Episode 41. T-Project.(1)

The president’s face, who began to scan the drawings with a light heart, soon became as hard as a stone.

And after 30 minutes or so.

He looked at me with eyes as if he had seen a ghost.

“..it has no major flaws in its design. Besides, this is the integration of CPU and GPU into one, right?”

To be precise, it was a drawing of an integrated chip that combines the AP (application processor) that plays the role of the brain in the smartphone and the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) that improves the display quality.

In future smartphones to increase speed and reduce power consumption.

Soc (System on Chip), which uses AP and GPU as one chip, was the trend.

Now that there is no such case, the president was surprised.

At my words, the boss let out a sigh.

“Whoa. This is… what… it doesn’t make sense. Kang Director. Do you really have any experience working in the semiconductor industry?”

Although there was

But I couldn’t tell the truth.

“I can’t believe it when I see it again. I never imagined that CPU and GPU could be combined in this way. With this structure, speed will increase and power consumption will decrease.”

“Then what’s wrong with the drawing?”

Although I worked for Hwansung Electronics System Memory Division for 8 years.

However, I didn’t know all the details.

I think I know all the important parts.

I didn’t know if there was something I missed.

“There are some minor issues. But I think we can handle that.”

I’m glad.

The boss asked me, with his eyes shining.

“Give us this drawing.”

“What are the conditions?”

“8:2 of the revenue from the sale of this product, of course, the number of lucky students is 8.”

You want 20% of your profits.

Make up for the missing parts of my blueprint.

Considering that it was the cost of being responsible for everything from production to sales, it was a reasonable level.

Besides, he was a good friend to me from the beginning, so it wasn’t a bad partner to go with.

“good. How long will it take for the first product to come out?”

“It will take about a month and a half from making the design, placing an order at the foundry, and getting it out.”

A foundry company is a company that receives design drawings and makes products directly.

Since Sungwoon Logic is a fabless company, it had to use a foundry company to actually make the product.

“..okay. The reason it took a month and a half is probably because of the foundry, right?”

“Right. The schedule for that side is already set, so even if you place an order, you can’t start right away.”

Unless it’s a Sungwoon Logic problem, I guess I’ll have to wait.

So what should I do in the meantime?

The next day, Hongin Media conference room.

A sample with a 4-inch LCD display and touch screen was placed on the table.

I put my finger on the sample with a pounding heart.

There was a picture of sunflowers floating on the display.

As I narrowed my thumb and index finger, the picture became smaller following the movement of my fingers.

Conversely, when the thumb and index finger were widened, the picture became larger.

“haha. This is really happening.”

No matter how many times I repeated it, I never got tired of it.

You might be able to see this now.

It was very slow compared to future smartphones.

Although only the basic UI (User Interface, how to use the product) was completed, it was not usable right away.

The development direction was following the future smartphone.

I looked at Sang-Ah and CEO Oh-Chan Jung standing next to me.

“It’s been a lot of hard work. You have implemented the multi-touch UI I ordered well.”

Sang-a replied with a smile.

“okay? It’s good that you say that.”

“President Jung also worked really hard.”

“no. To be honest, you can say that Sang-Ah Yang, no, Chae, almost 80% of the work was done by himself.”

Sang-a waved her hand next to him.

“Child. president. That’s not it. The boss gave me a lot of good ideas.”

“All I did was supplement the exaggerated idea a little bit, so it’s not that great.”

It’s warm and nice to see.

It seemed that Sang-a had adapted to the company better than expected.

“Everyone did a great job. There is still a long way to go, but shall we put a name on this OS first? Above all, I would like to call it Easy OS because it is easy and convenient, how about it?”

Both nodded.

“That name. Do you like it.”

“It’s fine. Director.”

At this rate, it seems that a proper OS will come out before the end of next year.

I’ll have to check the touchscreen side.

“Chief Chae. How far has capacitive touch screen development reached?”

“A touch screen about the size of a cell phone will be able to be raised to a usable level by the end of this year. However, in terms of response speed, apart from the touch screen, hardware such as CPU or software such as OS have been eating for quite some time, so it may not be at the level that Director Kang wants to respond immediately.”

“That is enough. The rest of the problems are solved by me. So when will laptop-sized touchscreens get to that level?”

“..the bigger the size, the more technical problems that need to be solved. Do you think it will take a year or two at the earliest?”

“..I know it’s difficult, but please speed up the development a bit. I have work to write next year.”

“Are you going to write something?”

“yes. I want to make the tablet PC I mentioned before, before the year 2000.”

“..I know. We will try to push the schedule as much as possible.”

Hongin Media Conference Room.

“Chief Jung. Is the P store complete? I think I heard last week that it was almost finished.”

P store.

It was a platform where you could easily download any music you want from the Internet directly to your MP3 player.

It was originally a platform created with the intention of developing the smartphone app store of the future.

Since I decided to make a tablet PC, I was thinking of applying it here first.

“yes. The P store is ready.”

“Good for you. Please make the P store platform a version that can be used on easy.”

President Jung asked with a surprised face.

“On easyOS? It would be possible to play MP3s on a tablet PC, but I don’t think anyone would buy them to listen to MP3s?”

“haha. I am not using it to download MP3s.”

“Application program. We call it the app for short. We will use this app as a platform where we can directly download and install it.”

Jung made a face that he understood.

“Ah, it’s good for consumers to be able to easily install the apps they want, and from the seller’s point of view, it’s convenient to just put the apps on the store.”

“yes. But when I think about it, there is something I am worried about. In order to sell the app, we would have to re-create the app based on our ‘Easy’, but since most people do not know about the existence of Easy, there are probably not many sellers.”

“It makes sense. So I’m going to make Easy OS famous first. But even if EZ becomes famous, if it is cumbersome to create EZ-based apps, transactions will not be activated, so we need to prepare in advance.”

“Are you ready?”

“We first create and distribute kits for app developers. When the OS is complete, the source code is also opened for free. However, the source code is patented so that others cannot use it commercially, and the strong connection between EZOS and the P store makes it a structure where if you use EZ, you have no choice but to use the P store.”

An App Developer’s Kit is a program that makes it easy to create apps that run on that OS.

“I see what you mean.”

“And please make basic programs for Windows, such as web browsers, notepads, and calculators, for easyOS at Hongin Media. If there is no program, people will be uncomfortable.”

“I don’t know about anything else, but a web browser is a program that requires technical skills, so its performance may be lower than that of a famous web browser. Would it be okay though?”

“It’s fine for now. However, web browsers can be good food in the future, so please continue to upgrade their performance.”

“All right.”

President Jung, who was writing down my words in his notebook, looked at me as if he had remembered something.

“If we sell tablet PCs, most of the buyers will be office workers, shouldn’t there be a plausible word processor?”

word processor.

It refers to a program that can decorate a document to look good.

A representative program is Microsoft’s MS Office series.

It could be said that it was the most used program by the office workers.

As President Jung said, a good word processor could be of great help in selling tablet PCs.

“You are right, Mr. Can Hongin Media make a word processor?”

President Jung shook his head with a puzzled face.

“..that seems a bit difficult. It’s not our area of ​​expertise, and it’s a program that requires a lot of hands to make. Besides, there are so many good word processors out there, buyers will not be satisfied if we make one.”

“okay. Then, should I consider the word processor first?”

At that time, President Jung made a suggestion to me.

“How about entrusting it to a professional company rather than just taking it out?”

“A professional company?”

“There is a company specializing in word processing called Hungle and Computer.”

Ah, a good idea flashed through the words of President Jung.

Hungle and computer.

It is a company specializing in word processing established by Gong-Jin Yoo and three other people.

Although ‘Hungle Below’ made there is the only competitor of MS Word.

The business becomes difficult because of the reefs of piracy and the IMF crisis.

By now, we have declared surrender to MS.

It’s time to sign an investment contract.

Shall I jump on the board one more time?

After all, a national fundraising campaign will happen soon, and Hungle and Computer will eventually become companies in which the people are shareholders.

The contract with MS is terminated.

Looking at that, it seems certain that he did not receive an investment contract from MS because he liked President Yu Gong-jin.

If I were to invest, there was a high possibility that I would accept it easily.

It looks like it protects the Korean word processor, so it looks good from the outside.

In particular, as the ‘stock price surge’ called the IT bubble starts from next year, the stock prices of Hungle and Computer will rise more than 100 times.

Of course, this is not an investment aimed at profiting from a share price increase.

If you think that you have taken over by mistake, you should take a profit and get out.

The next day, I went to Hungle and Computer Headquarters in Nonhyeon-dong.

When I knocked on the door of the representative office, I heard a weak voice from inside.

“Come in.”

As I entered, I was greeted by CEO Yu Gong-jin with a tired face.

“hello. president. My name is Jae-Woon Kang, the director of the group I contacted in advance.”

“Yes. Sit down on the sofa in front of it.”

As I sat down on the sofa, President Yoo sat across from me and opened his mouth.

“I heard on the phone that you had an investment-related proposal, did you know that we have already signed an investment contract with MS, right?”

“To be honest, I don’t know how much the stock price will fall, and because of the contract with MS, I can’t develop the Hungle below anymore.”

“I came to know.”

“Are you saying you want to invest?”

“..It’s a bit odd to ask a person who came to make an investment offer like this, but what is your reason for investing?”

“Hungle below is the only word processor in Korea that can compete with MS Office. It’s like a treasure for the country, but the biggest reason is that we couldn’t let it be buried like this.”

In fact, the reason I needed it to sell my tablet PC was bigger.

It was a bonus that the stock price would jump like crazy from next year.

“…if that’s the reason, I’m really grateful. Then let’s hear the specifics.”

“I think the investment is about 15 billion won. Is this enough to break the contract with MS?”

President Yoo looked at me with a surprised expression.

“Is it 15 billion? I know that Damoye is famous in the online shopping mall industry, but was it enough to mobilize that amount of money?”

Of course, the funds alone were not enough, so the high-cast funds were also raised.

With the exception of funds for emergencies, all spare funds were drawn, so it was difficult to make new investments for the time being.

“We have several subsidiaries. We have a lot of money to mobilize.”

“..that’s right. If you invest 15 billion won, breaking the contract with MS is not difficult, but there are conditions, right?”

“yes. I have two conditions.”

“You tell me.”

“The first is to secure a 30% stake through a capital increase (increase stocks). And the second thing is to make a new OS-based Hungle below.”

“..I understand the first condition. But since it’s a new OS, what OS are you talking about?”

“There is an OS that our subsidiary is developing called easyOS. We need Hungle below that can be used in that OS.”

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like