The two-hour press conference officially ended at 12 noon.
Igret Company also prepared a reception at the nearby Marriott Hotel. Of course, it was impossible for all of the more than 2,000 guests to come. This time, the number of invited guests was less than 200.
There was still a work schedule in the afternoon. Simon did not leave San Francisco immediately after the press conference, but rushed to the Marriott Hotel with a group of executives from the Westeros system.
"The White House is preparing to establish an Office of Science and Technology Policy. Simon, they should have sent you an invitation, right?"
In the crowded reception hall.
Simon sat down with James Raybould, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee, among others, to talk about some of Washington's recent moves.
Hearing Damen's question, Simon nodded, gestured to Tim Berners-Lee, and said, "Tim will serve as a consultant in this office."
Although the U.S. stock market began to recover in the first half of the year, the U.S. economic recession cannot be reversed immediately. The domestic property market is still in a state of decline, the unemployment rate is still rising, and the proportion of the poor population in the United States has reached a new high in 20 years.
War honors cannot be used for food.
Everyone lamented the heroic performance of the US military in the Gulf War at the beginning of the year. As the economic environment continued to deteriorate, the honors gained by the Bush administration through the Gulf War were constantly being devoured, and the support rate continued to decline.
In order to regain its rapidly losing support, the White House has to turn more attention domestically.
The listing of Cisco and AOL has created two corporate giants with a market value of tens of billions. The trend of the Internet industry's explosion is becoming more and more obvious.
The rapid development of emerging industries undoubtedly means more jobs and domestic economic growth. The two new technology companies that have just gone public and have already exceeded the market value of tens of billions have undoubtedly proved this. In addition, Senator Al Gore The proposed "Information Highway Act" reminded that the White House quickly began to pay attention to the Internet industry and was looking for the establishment of a science and technology policy office specifically focused on this field.
Simon had previously received an invitation from the White House to serve as a consultant to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Of course, he did not have time and was not suitable to do so due to his position, so he recommended Tim Berners-Lee.
Tim Berners-Lee is the CEO of Igret. The most important thing is that he is British and will not involve too many political issues.
John Chambers and Steve Case, the CEOs of Cisco and AOL, politely declined the invitation to serve as consultants on the grounds that they were too busy.
Serving as an advisor to the Bush administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy will definitely have a crucial impact on the future policy direction of the White House in the field of new technologies.
However, if nothing else happens, Bush will only have one year left in office.
Moreover, since the bet has been made, even if there is an accident in this time and space, Simon cannot ignore his position for the sake of temporary benefits.
After all, people have to have some stance.
It was obviously impossible for Bill Gates to know Simon's layout. When he heard that Tim Berners-Lee would serve as a consultant in this office, Simon himself did not agree, so he made up his mind to reject the consultant title.
Deep down, Daemon puts himself on the same level as Simon.
After everyone chatted for a while, Intel CEO Andy Grove came over to say hello and mentioned another thing: "Simon, what do you think of the AIM Alliance that was recently established by Apple, IBM and Motorola?"
The AIM Alliance, whose names are taken from the initials of Apple, IBM and Motorola, is mainly to promote the PowerPC architecture CPU processors of the three companies that have been brewing for a long time.
PowerPC is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture, corresponding to Intel's x86 complex instruction set computer (CISC) architecture.
The ARM architecture processors in the future smartphone era will also be of the RISC type.
To use a more popular metaphor, the difference between RISC and CISC is like a wild boar and an elephant, basically belonging to two 'species'.
Intel later tried to lay out mobile chips, but several attempts failed. The fundamental reason is here. If an elephant is stuffed into a wild boar cage, even a newborn baby elephant will appear too big. '.
CISC has strong computing power and is more suitable for mainframes and even supercomputers in this era.
The computing power of RISC is weak. Before the Internet era, RISC was sufficient to meet the computing needs of personal computers.
The three giants established the AIM Alliance to promote PowerPC, in fact, to counter the rapidly rising Wintel Alliance of Microsoft and Intel.
Although the operating frequency of Intel chips of this era, even the latest 486 processor, is only 50Mhz, which is not the same as the processors that exceed 5Ghz many years later, throughout the 1980s, because most PCs could only perform simple tasks Word processing operations, graphical interface operating systems are far from reaching the level of popularity later. Therefore, the computing performance of Intel processors with only a few dozen megahertz operating frequencies is still excessive relative to user needs, and the price is too expensive.
The PowerPC architecture processor promoted by the AIM Alliance just 'makes up for' the two major 'shortcomings' of Intel's chip overperformance and high price.
However, if it were ten years ago, the AIM Alliance might have succeeded against the Wintel Alliance.
Now, with the advent of the Internet era, personal computers have developed from simple text applications to multimedia with images, sounds and even videos. Users' demand for PC performance will only become higher and higher. At this time, the AIM Alliance promotes PowerPC architecture chips based on RISC , the results can be imagined.
In the original time and space, Apple insisted on the PowerPC architecture until 2005. During this period, the computer giant that created the personal computer era also declined, and Jobs finally had to turn to Intel's new products.
Simon did not answer Andy Grove's question directly, but looked at him and Daimon respectively, and asked: "Have you read the information about the Canadian ATI company?"
ATI is a display chip development company founded in 1985.
Many years later, people who are a little proficient in computers and like to play games will know A cards and N cards, of which A cards are produced by ATI.
Nvidia, which produces N cards, has not yet been established, but ATI already has a good technology accumulation. After Simon saw the company's information a month ago, he instructed James Raybould to contact ATI.
Graphics card chips have been around since the early 1980s, and professional graphics workstations are equipped with graphics card units.
However, the graphics cards of this era have not yet reached the consumer level that can be used by ordinary PCs. Mainly because before the 1990s, there was no such need.
With the advent of the Internet era, if you want a computer to have excellent multimedia functions, a PC-level graphics card is essential.
Andy Grove and Bill Gates both nodded.
ATI has launched a relatively successful professional-grade graphics chip in 1987, and is now one of the important suppliers of 2D and 3D graphics chips in the industry.
Simon continued: "In the past, some people always thought that the performance of Intel CPUs was excessive, but I believe that any user who has been exposed to the Internet will no longer think so. As the demand for multimedia functions such as images, sounds, and videos in personal computers increases, , users’ requirements for computer performance will also increase rapidly. Therefore, I don’t think the AIM Alliance, which goes against the trend, will have any good results.”
Bill Gates subconsciously asked: "Simon, does this have anything to do with ATI?"
"Of course, I think even Intel's CPUs will gradually be unable to meet users' performance needs. Graphics chips can make up for the CPU's shortcomings in multimedia. It happens that ATI is developing PC-level graphics chips and is expected to have products early next year. Westeros has invested US$50 million to acquire 25% of the company's equity. Next, I hope that Microsoft and Intel can work together to promote the application of consumer-grade graphics cards."
Simon had already mentioned these things in the information given to the two of them.
Simon also specifically analyzed the demand trend for PC-level graphics cards. However, Bill Gates and Andy Grove did not have Simon's prophetic advantage, so they did not have time to react.
Of course, there must be other reasons.
Neither Microsoft nor Intel certainly want Simon to interfere too much in their company affairs.
Noticing the subtle expression changes on the faces of Bill Gates and Andy Grove, Simon smiled: "So, Westeros only bought 25% of ATI's shares purely to promote PC-level graphics cards. For the research and development and promotion of chips, you two can continue to contact this company. ATI is not listed on the market. Microsoft and Intel can decide whether to invest in this company. I believe that the market size of graphics card chips will not be much worse than that of CPU chips in the future. . In fact, I recommend Intel to buy out the entire company. Andy, if you do this, the 25% shares held by Westeros Company can be transferred to you at the original price."
After hearing Simon say that the future market size of graphics card chips will not be much worse than that of CPU chips, Bill Gates and Andy Grove couldn't help but look at each other, and finally took it seriously.
They have no doubts about the vision of Westeros.
Simon is actually not very clear about the size of the GPU chip market later, but GPU chips will be crucial in the future, whether in the PC era or the smartphone era. There is no doubt that investing in this industry now has broad prospects.
In addition, given that it already has sufficient technology accumulation, if ATI can gain support from the two giants Microsoft and Intel this time, it will not be easy to be overtaken by Nvidia, which has come from behind.
Of course, Simon doesn't intend to put all his eggs in one basket.
In addition to ATI, Westeros has also recently contacted some other graphics chip companies. However, these companies are not as deep as ATI. It is unlikely that they will launch PC-level graphics chips within two or three years. Only ATI can achieve this early next year. One goal.
However, after the development of PC-level chips is completed, if you want to promote it, you must have corresponding OEM (original equipment manufacturer) support.
Microsoft and Intel have a strong influence on OEM manufacturers such as Compaq, HP, and Dell. If ATI relies on these two companies, it will undoubtedly make the promotion of PC-level graphics chips more effective.
Both Bill Gates and Andy Grove understood that although Simon discussed with them in a suggestion tone, the young man had obviously made up his mind. If the two do not cooperate, Westeros Company may have to formally propose relevant proposals to the boards of directors of the two companies as a major shareholder.
Both Bill Gates and Andy Grove are the founders of Microsoft and Intel. Of course they don't want outsiders to interfere with their companies, but they are definitely not the kind of people who cannot accept correct advice. people.
He solemnly promised to discuss the matter seriously later, and everyone talked about other things.
The noon cocktail party couldn't last too long. At one o'clock in the afternoon, guests began to leave one after another.
Simon sent Andy Grove and his classmates away and returned to the reception hall. Claire Gein, the C girl who had not found a chance to say hello just now, came over, followed by a petite girl, but The other Jennifer, the little girl who rushed onto the stage of Madonna's concert, was already studying computer science at Stanford University, Jennifer Bree.
After saying hello to Girl C, Simon looked at the little girl next to him who looked like an underage lolita. He had the urge to reach out and touch her head. He smiled and said, "Jenny, how are you doing lately?"
Probably because women have a naturally sensitive sixth sense, Jennifer shrank her neck cutely, with a hint of expectation in her beautiful eyes.
Moreover, the little girl no longer seemed as restrained in front of Simon as before, like a good friend she had known for a long time. She said with a familiarity in her tone: "I'm helping Claire do something."
Girl C explained: "Jenny is working as my assistant recently, so she just happens to be exercising in advance."
Simon glanced at Claire, then turned to the little girl and said, "Don't you need to go to class?"
Seeing that the smile on Simon's face seemed to have faded, Jennifer Bray quickly shook her head: "No, it's all after school time."
In fact, Simon didn't have any idea that academics were too important. He just asked casually. After noticing the little girl's nervousness, he smiled again and said: "Pay attention to arrange your time. Although I don't think college courses are very important, you should learn There are still things you need to learn.”
Jennifer Bray nodded immediately, like a chicken pecking at rice: "I will."
I really want to touch my head.
Then, the little girl in front of him shrank her neck again.
As if it had been touched.
Girl C next to her was keenly aware of these details, with a smile on her lips.
After just chatting for a few words, and seeing that the time was about the same, Simon met up with several senior executives from Ygritte and left the Marriott Hotel together.
The reception in the hall did not end immediately. A large group of people gathered to send Simon and others away. Girl C took Jennifer Bray back to the hall, looked at the little girl for a few seconds, raised her hand and rubbed the girl's beautiful blond hair. on the head.
Jennifer Bray was rubbed on the head by Girl C and let go. Then she blinked and asked with a puzzled look on her face: "C, what's wrong?"
Girl C pinched the girl's delicate face again and said with a smile: "Little fairy."
The disguise was exposed, Jennifer Bray stopped pretending, and couldn't help but glance at the direction Simon left, and looked around, and suddenly asked in a low voice: "C, have you slept with your boss, um?" ?”
Girl C nodded without hesitation: "Of course, BOSS is very good in bed, you will know in the future."
The little girl looked at Girl C, blinked a few times, shook her head and said in disappointment: "Forget it, asking you is in vain."
Claire raised her hand and hit the little girl on the head: "Can you be more silly? Men like silly girls."
Jennifer Bray tilted her head, failed to avoid Claire's knock, and retorted: "Simon doesn't like it."
Claire raised her eyebrows slightly: "How do you know?"
The little girl said matter-of-factly: "I just know."