The reason why Tang Huan's three major personal computer software, spreadsheets, word processing, and databases, can express various practical functions on Apple's second-generation computers like a fish in water, is mainly due to the open expansion slots left by Wads at the beginning of the design.

Through this interface, an enhancement card that integrates a microprocessor, memory, and specialized circuitry can significantly improve the data processing efficiency of the computer and maximize the power of the combination of software and hardware.

For example, in the early 90s, users who wanted to watch videos smoothly on their PCs also had to configure special accelerated decompression card hardware and player software in addition to sound cards, graphics cards and other devices.

In addition, this model is also effective in combating piracy.

Most importantly, this model caters to the blind cult of tangible hardware that people are now having. After all, in many people's habitual thinking, the invisible software things on the disk are worthless and unreliable, and only the physical hardware installed in the computer chassis is worth spending money on.

In 1984, Apple's annual sales reached $1.5 billion, compared to $100 million for Microsoft in the same period. This fact goes some way to explaining the prevalence of such phenomena.

No matter how you think about it, Tang Huan's products need this model to stay ahead of the competitors of the current era.

However, there is also a troublesome problem, that is, the read-only memory where the program code is placed, and it is time-consuming and laborious to make the necessary updates to its contents.

In the history of the development of semiconductor read-only memory, the programmable read-only memory PROM was widely used in the early days, and it had a determinant wire inside, which could be burned off by current according to the user's needs to write the required data.

Once the wire is burned, it cannot be recovered, which means that the data cannot be changed, which is a real read-only memory.

Next up is the rewritable programmable read-only memory EPROM, which uses a high voltage to write data and can be irradiated with ultraviolet light for a period of time through a reserved quartz glass transparent window to empty the original data for reuse.

EPROM is the widely used read-only memory, and the trouble with it is that the process of emptying the memory by ultraviolet irradiation often takes half an hour to complete, and the efficiency is really not flattering. When Kildare wrote CP/M, he suffered greatly from it.

According to Tang Huan's memory, the successor of EPROM, the technology of electronic rewritable programmable read-only memory EEPROM had appeared in 1978 at Intel.

The principle of EEPROM is similar to EPROM, but the erase method is done using a high electric field, so it is much easier and faster than using UV irradiation through a transparent window.

The application of new technology products must mean a high cost, but Tang Huan believes that if Intel's EEPROM is practical, it is still worth it to be listed as a procurement target.

That's the main reason why he wanted to take time out to visit Intel before going to Treasure Island for the second time.

……

Now Intel can be called rich and handsome, and the document that Tang Huan is looking at shows that just last year, when Intel was founded on its 10th anniversary, its annual sales reached 400.6 million US dollars, a profit of 44.3 million US dollars, and the number of employees was 10,900, entering the global Fortune 500 for the first time.

Intel has become synonymous with memory, yes, don't look at the CPU4004, 8008, 8080, and released 16-bit CPU8086 last year, but its main business is DRAM, SRAM and ROM. In the '70s, Intel was the leader in these three products on the market.

Speaking of Intel's origins, it can also be said that its founder is a master of integrated circuit technology, so much so that with only a few pages of a simple proposal, it took 5 minutes to win the favor of Arthur Locke, one of the four giants of Silicon Valley venture capital, and raised $2.5 million in entrepreneurial capital.

In 1955, William Shockley, the "father of transistors", left Bell Labs and came to Silicon Valley to create the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, which attracted many talented young scientists to join.

Soon, though, Shockley's management methods and bizarre behavior caused dissatisfaction among the employees. Among them, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, Julias Blank, Eugene Clare, Kim Hurney, Jay Rust, Sheldon Roberts, and Victor Grinick, who were called the "Eight Rebels" by Shockley, resigned together and co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in October 1957.

Due to the rapid development of Fairchild Semiconductor, its internal organizational management and product problems are increasingly unbalanced.

In July 1968, two of the co-founders of Fairchild, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, resigned and founded Intel Corporation in the same year, while Jerry Sanders founded AMD after leaving Fairchild.

The relationship between the two companies was once close, but from the mid-80s onwards, they turned against each other and staged a battle for the processor market.

After the car arrived at Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, Tang Huan put down Intel's relevant information, walked into Intel's office area with Simeone, and inadvertently saw Intel's current slogan, "IntelDelivers".

Tang Huan suddenly wanted to laugh, "IntelInside" has been cut off by his own click scissors, I don't know what slogan Intel will use to fool users in the future Pentium CPU era, maybe upgrade directly to "IntelLeapahead".

There are no private offices at Intel, and an open floor is divided into partitions where employees, including executives, work.

Boss Tang Huan is now a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, so he was effortlessly received by Andy Grove, who was just promoted to president this year.

Grove and Simeone were born in 1936 in Budapest, Hungary, to a Jewish family.

Because of the complicated situation and painful experiences brought about by World War II, Grove fled to the United States at the age of 20 to join his uncle and aunt.

In 1960, Grove came close to graduating with honors from the City University of New York. However, he is still the best among his classmates. When he graduated, the New York Times featured his academic success, praising him and predicting that he would be a rising star in the scientific community of the future.

After that, Grove went on to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. As always, he excelled in his studies and became the star of his PhD.

In 1963, at Moore's invitation, Grove joined Fairchild Semiconductor.

In 1968, Grove followed Moore and became Intel's third employee, where he has remained ever since.

Tang Huan looked at Grove in front of him, don't look at the other party's short stature and unsightly appearance, but he is full of momentum.

Tang Huan knew that Grove's work style was extremely strong, and he would be rated as the strictest boss in the future.

It is said that Grove once yelled at a female employee: "If you were a man, I would break your legs".

Among the current Intel executives, if Noyes and Moore sing about red faces, then Grove sings about white faces.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two sides directly talked about the purpose of the meeting - EEPROM.

Grove led Tang Huan and Simeone to see the product demonstration, and then said bluntly: "At present, this technology is only available to Intel, and the production process is not small, so the price of the product will not be low." ”

Tang Huan nodded, "For this situation, I am mentally prepared, you will produce a batch of samples for me first, so as to evaluate the actual application effect." ”

Grove nodded in agreement, although the business is not big, but it is very promising, and Intel really can't ask for a guinea pig who comes to the door to do experiments by a new star company like Zheru.

Strictly speaking, EEPROM technology is unintentional.

In 1978, when Intel engineer George Perlegos developed the Intel 2816, he changed to a thin gate oxide layer on the basis of EPROM technology, so that the chip could electrically erase its own bits without ultraviolet light, so he developed a 16KB EEPROM model number 2816.

As far as Tang knows, Perlegos and some colleagues later left Intel to found SeeqTechnology, a company that produces EEPROM.

After the infighting at Seeq, Perlegos and a Chinese co-founded the well-known ATMEL company, Atmel.

It can be seen that Perlegos, the inventor of EEPROM, is not a loyal servant of Intel, and he has every opportunity to enter the semiconductor industry.

"I'd like to talk to the EEPROM R&D engineers about the interface circuit, can I meet them?" Tang Huan, who was secretly fighting Xiao Jiujiu in his heart, asked Grove quietly.

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