The two-hour launch event officially concluded at noon, twelve o'clock.
Ygritte Company had also prepared a reception banquet at the nearby Marriott Hotel afterward. Naturally, it was impossible for all the more than two thousand guests and audience members on site to attend. This time, the number of invited guests was fewer than two hundred.
There was still a work schedule in the afternoon. After the launch event ended, Simon did not leave San Francisco immediately. Instead, he headed to the Marriott Hotel together with a group of Westeros system executives.
"The White House is preparing to set up a Technology Policy Office. Simon, they should have sent you an invitation as well, right?"
Inside the crowded banquet hall.
Simon gathered with James Rebould, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee and the others, discussing some recent developments from Washington.
Hearing the question from Gates, Simon nodded and indicated toward Tim Berners-Lee. "Tim will serve as an advisor in this office."
Although the U.S. stock market had begun to recover in the first half of the year, the economic recession in America could not be reversed immediately. The domestic real estate market was still in shambles, the unemployment rate continued to rise, and the proportion of Americans living in poverty had reached a new high in twenty years.
War honors could not be eaten as food.
Everyone sighed for a moment over the heroic performance of the U.S. military in the Gulf War at the beginning of the year. As the economic environment continued to deteriorate, the honors the Bush administration had gained from the Gulf War were steadily being eroded, and its approval rating kept falling.
To regain the rapidly draining support, the White House had no choice but to shift more attention to domestic issues.
The listings of Cisco and America Online had instantly created two corporate giants each with tens of billions in market value. The explosive trend of the internet industry was becoming increasingly evident.
Rapidly developing emerging industries undoubtedly meant more employment and domestic economic growth. The two new tech companies that had just gone public and already broken through the ten-billion market cap level proved exactly this point. Coupled with the reminder from Senator Al Gore's Information Superhighway Bill, the White House had quickly begun paying attention to the internet industry and was looking to establish a dedicated Technology Policy Office for this field.
Simon had previously received an invitation from the White House hoping he would serve as an advisor to this Technology Policy Office. Naturally he had no time, and due to his position it was also not very suitable. Therefore he had recommended Tim Berners-Lee.
Tim Berners-Lee was the CEO of Ygritte Company. The most important point was that he was British and would not involve too many political inclination issues.
Cisco and America Online CEOs John Chambers and Steve Case had politely declined the advisor position invitation on the grounds that they were too busy with work.
Serving as an advisor to the Bush administration's Technology Policy Office would definitely allow one to exert crucial influence on the direction of the White House's future policies in the new technology field.
However, unless something unexpected happened, the Bush administration only had one year left in power.
Moreover, since he had already placed his bets, even if something unexpected really occurred in this timeline, Simon could not ignore his own position for short-term gains.
People ultimately needed to have some principles.
Bill Gates clearly could not know about Simon's overall plan. Upon hearing that Tim Berners-Lee would serve as an advisor to this office while Simon himself had declined, he made up his mind to also turn down the advisor title.
Deep down, Gates saw himself as being on the same level as Simon.
After chatting for a while, Intel CEO Andy Grove walked over to greet them and brought up another matter. "Simon, what do you think about the AIM Alliance that Apple, IBM and Motorola recently established?"
The AIM Alliance took its name from the first letters of Apple, IBM and Motorola. It was mainly formed to promote the PowerPC architecture CPU processors that the three companies had been preparing for a long time.
PowerPC was a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architecture, in contrast to Intel's x86 Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) architecture.
The ARM architecture processors of the future smartphone era also belonged to the RISC type.
Using a more accessible analogy, the difference between RISC and CISC was like that between a wild boar and an elephant. They basically belonged to two different "species."
The reason Intel's later attempts to enter the mobile chip sector all ended in failure was fundamentally here. Trying to stuff an elephant into a wild boar cage, even a newborn calf elephant would still appear overly "bulky."
CISC possessed very strong computing power and was more suitable for mainframes and even supercomputers in this era.
RISC had relatively weaker computing power, but before the internet era, it was sufficient to meet the computing needs of personal computers.
The establishment of the AIM Alliance by the three giants to promote PowerPC was actually also intended to counter the rapidly rising Wintel Alliance of Microsoft and Intel.
Although Intel chips of this era, even the latest 486 processors, only had clock speeds of 50MHz, incomparable to processors exceeding 5GHz many years later, throughout the 1980s, because most PCs could only perform simple word processing operations and graphical interface operating systems were far from reaching later levels of popularity, Intel processors with only tens of megahertz clock speeds still had computing performance that exceeded user needs. Their prices were also excessively expensive.
The PowerPC architecture processors promoted by the AIM Alliance exactly "compensated" for the two major "shortcomings" of Intel chips: performance surplus and high price.
However, if this had been ten years earlier, the AIM Alliance opposing the Wintel Alliance might have succeeded.
Now, with the arrival of the internet era, personal computers were developing from simple text applications toward multimedia directions involving images, sound, and even video. User demand for PC performance would only grow higher and higher. The result of the AIM Alliance promoting RISC-based PowerPC architecture chips at this time was predictable.
In the original timeline, Apple had insisted on the PowerPC architecture until 2005. During that period, the computer giant that had pioneered the personal computer era also declined all the way. In the end, Jobs had no choice but to switch back to Intel chips.
Simon did not directly answer Andy Grove's question. Instead, he looked at both him and Gates and asked, "Have you looked over the information on that Canadian ATI company?"
ATI was a display chip development company founded in 1985.
Many years later, anyone who knew a bit about computers and liked playing games knew about A-cards and N-cards, where A-cards were produced by ATI.
The company that would later produce N-cards, NVIDIA, had not yet been established. However, ATI already possessed good technological accumulation. After seeing this company's information a month ago, Simon had instructed James Rebould to make contact with ATI.
Graphics chips had already appeared in the early 1980s. Professional graphics workstations all had graphics processing units installed.
However, graphics cards of this era had not yet reached consumer level suitable for ordinary PCs. Mainly because before the 1990s, there had been no such necessity.
With the arrival of the internet era, if a computer wanted to possess excellent multimedia functions, PC-level graphics cards became indispensable.
Both Andy Grove and Bill Gates nodded.
ATI had already launched relatively successful professional-grade graphics chips back in 1987 and was now one of the industry's important suppliers of 2D and 3D graphics chips.
Simon continued, "In the past people always thought Intel CPUs had excess performance. However, I believe that any user who has come into contact with the internet no longer thinks this way. As personal computers' demand for multimedia functions such as images, sound and video increases, users' requirements for computer performance will also rise rapidly. Therefore, I don't believe the AIM Alliance, which is going against the trend, will achieve very good results."
Bill Gates subconsciously asked, "Simon, does this have anything to do with ATI?"
"Of course. I believe that even Intel's CPUs will gradually become unable to satisfy users' performance needs. Graphics chips can make up for the CPU's shortcomings in multimedia areas. It just so happens that ATI is developing PC-level graphics chips. They are expected to release products early next year. Westeros Company has already invested fifty million dollars to obtain twenty-five percent equity in this company. Going forward, I hope Microsoft and Intel can jointly promote the application of consumer-grade graphics cards."
Simon had already mentioned these matters in the materials given to the two of them.
Simon had also specifically analyzed the demand trend for PC-level graphics cards. However, Bill Gates and Andy Grove did not have Simon's prophetic advantage and had not yet had time to react.
Of course, there were definitely some other reasons as well.
Neither Microsoft nor Intel wanted Simon to interfere too much in their company affairs.
Noticing the subtle changes in expression on Bill Gates and Andy Grove's faces, Simon smiled. "Therefore, Westeros Company only acquired twenty-five percent of ATI's equity purely to promote the research and development and popularization of PC-level graphics chips. You two companies can continue to engage with this company. ATI has not gone public. Microsoft and Intel can decide on your own whether to invest in this company. I believe that in the future the market size for graphics chips will not be much smaller than that for CPU chips. Actually, I would recommend that Intel acquire the entire company. Andy, if you do so, Westeros Company can transfer its twenty-five percent shares to you at the original price."
Hearing Simon say that the future market size for graphics chips would not be much smaller than that for CPU chips, Bill Gates and Andy Grove could not help exchanging a glance. They finally began to take it seriously in their hearts.
They had no doubts about Westeros's vision.
Simon actually did not know the exact future market size of GPU chips very clearly. But there was no doubt that GPU chips would be crucial in both the PC era and the smartphone era. Investing in this industry now would definitely have broad prospects.
Furthermore, with ATI already possessing sufficient technological accumulation, if it could now obtain support from the two giants Microsoft and Intel, it would not be easy for NVIDIA to overtake it from behind in the future.
Of course, Simon also did not plan to put all his eggs in one basket.
In addition to ATI, Westeros Company had recently been in contact with several other graphics chip companies. However, those companies did not have as deep accumulation as ATI. The possibility of them releasing PC-level graphics chips within two or three years was not high. Only ATI could reach this goal early next year.
However, once PC-level chip research and development was completed, in order to promote them, corresponding OEM (original equipment manufacturer) support would be necessary.
Microsoft and Intel possessed very strong influence in front of OEM manufacturers such as Compaq, HP and Dell. If ATI attached itself to these two companies, it would undoubtedly make the promotion of PC-level graphics chips twice as effective with half the effort.
Both Bill Gates and Andy Grove understood that although Simon was discussing this with them in the tone of a suggestion, this young man had clearly already made up his mind about certain things. If the two of them did not cooperate, Westeros Company might formally propose the related motion at the board meetings of both companies as a major shareholder.
Whether Bill Gates or Andy Grove, both were the founders of their respective companies, Microsoft and Intel. Naturally they did not want outsiders meddling in their company affairs. But neither of them was the type of person unable to accept correct suggestions.
They solemnly promised to seriously discuss this matter afterward. The group then chatted about other topics.
A midday banquet could not last too long. At one o'clock in the afternoon, guests began leaving one after another.
After seeing off Andy Grove and Gates, Simon returned to the banquet hall. Claire Grey, the C girl who had not found an opportunity to greet him earlier, walked over. Beside her followed a petite and delicate little girl. It was another Jennifer, the young girl who had rushed onto the stage during Madonna's concert. This was Jennifer Bree, who was now studying computer science at Stanford University.
After greeting the C girl, Simon looked at the little girl beside her who gave off the feeling of an underage big loli and had a strong urge to reach out and pat her head. He smiled. "Jennifer, how have you been lately?"
Perhaps because women all possessed a naturally keen sixth sense, Jennifer Bree cutely shrank her neck. Her beautiful eyes carried a faint trace of expectation.
Moreover, the little girl no longer seemed as reserved in front of Simon as before. Like a good friend she had known for a long time, she spoke with some familiarity. "I'm helping Claire with some things."
The C girl explained, "Jennifer has been acting as my assistant lately. It's good practice in advance."
Simon glanced at Claire, then turned back to the little girl. "Don't you need to attend classes?"
Seeing that the smile on Simon's face seemed to have faded a bit, Jennifer Bree quickly shook her head. "No, it's all during my spare time."
Simon actually did not hold the view that academics were more important than anything else. He had only asked casually. Sensing the little girl's nervousness, he restored his smile. "Make sure to manage your time well. Although I don't think university courses are that important either, you still need to learn what should be learned."
Jennifer Bree immediately nodded like a little chick pecking rice. "I will."
So want to pat her head.
Then the little girl in front of him shrank her neck again.
As if she had already been patted.
The C girl beside them keenly noticed these details and the corners of her mouth curved into a smile.
After chatting simply for a few sentences and seeing that the time was about right, Simon joined up with several Ygritte senior executives and together they left the Marriott Hotel.
The banquet in the hall did not end immediately. After joining the large group to see Simon and the others off, the C girl brought Jennifer Bree back into the hall. She studied the little girl for a few moments, then reached out and rubbed the girl's beautiful golden hair.
Only after the C girl had rubbed her head and let go did Jennifer Bree blink. With a puzzled face she asked, "C, what's up?"
The C girl pinched the girl's tender cheek again and laughed. "Little vixen."
With her pretense exposed, Jennifer Bree stopped pretending. She could not help glancing in the direction Simon had left, then looked around before suddenly asking in a low voice, "C, you and the boss, um, have you slept together?"
The C girl nodded without hesitation. "Of course. The boss is really amazing in bed. You'll know in the future."
The little girl looked at the C girl, blinking several times, then shook her head in disappointment. "Never mind. Asking you was pointless."
Claire raised her hand and knocked on the little girl's head. "Can you be a bit more foolish? Men all like silly girls."
Jennifer Bree tilted her head, failing to dodge Claire's knock, and still countered, "Simon doesn't like that."
Claire raised her eyebrows slightly. "How do you know?"
The little girl answered as if it were obvious. "I just know."