Chapter 312: Hot Sales at the Launch Event

Overclocking was the thing computer enthusiasts in the 80s and 90s loved to talk about.

The most memorable was the Celeron 300A of that era, a god-tier CPU; once you got it, you could easily overclock to 450 MHz, and with luck up to 500 MHz—in an age when processor performance was severely lacking, this was absolutely a great value.

And now, Dragon Core One likewise has excellent overclocking potential!

Although the version promoted at launch was the 6 MHz model, thanks to the advanced process, its overclocking potential is high—almost all can easily double to 12 MHz!

This is even higher than the strongest version of the 8086!

Clock speed, Dragon Core One is higher! Bus width, Dragon Core One is doubled! Manufacturing process, Dragon Core One is advanced!

One could say Dragon Core One dominates in every respect; this processor bursts onto the scene and will surely become a global bestseller!

Everyone was stunned.

Buzz!

Geluofu only felt a roar in his head, all the noisy sounds vanished, and he saw the people around him opening their mouths but couldn't hear what they were saying.

This Dragon Core One is not only stronger than the 8086, but even stronger than what they are about to release!

If Dragon Core One were rolled out worldwide, would there still be a market for their Intel?

Memory can't match the island nation, the processor can't match the East—is Intel's heaven about to collapse?

Having said all that, everyone must surely be interested in our processor now—please welcome the chief R&D engineer of this processor, Engineer Ni, to the stage to give a demonstration!

Below, Engineer Ni froze—what, why am I being called up again?

But hearing the applause, Engineer Ni knew he had to go up even if he didn't want to.

Fortunately, the talking is done; all that's left is to do it!

He walked toward the table set up on the podium, which was covered with a red silk cloth, revealing a cubic appearance.

Whoosh, Engineer Ni yanked open the red silk cloth, revealing a glass fish tank inside—cough, cough, it really is a repurposed fish tank, after all there wasn't time to get a new one.

Qin Miao was somewhat speechless: "Engineer Ni, you should pull it slowly, bit by bit—that's how you catch people's eyes! Or maybe you just lack experience; next time you'll have it."

Click, click!

Amid countless flashbulbs, Engineer Ni reached in and pulled out a black block with leads all around.

Earlier microprocessors were rectangular with leads on two sides, like a centipede, at most twenty or thirty; now Dragon Core One's processor has a full sixty‑eight leads, requiring a four‑row straight‑plug design—that is, a PLCC layout.

Compared to later generations with thousands of leads, this number is just a drizzle.

Dragon Core One, its shining moment has arrived!

The Goldson label is just as dazzling!

"This processor, with the world's most advanced performance, needs no 998, no 899—just 399. Ladies and gentlemen, $399 each, a uniform global price! Though early production is limited, monthly output is only fifty thousand units……"

Just now we introduced the performance; now we announce the price, and next……

"Qinghua University will purchase ten thousand units in the first batch!"

"Capital University will purchase twenty thousand units in the first batch!"

Just like today's livestream rooms, if only the host shouts at the family, "how's this, how's that," it might not sell; you need a large crew of shills who start frenzied buying inside, so that the watching crowd gets swept along, fearing they'll miss out if they're slow, and rush to place orders.

The result…… sales of ten thousand units, of which over nine thousand nine hundred were shills, only a few dozen genuine buyers!

Now, if no one bought it, perhaps it would still be a dull affair, but two renowned domestic universities placed orders without hesitation, instantly sparking a craze.

Everyone present knew the coming era would belong to microcomputers; before, one had to spend precious foreign exchange to buy chips; later, domestic manufacturers could copy the 8086 chip, which was a huge advance, but relying solely on imitation would forever leave them behind.

Now, Ha Gong Da has produced a brand‑new Dragon Core One; this chip is more advanced than Intel's, and purchasing it enables the production of matching personal computers—this new market, whoever seizes it first will reap huge profits.

At the same time domestic companies were clamoring to place orders, a short guy also stood up and began speaking in very strange English.

"Nintendo will purchase fifty thousand units in the first batch!"

As soon as that voice spoke, everyone was instantly stunned.

Even Qin Miao blinked, "What, Nintendo?"

Nintendo, a company that made hanafuda and playing cards, while this long‑standing island‑nation firm actually began shifting to electronic games in the early 1980s!

In 1980, the family of Nintendo president Shan Nei Pu's daughter returned from North America to visit relatives in the island nation; Shan Nei Pu didn't pay much attention to his daughter, but focused his attention on his son‑in‑law Arakawa Minoru, and they talked for hours on end.

The content was just two words: "Go overseas, America!"

In that era, island‑nation people were proud; although militarily they were a defeated nation, economically they were a powerful state, their automobiles and home appliances occupied the American market, and at their peak the island nation's wealth could even buy the whole United States!

Then…… naturally came the Plaza Accord—when the sheep get fat, it's time to slaughter them!

Hanafuda and playing cards couldn't crack the American market, so Nintendo's goal was to make game consoles!

Arakawa Minoru was persuaded by his father‑in‑law, quit his job at a big company, and became the person in charge of Nintendo's US operations; although his business card said president, his actual work was that of a warehouse manager, selling Nintendo's developed game "Radar".

Unfortunately, this game was totally unsuited to the market and suffered severe sluggish sales.

At that time, Shan Nei Pu didn't lose heart; he selected fresh‑out‑of‑school engineer Gong Ben Mao to develop a new arcade game, "Forest Joy Strong," and it was a total triumph.

In 1981, Nintendo of America sold over sixty thousand "Forest Joy Strong" arcade units, breaking the hundred‑million‑dollar sales mark!

Nintendo was striding forward, advancing toward the throne of dominance in the game‑console market!

Next, they wanted to develop more advanced games, and the obstacle blocking them was the chip!

At present, the chip they could choose was the MOS6502—a legendary chip; the first Apple computer used it! Its biggest advantage was low cost, said to be only twenty dollars.

However, the chip of this 8‑bit processor also has quite poor performance; it simply cannot sustain Nintendo's future!

If there were no Dragon Core, then Nintendo's most famous red‑and‑white machine of the 1980s would be using this kind of chip; now Nintendo has a far greater goal… using Dragon Core No. 1 to build a more advanced arcade machine!