[Chapter 904: Are You Sure It's Just a Game Console?]
The younger version of Leo DiCaprio was definitely fresh-faced. To be honest, William White felt a twinge of envy.
This guy, if he weren't such a player, would actually make a decent son-in-law. But sadly, bringing this guy into the family would probably lead to complications.
Cameron was a maniac on set; you really had to see it to believe it. William smiled but didn't speak. Honestly, seeing Leo in a bit of a bind sort of amused him. Male animals, really, can't stand to see anyone else shine brighter than themselves. Cameron probably felt some envy too.
In Santa Clara, California, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove wore expressions of confusion.
"Tom, are you sure? This is the CPU for a game console?"
"Gordon, I'm absolutely sure. Two hundred Hertz is the minimum requirement, and multimedia instructions need to be included. According to your Moore's Law, this frequency shouldn't be too challenging," Tom said, looking curiously at the two older gentlemen. "Isn't this basically the structure of the new architecture you've been developing?"
"Tom, is this for an arcade or for PlayStation? I mean, if Motorola can't make it, it must be the CPU for PlayStation," Andy Grove hesitated, wondering if Tom was really placing an order or just gathering intel.
"Of course it's for PlayStation. Power consumption can't exceed 15 watts. You know how it is--game consoles don't cool as well as PCs. Plus, you throw in a 3D acceleration card. If you can keep it under 12 watts, it'll simplify things a lot for us."
"That's impossible. Over four million transistors? No way! And the maximum is 166 Hertz. God, do you really plan to use this game console to launch missiles?" Gordon Moore exploded. He definitely couldn't let on that their factory might look good but had a very low yield rate.
"That's not enough; it can't keep up with the graphics processor speed. I'm serious; Legendary World is already developing new games that completely outclass arcade graphics," Tom said, a bit torn himself. The specifications for this console were already outpacing personal PCs.
In fact, there was no longer any reason to belittle game consoles; it was a massive industry now. As the leader in the gaming sector, Legendary World's latest PlayStation certainly caught market attention.
"Tom, if you add a hard drive, this becomes a personal computer--the most powerful kind. Is Legendary World planning to venture into the PC market?"
"Ha ha, at least not this time. I can tell you this, if there are no sales, my boss isn't interested."
Tom's words were mostly believed by Intel's big shots. The PlayStation series had already sold over a hundred million units. Including the PSP, it was almost like every American had one.
If it came down to a choice, everyone might just opt for the game console.
With such a huge order on the line, Intel, of course, was interested. What was causing them to hesitate was really just the price.
How much could you sell a game console for?
"Tom, what are the specs on the 3D acceleration card?"
"Preliminary plans settle on 133 Hertz, with 4 megabytes of video memory. Oh, and we'll use the latest SDRAM."
Watching the two guys exchange glances, Tom felt quite smug. This meant to inform them that memory was about to be upgraded, and if they didn't sell what they had, it would likely rot in their inventory.
His boss had long ago stated that Intel's Santa Clara factory was impressive, and they could definitely solve problems that AMD couldn't. The only downside was their tendency to squeeze out every last bit of performance, improving things only incrementally.
Nonsense about Moore's Law: if you're not the one pushing the performance boundaries, who are you to say it doubles every 18 months? You could fool others, but you couldn't pull that trick with William White.
Such a large collaboration couldn't be established in one or two hours. An hour later, Tom left Santa Clara. If they still needed to discuss this further, then let them do just that.
"Andy, is this really just a game console?"
"Gordon, you don't need to doubt this. William White may have his faults, but he has excellent credit and wouldn't lie about this."
"Next year, if production begins next year, isn't that a little too soon?"
"Old buddy, we can't drag this out any longer. Windows 95 is really demanding on resources, and SDRAM is out. If we don't speed up, we'll fall behind.
That's not even the main concern--Motorola has design capabilities too, and if they decide to go for it, getting under 200 Hertz shouldn't be too difficult."
The two old men weren't mistaken; William White had already lost his patience. If they didn't make a decision soon, wasn't there always Cyrix?
What? Not even as good as AMD.
Cough, cough. This stuff is really subjective. Back during the X86 era, or even before MMX emerged, Cyrix had been the most cost-effective choice.
Of course, the quality was really poor. As for the whole unit, it was manageable, but buying bare chips was a gamble. If luck was against you, it just wouldn't boot.
Before the Pentium II appearance, Intel, AMD, and Cyrix all used the same pin configuration. With a price difference approaching half, if you were into DIY, you could buy a Cyrix to start with and swap it out when Intel lowered prices.
The grudges among these three companies actually began in this era. To be fair, they were all brothers in arms. Now that you're doing well, you just forget about your poorer buddies?
As for what's right or wrong, there's really no way to say. It's true that they all came from Fairchild Semiconductor, but those two companies couldn't keep rehashing things either.
What infuriated Intel more was that changing the pin configuration didn't help. Motherboard manufacturers produced adapter cards, which allowed for seamless integration with Intel.
"Sir, I just left their factory. They were hesitant at first, but then I told them SDRAM was about to be mass-produced."
"Ha ha ha, Gordon Moore must've been sweating bullets. Dynamic memory is one thing, but synchronous dynamic memory is a whole different ball game."
"Sir, even so, this price just won't work. You can't sell a game console for a thousand bucks."
"Let's talk about costs later. I'll give you a range--it can't exceed six hundred bucks."
"Cough, cough, cough. Sir, that's impossible. The costs just won't come down."
"Let's discuss it later--this isn't the place for it. I'm on set right now."
The costs were indeed high, but William White hadn't planned to take a loss.
Legendary World's open platform had now turned into a semi-closed one. Thus, he could certainly use the profits from game cartridges to subsidize the price of the console.
After giving some instructions, William White left the set. Today's shoot involved water scenes, providing not only a chance to see Leo in a bit of a mess but also to catch a glimpse of Miss Ruth all wet and glistening.
You couldn't deny it; she looked adorable when splashy in the water. Plus, Kate, the little chubby girl, was intrigued, and William's glance at her was playful but definitely not heated.
And this damn guy spoke with a perfect London accent. He had been too nervous earlier, leading to various word choices gone wrong. Curse it--this would surely become a Hollywood joke.
Kate, feeling embarrassed, scanned the surroundings and found that a group of people appeared to have normal expressions.
The beautiful sister was overthinking it; William White didn't come around this crew often, but he frequently visited other sets. To be honest, everyone had grown accustomed to it. Plus, those charms of yours in the UK just wouldn't make sense to the American audience.
*****
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