With the Time Shop, I Too Am the Greatest Conglomerate of All Time

Episode 45. Apple Inc. (1)

“You are wonderful. There are only two lines of dialogue, but it’s good to see them doing their best.”

“no. As a rookie, I have to work hard.”

“You will be very successful later.”

Hwang Kyung-min laughed at my words.

“Thank you so much for thinking that way.”

“haha. It’s really not empty. But with the sincerity I prepared, you won’t eat anything?”

Hwang Kyung-min got up from his seat with a face that he couldn’t do it at my words.

“Then I will eat well.”

“You thought well. If your stomach is full, your acting will be better. Let’s go.”

At the food stand, Hwang Kyung-min and Oden are in hand.

He started to eat while blowing.

“like. It’s delicious.”

“Is that right? I have swept away all the food stalls that I say are delicious around here. But if there are people who don’t eat it, I feel sad.”

After that, we chatted with Hwang Kyung-min about his name and hometown, and secretly asked him.

“Does actor Hwang have an agency right now?”

Hwang Kyung-min waved his hand and answered.

“Ehh. no. Is it possible for an unknown actor like me to have such a thing?”

“Then I will set up a movie investment and entertainment agency next year, so may I contact you at that time?”

“..are you talking to me?”

“yes. I think I can become a good actor if I get good support, but I want to try that role.”

Originally, I was only going to invest in movies.

It was a waste to leave these hidden gems alone, so I changed my mind.

Hwang Kyung-min answered with a moved face.

“..You are the first person to make such a proposal to me. Just contact us and we will be happy to run.”

With this, you have acquired a famous actor.

I had in mind Kim Soo-chan, the team leader, as the president of the agency to be created next year.

The business group will be disbanded soon.

How do you want to come out?

mid-November.

Sungwoon Logic President Lee Byung-hoon received a call.

“Director Kang. The initial supply of drill CPUs has also been released, would you like to come and see it?”

We have formally signed a contract with President Lee to share the profits 8:2.

Since we’re tied as business partners, I’ve already revealed to the president that I’m moving.

Since then, President Lee has also called me Director Kang.

The name of the CPU was named Drill, meaning ‘the awl that drills through the walls built up by the existing CPU companies’.

“okay? I will go as soon as possible.”

As soon as the lecture was over, I headed straight to Sungwoon Logic.

“This boss. I have come.”

“haha. Come on. Director Kang.”

“How about the CPU?”

“I made a temporary test board to check the performance, but I am. I’m not funny.”

“why? Did you have any problems?”

“CPU clock count is 700Mhz.”

Clock is a representative unit of CPU speed.

It indicates how many operations are performed on the CPU per second, and 700Mhz means 700 million operations per second.

If only the semiconductor processing capability was supported, it was originally designed for 800Mhz.

It’s a pity that the performance dropped a bit.

Still, the best Pentium II among the products released this year by Onetel, the strongest in the CPU industry, only has a clock speed of 450Mhz.

It could be said that it was a number that showed that Wontel’s high-end products have superior performance that cannot be compared.

The president spoke in an excited tone.

“Besides, it consumes only 1W of power. Wontel’s Pentium II comes out about 19W, and it’s only one-twentieth of that, so this is a number that can only be expressed as crazy. Besides, this is the GPU (graphics card) combined. It’s incredible performance.”

“Five! That’s great. I didn’t know it would turn out so well.”

Whoa!

I expected

It was thrilling to see President Lee Byung-hoon surprised.

“ha. This is something that can completely change the times. Now, if we spread this catalog of products, the world’s CPU makers will be thrown into chaos.”

“Then when will the catalog be distributed?”

“Let’s see. If you complete the basic test by tomorrow, make a data sheet (information paper that records the performance measurement results of the product), and place an order for catalog production, it will take about 4 days. Then we can spray early next week.”

“okay? I am looking forward to next week.”

“me too. However, if there is one disappointment, this is a RISC-style design, not a CISC. If it had been a CISC design, it would have been a fatal product that could defeat even the absolute powerhouse of the CPU world, Onetel.”

The CISC method has the advantage of being easier to program than RISC, but that was not the greatest strength of CISC.

The biggest weapon of the CISC method was that Windows, an OS with a huge market share, only supported CISC CPUs.

For that reason, personal PC users who are familiar with Windows could not easily change the RISC type CPU no matter how good the product was.

That was also the difficulty that latecomers like us face.

It’s only difficult to break through the wall the first time, but it might not be too difficult to break it down once you’ve drilled it.

The boss gave me a soft look and continued talking.

“If Director Kang’s genius is the CISC method, I think he can make this kind of product. how about it? How about designing one this time using the CISC method?”

I replied with a bitter smile.

“..I am not very interested in the CISC method. I have no idea yet.”

The truth is that the only knowledge I know of is RISC-related design data.

The president expressed his disappointment openly.

“Well… if that’s what Director Kang thinks, then there’s nothing we can do about it. Think carefully. If something like this comes out in the CISC way, it’s not a dream to earn trillions a year.”

Even if it is not the CISC method, when the smartphone era came, it was possible to earn trillions of profits from that time.

Besides, there were some personal PC manufacturers that currently use RISC-type CPUs.

Although it is now pushed by the combination of Wontel and Windows, its presence in the personal PC manufacturing industry is not great.

I wonder how the company will react when they see our products, quietly sharpening their knives under the water.

end of November.

A conference room at Apple’s headquarters in the United States.

Apple’s CEO Steve Mars frowned at the sales figures of the A-Mac, a personal PC product released in August.

“Even though the Flowerpc CPU used in our AMac was advertised as having better performance than Wontel’s Pentium II CPU, I can’t believe the sales figures are like this. Is this a product problem? Or should it be viewed as a marketing problem?”

In front of Steve Mars’ sharp gaze, the heads of staff bowed down.

“Why is no one answering? Is my question funny now?”

At Steve Mars’ repeated rebuke, the sales manager struggled to open his mouth.

“..but more than 400,000 units have already been sold. With that level of sales, at least the loss is at a level that can be avoided.”

Since 1993, Apple has suffered a loss every year.

Even achieving a surplus was a great achievement.

Steve Mars, who returned to Apple this year, didn’t want a result at that level, barely avoiding losses.

I thought this time would be the perfect opportunity to defeat the Wintel alliance (Windows + Onetel CPU), the only enemy.

The results weren’t very encouraging.

“Are you talking about that? As a result of the benchmark test, our CPU showed that the overall performance was almost twice as good as the competitor Pentium II 300Mhz, but it is not understandable that the sales volume is only that much. I thought it would have sold over 800,000 units by now, but only half of that. There is definitely a problem.”

Then Alex, the head of product development, answered.

“The clock number of our Flowerpc CPU is 266Mhz, which is lower than the Pentium II, so it seems that consumers do not think that the performance will be good.”

“PC speed is not determined solely by the number of clocks. Even considering IPC (Instruction Per Clock), our CPUs are so good, why do consumers think so?”

“People at PC makers like us know that IPC is important, but in general, IPC is difficult to quantify, so we don’t put it on the spec list. That’s why a lot of consumers judge a product based on the clock count alone.”

It made sense.

Steve Mars was in trouble.

“The number of clocks is an issue. It seems so. But our Flowerpc is a RISC system, so it’s not easy to raise the clock count. How am I supposed to do this?”

Alex held out a product catalog in front of Steve Mars, who was worried, and continued.

“This is the CPU catalog I got from Korea a few days ago.”

Steve Mars asked with a puzzled expression.

“korea? A small country stuck under China? There are companies that are famous for memory semiconductors like D-RAM, but aren’t there companies that are famous for CPUs?”

“I thought the same thing until a few days ago. Until you see the catalog of CPUs called this drill.”

Steve Mars’ eyes widened as he glanced through the catalog Alex held out.

“I think the numbers are a bit wrong. The clock is 700Mhz. Isn’t 70Mhz wrong?”

Alex shook his head.

“I thought I wrote it wrong, so I tried to contact him, but it wasn’t. I also captured the test screen and sent it, but 700Mhz was correct.”

“..Nonsense. The top-end Pentium II released by Wontel 3 months ago is 450Mhz, but 700Mhz? Isn’t that a fever or something, and it’s a figure that’s been pulled out to the maximum? no. Still, it is. Can you get 700Mhz by doing that?”

Wontel’s Pentium II could also be raised to 500-600Mhz if it ignored the heat and only extracted the number of clocks.

It was a meaningless number.

This is because, in a general environment, if you use more than 500Mhz, the CPU immediately breaks down, or performance drops significantly even if it is not.

Onetel’s CPU, which can be said to be a unique presence in the current CPU industry, is that much, 700Mhz.

It was a number that seemed to come out even with magic.

Alex continued.

“It’s not just Clark that’s surprised.”

“You mean something else?”

“yes. Take a look here.”

Steve Mars’s face froze as he saw the part Alex was pointing at in the drill catalog.

“..1W. Could this be the power consumption?”