Exchange Square is located today. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At that time, it was on the eve of the bursting of the real estate bubble in Hong Kong, and land prices were at their peak.

Exchange Square has a site area of 144,000 square feet, or approximately more than 13,000 square meters. In the end, the winning Jardine Matheson paid a cost of nearly 5 billion Hong Kong dollars, although it won face, but it also buried the root cause, and was successfully bled by Tang Huan, and carried a big burden again.

Of course, after Qinhe ate Jardine, these burdens were also passed on to Tang Huan, but he didn't care, in order to show his strength, he invested 8 billion Hong Kong dollars in a row, and quickly built the now famous trading square - the location of the Xiangjiang United Stock Exchange.

In contrast, the Bank of China Tower, also located in the heart of Hong Kong's business district, is about half the size of Exchange Square, at 6,700 square meters, but the Hong Kong government sold it to Bank of China for only HK$1.1 billion, or a little more than a quarter of the transaction price, a few months later in 1982, before the property bubble burst.

This transaction, which may be affected by political factors, naturally attracted great attention from the outside world, and people began to think calmly about the actual value of Heung Kong Real Estate, which in turn contributed to the exposure of the scam of Jianing Group, and of course, to some extent, it induced the collapse of Hong Kong real estate industry.

It is conceivable that BOC, which was planning to build a new headquarters, would increasingly need to show a distinctive style in the building to suppress the noise from the outside world.

It's just that at this time, the Bank of China could not compare with HSBC's wealth of spending $1 billion for the new headquarters, nor did it have Tang Huan's golden finger to make extra money, in order to raise construction funds, the start date of construction was delayed, and the auspicious completion time of August 8, 1988 was definitely not in time.

It is important to point out that in addition to being influenced by financial factors, the construction of the Bank of China Tower was also plagued by the prevailing Feng Shui in Hong Kong - the unique shape of the Bank of China Tower, which has been described as a knife, and whoever is referred to by the "blade" on either side will be adversely affected.

The reason why Tang Huan stopped this topic that he almost blurted out was because he suddenly felt that after keeping the historical trajectory unaffected, he might be able to use it to further crack down on HSBC's superstitious status in the hearts of Hong Kong people from another angle.

I.M. Pei did not doubt that he had him, and after nodding approvingly, he changed his words and said: "The design you entrusted to me is almost complete, so let's find a time to take a look." ”

Tang Huan wanted to build a landmark in the capital of Funan, Baibao, and the special economic district of Hanoukville Port to show his authority in the local area, and one of the designs was given to I.M. Pei, who designed the Yanjing Xiangshan Hotel for Chinese mainland and the Bank of China Tower for Xiangjiang, both of which were widely praised for their excellent combination of East and West, and Mr. the richest man certainly appreciated it.

"Okay, I'll take a look at it then. Tang Huan readily agreed.

At this time, Wang An, who was sickly, walked over with the support of his son Wang Lie.

Tang Huan hurriedly got up and stepped forward, and greeted with concern: "I heard that Elder Wang is sick, then there is no need for you to come from the East Coast to attend the party, just send a representative." ”

"It's okay, I'm going to visit Silicon Valley. Wang An waved his hand.

In fact, Wang An is a few years younger than I.M. Pei, who is 70 years old this year, but his physical health is not as good as the latter, and it is a pity that he was diagnosed with cancer.

Previously, Wang An's main product was an electronic word processing machine, which flourished for a while, and even IBM's similar products could not match. However, the combination of personal computers and word processing software, which provides more and more powerful and flexible features, has completely dominated the market in the past two years, and the era of Wang An Computer Company is basically over.

Fortunately, although Lao Wang An was stubborn, and even fought with Tang Huan in a small way, he still had a technical vision, and realized that the great changes in the computer industry had become unstoppable, so he began to transform into the field of microcomputers by summarizing Tang Huan's successful experience.

On the product line of Wang An Computer Company, in addition to electronic word processing machines, small computers are also good. With this foundation, Wang An did not directly enter the extremely competitive personal computer market, but aimed at the higher level of the system - workstations.

Tang Huan, who was bent on pulling Wang An Computer Company into his camp, had no objection to this. After all, to be a friend, you also have to pay attention to keeping an appropriate distance, Wang Ana is a veteran of the computer industry for decades, so he naturally has his own judgment, and he doesn't need to point fingers and attract annoyance.

What's more, in Tang Huan's view, Wang An's decision is actually very clever, and Wang An's computer company has a very solid foundation. There is indeed the ability to directly target the workstation market with greater profit margins.

After getting the Fangyuan computer standard from Tang Huan and joining this camp, Wang An Computer Company began to concentrate on developing its own workstation products at its headquarters in Boston.

Because in the decades that IBM has ruled the computer industry, Wang An has developed a habit of completely controlling the enterprise, power, products and other elements into his own hands, so the transformation of the entire enterprise with too deep imprints is not so easy, and the research and development of workstations is not as smooth as imagined.

Since Tang Huan frankly said from the beginning that his RISC microprocessor holder high-end models are in short supply and can only be sold to the outside world, Wang An chose the Motorola MC68000 series, which has the strongest performance, from the many types of CISC microprocessors on the market, as the CPU of Wang An's workstation. Other parts are basically designed and manufactured in-house.

It can be seen that Wang An's independent business philosophy is quite deep-rooted.

Tang Huan, who also did this himself, could understand Wang An's strength, and also felt that the other party could make a name for himself, so he no longer dwelled on the details and paid little attention to it.

And compared to the rapidly changing PC market, the ecosystem of the workstation market is much more stable. As long as his Fangyuan workstation is in an absolute advantage in this field, Tang Huan will not waste energy interfering with the full play of his subordinates.

Therefore, while Wang An went to rest, his son Wang Lie tactfully said that after his Wang An workstation was in a dilemma in the market, Tang Huan was quite surprised.

"We became a sworn competitor to the market competition with Apollo Computer, also based in Massachusetts, and as a result, we were beaten by Sun Microsystems, and now it is the third largest workstation manufacturer under Fangyuan and DEC. Wang Lie smiled wryly, "I heard the news that Hewlett-Packard here in Silicon Valley is very interested in Apollo Computer and intends to acquire it to strengthen its strength in the workstation field. ”

Tang Huan raised his eyebrows and asked with some doubts, "Compared to Sun Microsystems, you definitely belong to an old company, but you can't do it?"

"Sun Microsystems' workstation products are so impactful in terms of price that they even offer products that cost as little as $25,000. Wang Lie replied helplessly, "In the end, the model of Sun Microsystems is different from that of Wang An Computer and Apollo Computer, and it adopts an open mechanism that is closer to the field of personal computers, which includes the direct use of ready-made technology of Fangyuan computer standards, and then the product update speed is faster and the price is lower, which poachs many customers." ”

Seeing that Tang Huan was speechless for a long time, Wang Lie had no choice but to continue to add: "If HP acquires Apollo Computer Company, then Wang An Computer Company will fall into the embarrassing situation of entanglement with HP and IBM, which rank low in the workstation market share." ”

"It seems that Wang Lie is scared. After muttering to himself, Tang Huan, who knew it in his heart, asked directly, "What does Mr. Wang think about this?"

"My father is still ready to rely on the company's own strength to make technological breakthroughs, but I think that since we have followed the Fangyuan computer standard, we should use public technology and supply chain as much as possible to reduce costs, just like personal computers. Wang Lie, who was already taking over his father's class, finally made his attitude clear, "Over the years, Wang An's computer company's accumulation in all aspects is still considerable. This time I came to San Francisco, and I wanted Wang An Computer Company and Fangyuan Computer Company to establish a closer capital connection, so that they could obtain a higher level of technology and key parts supply. ”

Although he values the brand of Wang An Computer very much, Tang Huan doesn't want to get involved in the internal disagreements of the other party and cause some misunderstandings to the outside world, so he waved his hand and said: "I'm afraid Mr. Wang doesn't like this, and it's not fair to Sun Microsystems." After all, the relationship between me and the partners in the Fangyuan standard camp has always been maintained at the technical level, and I will not support or attack anyone. ”

"I'm afraid Sun Microsystems' idea will not be so simple, for example, they have launched a network file system and made its source code publicly available so that more people can adopt it, and more recently, Sun Microsystems has successfully developed a RISC microprocessor. Such signs suggest that the company may well want to establish a set of standards that it controls. Wang Lie began to count the various "big rebellions" of Sun Microsystems.

At the beginning of the establishment of Sun Microsystems, when raising funds everywhere, Tang Huan once invested a sum of money to pull it to expand his Fangyuan computer standard camp.

But in the fall of 1984, a coup d'état took place at Sun Microsystems, and one of the four co-founders, the first CEO and chairman of the board, Vinod Kosla, of Indian origin, was ousted by venture capital, and another founder, Scott McRiney, took full rein.

This incident is actually quite ironic, Vinod Kosla, who fell out with venture capital, left Sun Microsystems and switched to the venture capital world, and is currently doing a good job.

The essence of this coup reflects the contradiction between some venture capitalists, including Don Valentine, and Tang Huan, a hunter who picks and chooses a lot of high-quality projects.

However, after the coup d'état, Sun Microsystems did not leave the Fangyuan standard camp, and Tang Huan did not plan to make a big move, after all, his overall layout had been completed, and the little thing of Sun Microsystems Company couldn't make any waves, and then he didn't care too much.

Therefore, although Tang Huan was a little surprised by the new information provided by Wang Lie, he was not surprised.

In the end, he just said quietly: "I will pay attention to the possible changes of Sun Microsystems, and on your side, it is best to reach a consensus with Mr. Wang." ”

……

After entertaining the 100-person meeting, Tang Huan began to pay special attention to the dynamics of the workstation market. It was a completely new field, emerging in the 1980s with the boom of the personal computer, a direct competitor to the traditional minicomputer.

At this stage, Fangyuan workstation is the hegemon of this market, accounting for more than half of the market share.

In second place is the big guy in the field of small computers, DEC, its technical sense of smell is quite sensitive, when it found that some advantages of workstations, traditional small computers simply cannot be achieved, decisively joined the ranks of workstation manufacturers.

The third place is the rapidly rising Sun Microsystems, whose products are cheaper, often $5,000 lower than Apollo computers, and even launched $25,000 workstations, which is considered a rule challenger in this field, with sales approaching $200 million in 1986.

Further down are the tragically defeated Wang Ann and Apollo Computers, as well as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, as well as relatively alternative small companies with technology solutions such as Prime.

The whole echelon. The hierarchy is clear, the status of Fangyuan workstation is high, even IBM and HP, but with the prosperity of this market, the competition is obviously becoming more and more fierce.

Tang Huan put down the file and frowned, because he realized that behind the competition between the increasingly attractive workstation products, there was a competition for the RISC microprocessor that was about to be upgraded.

The reason why Fangyuan workstation has become the hegemon is because it has a powerful core - holder, especially with the continuous improvement of the manufacturing process, the performance of this RISC microprocessor family is often higher than the exponential level of CISC microprocessors including Motorola's '6' microprocessor family and Intel's '8' microprocessor family.

Holder microprocessor, Vientiane operating system, 19-inch Sony OEM Trilon display...... It has become the main symbol of Fangyuan workstation, and countless professionals yearn for this dream configuration.

In contrast, DEC workstations use another RISC microprocessor, MIPS, and IBM and Hewlett-Packard also have their own RISC technology, albeit less commercially.

Now, Sun Microsystems, a newcomer, has also joined the RISC camp and successfully launched SPARC, which shows that the industry is paying more and more attention to RISC. (To be continued.) )