"Hello Mr. Shirakawa, Louis. Karak, just call me Louis. ”

"Kaede Shirakawa, Mr. Louis is glad to meet you."

In a high-end suite at Hotel Okura, Kaede Shirakawa and his entourage were secretly meeting with several IBM representatives.

"Mr. Shirakawa, what you announced at that press conference was very interesting, and IBM would like to talk to you about cooperation in this area."

Luis is the current executive vice president of IBM, and he also just arrived in Neon yesterday.

A week ago, the headquarters received an urgent notice from Robert, the technical director.

According to Robert's words, it was Neon that gave birth to a new type of storage technology that could revolutionize the computer industry.

Because Robert was present at the Shirakawa Electric press conference, he praised the great prospects of this kind of optical disc storage.

At first, IBM was a little unimpressed, thinking that Robert was exaggerating.

The CD disc IBM has certainly heard of it, and it is a new format developed by Sony and Philips to develop the next generation of audio specifications.

But digital audio technology, what does it have to do with computer storage?

Besides, neon, what else can they do other than copycat rice technology.

The Hitachi incident, which IBM is now concentrating on, is a prime example.

I have to say that although it has entered the 80s, neon is still synonymous with shoddy production in the eyes of some Chinese people.

Especially for technology companies like IBM, they are habitually arrogant and prejudiced when they look at neon.

But two days later, an article in the New York Times changed their minds.

In this report, although the reporter's perspective on the problem is still a little biased, some things about Shirakawa Electric at the press conference are also truthfully written.

For example, some parameters of the CD-ROM, of course, this is only a passing pass.

Most of the pages in the report are mocking Shirakawa Electric's inadequacy and vain attempt to use optical disc storage technology to pick up the jewel in IBM's industrial crown.

There is also a pessimism about a little-known chip company that is trying to enter the chip market.

In short, the whole report is either secretly praising IBM or advocating Intel, and the rest is to step on Shirakawa Electric.

The double standard of the New York Times, IBM doesn't care at all. But there are certain parameters in the newspaper, they are not calm at first glance as insiders.

700MB？ Hell, floppy disks won't necessarily catch up even if they develop for another century.

They know too well where the limits of floppy disks are, and unless there is a new breakthrough in materials, there is no need to think about it.

Combined with the newspaper and Robert's narrative, IBM carefully analyzed, the implementation of CD-ROM is really possible.

So no longer hesitating, IBM immediately sent Executive Vice President Louis to Neon to see what was really going on.

If Shirakawa's CD-ROM technology is indeed what they said at the press conference.

Then IBM has to consider cooperating with this neon company in some aspects.

At this time, facing Louis's temptation, Shirakawa Kaede smiled.

"Mr. Louis, if IBM is willing to join in the CD-ROM promotion, we certainly welcome it.

I'm sure you also know the advantages of this optical storage technology. Capacity aside, the cost alone has a great promotion advantage over floppy disks. ”

A floppy disk can range from tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. And the average person can use a floppy disk of a few dollars and a dozen kilobytes, which is not bad.

But what about optical discs, the cost of a disc is less than one percent of that of a floppy disk.

This alone is enough to kill floppy disks, and there is no doubt that optical discs are inherently more conducive to promotion and communication than floppy disks.

Louis certainly understood this, and he had already learned how discs were made before he came.

But now, he needs to think about it from a different perspective.

"Mr. Shirakawa, first of all, I have to admit that the CD-ROM you launched is indeed very advantageous in terms of capacity.

But it also has a significant disadvantage, that is, it can only read data, not write data, or even modify it.

That said, it's more of a disposable storage disk, like "Louiston pause," like paper. ”

"Yes, that's right. I think it's very appropriate to use paper as a metaphor for it. Louis was proud that he had found the right object for his metaphor.

"But our floppy disks are different, they can be reused over and over again. As long as it is properly preserved, it can even be used until the destruction of the human race. ”

If you want to get it, then belittle it first. Louis knows a thing or two about wanting to get away with it.

"But it's cheap enough, and like you said, a CD is the paper of memory. Everyone can afford it, and it can afford it. ”

Kaede Shirakawa said that there is nothing wrong with paper, although it is cheap, it can benefit mankind and has been used in large quantities.

Low cost is the magic weapon to win, and relying on this alone, Shirakawa Kaede is worthy of any move from IBM.

Hearing that Shirakawa Kaede compared him to the paper and turned his own army, Louis was a little silent.

But soon he thought about another problem he faced with CD storage.

"Mr. Shirakawa, you may be right, but if you want people to accept anything new, you have to deal with the problem of promotion first.

As far as I know, Shirakawa doesn't seem to have any computer-related business. Without the approval of the computer industry, trying to promote CD storage is tantamount to a dream.

But IBM has, and IBM's appeal in computers, no one can compare with it. ”

Louis had enough confidence to say this, and the name of the blue giant was not called for nothing.

When the Silicon Valley of the United States was still a barren country, IBM had already begun to work for the government.

From the beginning of the watchmaker, to the world's first electronic computer, to the current mainframe, small computer and personal computer.

It can be said that IBM has led the way in these businesses for more than half a century and has always been at the forefront of the industry.

And if combined with the development trend of future technology, from God's point of view, IBM has hardly missed a crack in a few decades.

This foresight alone is scary enough, like opening a hanging.

Although it is still in the early 80s, IBM is already a leader in the computer world.

Anything he sets a specification, or is the first to be applied on a computer, will soon become the default standard in the industry.

For example, floppy disks, IBM uses a 5.2-inch floppy drive on its own computers.

As a result, other computer manufacturers followed suit and applied floppy drives of the same size to their computers.

Then the 5.2-inch floppy disk replaced the 8-inch floppy disk by default and became a new generation of floppy disk specifications.

And all this, IBM itself did not even propose to standardize the 5.2-inch floppy disk.

But because everyone followed the trend, when we look back, this has become an established fact.

IBM's appeal in the computer industry is so outrageous.

In stark contrast, Sony's 3.5-inch floppy disk, after more than two years of hard work, is still only in neon bouncing.

With such a comparison, it is clear which is better and which is next, and IBM is worthy of its title of blue giant.

So at this time, Louis had enough confidence to say to Shirakawa Kaede that as long as IBM assists, the standardization of CD-ROM is not a problem at all.

In fact, the reason why Shirakawa Kaede secretly met with IBM's representatives was also because of the other party's appeal in the computer world.

Otherwise, in the current social environment of Neon, it is not a good thing to be in harmony with IBM.

Because of Hitachi's affair and the neon media's bias, the public generally believes that IBM is deliberately harming Hitachi.

So you can imagine what neon people think of IBM, and if the high-level meeting between Shirakawa Kaede and IBM breaks out at this time, it will be fun.

Don't forget that some media are still advocating that Shirakawa Kaede is a responsible entrepreneur and supports the domestic company Hitachi.

As a result, these two multinational companies turned around, and they quietly got together in private regardless of their identities, so what's the point?

Therefore, before reaching a definite agreement, Shirakawa Kaede made a low-key trip and secretly visited people from IBM.

As for the future announcement of the partnership between the two companies, that is another matter.

In order to make money, Shirakawa Kaede doesn't care about the light of the nation.

Of course that's the case, but you can't say that.

Shirakawa Kaede is already thinking about a more secure way to deal with it, but that's another story.

At this time, in the face of Louis's full promotion confidence, Shirakawa Kaede decided to consider the problem from a different angle.

"Mr. Louis, the promotion of optical disk storage IBM will indeed play a non-negligible role.

But don't forget that CD-ROM is developed on the basis of the CD format.

As a member of the CD Alliance, Shirakawa Electric will consider seeking cooperation within the Alliance if necessary. ”

You IBM are a bull pen in the computer world, I admit it.

But don't forget, there is also the existence of the CD Alliance, and I, Shirakawa, am not alone.

Although several vendors of the CD Consortium have limited influence in the computer business. But there is a way, the three stinkers beat Zhuge Liang.

When Shirakawa Kaede said this, Louis really had some bogey.

He almost forgot that the CD had been recognized by the International Audio Organization. Although it is a standard in the audio field, it is also an international standard.

CD storage is promoted on this basis, which naturally has the advantage of standardization.

Seeing that Louis was silent again, Shirakawa Kaede also quietly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and finally shocked the blue giant.

In fact, there is no help from the CD Alliance, this is completely Shirakawa Kaede himself pulling up the banner of Tiger Pila.

Although Shirakawa Electric was the first to introduce the CD-ROM format, it has been around for a long time, not to mention Sony, the inventor of CD technology.

Even other companies such as Panasonic, Toshiba, and Pioneer that beat the side drum have not taken the initiative to contact Shirakawa Electric.

Sony estimates that it is because of the taste in his heart, and some can't pull his face to take the initiative to find Shirakawa Electric.

Philips squirmed, seemed to have a little bit of meaning, but never took the initiative to speak.

As the inventors of CD, they were overtaken by Shirakawa Electric, which has never had a sense of existence, in terms of deep digging technology.

So surprise is surprise, but these two still maintain the reserve of CD technology leaders. The situation of Sony is even a little more complicated.

As for the other Panasonic, their energy is not on the personal computer business at all, and they are also not interested in CD-ROM.

But this doesn't affect Bai Chuanfeng to pull them over to make a strong noise, anyway, IBM doesn't know the doorway.

The main thing is an information gap.

Seeing that the other party was still thinking about it, Shirakawa Kaede also took out the steps that had been prepared a long time ago.

"Mr. Louis, let's talk about something more practical."

"Huh?" Louis raised his gaze, "What does Mr. Shirakawa mean by the actual problem?" ”

Shirakawa Kaede smiled, "For example, what does IBM hope to get from CD disc storage?" ”

(End of chapter)