"By the way, how are our chip factories and LCD factories doing now?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

Since the end of last year, the two factories have poached a lot of engineers from Wanwan, and the factory has been successfully started, after knowing that the samples were successfully put on the market, Chen Zhiwen is also very concerned, and the follow-up feedback is not bad, and there has been no problem, but because some time ago the focus was on the acquisition of Wharf, I didn't care.

Lei Shengli replied: "Our chips have begun to supply to several electronics factories in Hong Kong, because the price is only less than half of the imported Japanese chips, many manufacturers have purchased a lot, at present, occasionally receive some problematic feedback, engineers have begun to adjust according to the problem, and now Hong Kong workers are also beginning to be familiar with it."

At present, our main production is the liquid crystal of electronic watches, this market is very large, there is a lot of demand in Hong Kong, and the risk of liquid crystal is much smaller than that of chips, basically no problem leaving the factory, and there is no problem in the follow-up. ”

"In the case of chips, in addition to some traditional electronic products, we can develop in the direction of remote control, and our color display factory is about to start, right? Color TV, wouldn't it be better if there was a remote control? This piece,In fact, many international brands are already doing it,It's just that the price of chips is not cheap now,As long as high-end color TVs are equipped with remote controls,So if we can reduce the cost of this piece,Not only can chip factories get a large number of orders,It can also increase the advantages of our future color TVs? Isn't it? Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

"Yes,But it still needs to pass a lot of tests,I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up with the first batch of color TVs built。 Lei Shengli said.

"It's okay, it's okay to have it later." Chen Zhiwen said indifferently: "I just guide a direction, if the cost of this field can be suppressed, the quality is good, then the chip factory can be completely full of this business, now foreign chip giants, are desperately pursuing the production of high-performance chips, this kind of ordinary chips, the profit is far less than high-performance, but this may also be our opportunity, the technical content is not very high, as long as we make it in batches first, the cost will come down if the quantity is more, that is the advantage." ”

"Understood." Lei Shengli nodded, the purpose of the existence of his own chip factory is actually to meet some of the needs of Hong Kong, as well as the production of commonly used low-end chips, as for high-end chips, including the boss, I have never thought that this is even more unreliable than the development of game engines, although the profit of low-end chips is low, but as long as it is bigger, there is a market.

"With LCD, can we make a calculator display the size of a computer display now?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

"It can be done, but the yield rate needs to be controlled." "However, there are not many orders for calculators, and the demand in the global market is far less than that of electronic watches," Lei Shengli said. ”

"It's not a problem with the calculator, but next, I'm going to launch another product, and I need a bigger LCD." Chen Zhiwen said.

"New products? Larger LCDs? Is Chen Sheng talking about a handheld machine? Lei Shengli asked.

"That's right, it's the handheld, you said that our greedy snake, if it is transferred to the handheld, will there be a big market?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.

Handheld, in the impression of many people in later generations, Nintendo once launched GameWatch in 1980, and it was also all the rage in the 80s.

But GameWatch is not the world's first arcade machine, but a racing game handheld launched by Mattel in the United States in 1976, but it is very simple, and it also uses the LCD screen of a calculator, and the result is naturally not recognized by the market, until the emergence of Gamewatch, the handheld computer became popular all over the world.

Although Mattel's finished product failed, the idea was very good, and many game companies were also researching it, but it was difficult to develop a matching game due to the small space of the handheld, and it was finally lost.

"The market is very large, but if you want to have a good experience, the screen must be larger, and the chip requirements are not low, after all, the handheld is very small." Lei Shengli thought for a while and said.

"Yes, there is also the issue of cost, it can't be too expensive, otherwise no one will want to buy it." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

This seems to be back to 5 years ago, he went to the United States to find Watts to build an arcade machine, the core problem is the cost, the chip of that year is the worst level today, and no one necessarily wants it if it is given to a better electronics factory, but at that time there can only be these.

Today, chip technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and in another two years, complex games can be played in arcades, but if you want to use handheld, it will be difficult for even the simplest games.

If you want to do a good job in the handheld market, you can't use the most expensive chip, because this will lead to too high the cost of the user terminal, but you can't use the poor one, because the poor chip not only responds slowly, but also causes serious heating, this kind of small device, it is very troublesome to solve the problem of heating, even in the 21st century, the heating of smart phones has been bothering the giants for a long time.

The LCD aspect is much simpler, and if you can't make it yourself, you can buy it from others, and with the current Japanese LCD technology, the screen of the handheld computer can still be made.

"I'm afraid this difficulty is no less than that of a home game console." Lei Shengli said.

"You set up a project first, research and development first, this project can't be successful in two or three months like an arcade machine, a year may be fast, and I have already thought about some practical patents, you can arrange someone to register it globally." After speaking, Chen Zhiwen took out some documents.

This is some information on the operation of handhelds and home game consoles, the most important of which is naturally the D-pad of the handheld, in addition, in order to avoid future competitors bypassing, he registered all the similar D-pad shapes, in short, even if he doesn't use it, he has to let others can't bypass.

"Okay, then next, Midea's resources will all be focused on home game consoles and handheld projects." Lei Shengli took the document, and after taking a look at it, he suddenly thought of a question and asked: "Chen Sheng, if our handheld console and home game console are greedy snakes, will they affect each other?" ”

"Don't worry, although the game is the same, the scene is completely different, it meets the needs of the same customer in different environments, and the fun of playing on the handheld is definitely far less than that of the home game console, the handheld is for the outdoors." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said: "But if the cost can't be reduced, it may have an impact." ”

"Okay." Lei Shengli nodded and said.

"Besides, even if there is an impact, as long as it is not a serious conflict, then it has to be done, otherwise, it can only be cheapened by others." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

In fact, the research and development of these two products is not low, and the research at the same time consumes the company's energy and resources.

But in the electronic age, time is very urgent, research and development is a little late, may completely lose the opportunity, home game consoles, Atari has been successfully developed, but because there is no related supporting games, the market in the last one or two years is normal, but once the number of games is enough, the market will immediately explode.

After Atari launched its products, Midea's R&D team also has a reference, plus it can develop its own home game console by poaching people with high salaries, so that it can also make its own products before the Atari arcade market explodes, and then through its own high-quality games, even if it can't beat Atari, it should be able to grab a part of the market, and when the market gives back a lot of money, then you can carry out the research and development of the next generation of home game consoles. Provided that history hasn't changed much.

And the handheld,It was launched by Nintendo in April 1980,Considering that this kind of research and development generally takes about a year,If Midea does it a little later,Once Nintendo releases,In the case of the handheld is not expensive,On the contrary, it may quickly occupy the market,Once the handheld is late,You may really miss the opportunity。

Therefore, these two directions need to be carried out in 78 or 79 years, and it will not work early, because the cost is too high or the semiconductor industry cannot meet the product requirements, and there will be no market if it is too late.

However, with the current scale of the United States, it is normal to study two products at the same time, or even less, many electronics companies in Japan are estimated to be able to surpass the United States in terms of profits, but any one, at the same time research and development of new products, it is estimated that there are not a hundred but also dozens, countless departments in different directions and technologies to study different commodities, the United States currently has only two main ones, or know the future potential of the situation.

Lei Shengli nodded and said: "These two projects, at present, still mainly rely on the team in the United States, but I want to send part of the Hong Kong team over this time, one is to reduce the cost of research and development in the United States, some of the most basic work of our Hong Kong team can still be done, and the second is to let our team learn more technology." ”

"That's no problem, you can send people out at will in the United States, and if the cost of living there is too high, then you can buy a hotel." Chen Zhiwen said. Although his plan in the future is that the factory will not be located in Hong Kong, since the headquarters is here, there must always be a team here that understands technology, preferably the kind that is similar to overseas.

"I think that even if we have the ability to go overseas to participate in R&D, I'm afraid there are not so many of them." Lei Shengli shook his head helplessly and said.

"If there are not enough people, just like the last chip and LCD factory, directly from Wanwan to poach people, understand electronic design, electronic technology, electronic industry manufacturing talents, can be poached, as long as you have the ability, stay in my side for a few years, and send a house is not a problem." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

Whether it is salary or housing prices, Hong Kong is higher than Wanwan, working in Hong Kong, the income is definitely higher than in Wanwan, as for the house, if you have the ability to contribute, Chen Zhiwen will not be stingy.

"Okay, but in addition to digging engineers, it's also okay to dig up some Wanwan graduates, there are so many graduates in the electronics industry every year, there will always be many who are willing to come to Hong Kong." Lei Shengli said.

"Yes." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, very large companies, in fact, many like to recruit graduates, because this can be carried out according to their own ideas for directional training, in the case of large companies with high-quality training plans, the speed of obtaining talents who need ability may be more efficient than social recruitment.

Midea's main income is basically in overseas offshore accounts, mainly for legal tax avoidance, and the Hong Kong headquarters, the funds can only maintain their normal operation.

Now the two projects launched at the same time, the research and development cost is high, therefore, Chen Zhiwen deliberately transferred back 20 million US dollars from overseas, these funds are not the entire budget of this family game console and handheld console, after all, now every month, several arcade machines can still bring tens of millions of dollars of net profit to the company, and when "Pac-Man" is listed again in the future, the profit may be further increased.

R&D funds, Midea is not lacking, just take the opportunity of this research and development, you can greatly increase your team's research and development experience and recruit more suitable people, and so on in the 80s, the demand for this area will also have several times the increase, after all, personal computers, all kinds of computer software, all kinds of complex games, and some electronic products, etc., even if Chen Zhiwen knows the direction, it also needs a large number of talents to help him turn his ideas into reality.

Soon in June, the news suddenly came from the Hong Kong market that Hongkong Land had sold its shares in the Prince's Building in Central, Windsor House in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, and Wharf to the ship's king Bao Yugang at the right price.

(End of chapter)