and error write a specification that said - here's how the BIOS ROM needs to work. It couldn't be close it had to be exact - so there was a lot of detailed testing that went on. You test how that all-important chip behaves, and make a list of what it has to do now it's time to meet my lawyer, Claude. I've examined the internals of the ROM BIOS and written this book of specifications now I need some help because I've done as much as I can do, and you need to explain what's next. - Well, the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the book of specifications myself, - but the first thing I can tell you Robert is that you're out of it now. - You are contaminated, you are dirty. - You've seen the product that's the original work of authorship, you've seen the target product, - so now from here on in we're going to be working with people who are not dirty. - We're going to be working with so called virgins, - who are going to be operating in the clean room. I certainly don't qualify there. - I imagine you don't. - So what we're going to do is this: we're going to hire a group of engineers - who have never seen the IBM ROM BIOS. - They have never seen it, they have never operated it, they know nothing about it. (Claude interrogates Mark) - Have you ever before attempted to disassemble decompile or to - in any way shape or form reverse engineer any IBM equipment? Oh no. - And have you ever tried to disassemble... This is the Silicon Valley virginity test. And good virgins are hard to find. - You understand that in the event that we discover that the information you are providing us - is inaccurate you are subject to discipline by the company - and that can include but not limited to termination immediately do you understand that? Yes I do. - OK After the virgins are deemed intact, they are forbidden contact with the outside world while they build a new chip, one that behaves exactly like the one in the specifications. In Compaq's case, it took 15 senior programmers several months and cost $1 million to do the reverse engineering. In November 1982, Rod Canion unveiled the result. - What I've brought today is a Compaq portable computer. When Bill Murto, another Compaq founder got a plug on a cable TV show their selling point was clear: 100 percent IBM compatibility. - ...It turns out that all major popular software runs - on the IBM personal computer or the Compaq portable computer. -- That extends through all of this software for IBM? - Eh Yes. -- It all works on the Compaq? The Compaq was an instant hit. In their first year, on the strength of being exactly like IBM but a little cheaper, they sold 47,000 PCs. - In our first year of sales we set an American business record. - I guess maybe a world business record. Largest first year sales in history. - It was a hundred and eleven million dollars. So Rod Canion ends up in Aspen, famous for having the most expensive real estate in America and I try not to look envious while Rod tells me which executive jet he plans to buy next. - And finally I picked the Lear 31. Oh really? - Now that was a fun airplane. Oh yeh. Poor Big Blue! Suddenly everybody was cashing in on IBM's success. The most obvious winner at first was Intel, maker of the PCs microprocessor chip. Intel was selling chips like hotcakes to clonemakers, and making them smaller, quicker and cheaper. This was unheard of! What kind of an industry had Big Blue gotten themselves into? - Things get less expensive every year. People aren't used to that in general. - I mean, you buy a new car, you buy one now - and four years later you go and buy one it costs more than the one you bought before. - Here is this magical piece of an industry, - you go buy one later it costs less, and it does more, what a wonderful thing! - But it causes some funny things to occur when you think about an industry. - An industry where prices ------------------------------ Читайте также: - текст Феррис Бьюллер берёт выходной на английском - текст Нечто на английском - текст Смертельное влечение на английском - текст Идеальное убийство на английском - текст Долгой жизни Синьоре! на английском |