After the noontime lunch concluded, it was time for another highlight of the day: the second round of bidding for a 300 million USD server procurement order.
The five businesses that had advanced to the second round would all bring their sample products to Apple for display. This was a segment that Kappad and Yang Zhiyuan eagerly anticipated, as they were incredibly curious about what kind of amusing device the Jiangnan Group’s server would be.
However, to their disappointment, Kappad and Yang Zhiyuan couldn't see the Jiangnan Group’s server immediately. The process adopted was a rotating display.
Apple allocated half an hour for each company to showcase their equipment's performance. The Jiangnan Group's product was scheduled last, so Kappad could only watch as other companies presented their products on stage.
It's worth noting that apart from the servers themselves, all other equipment was provided by Apple and participants were not allowed to use their own devices.
The reason was simple: Apple feared that self-provided equipment might involve data fabrication. Even if data wasn't fabricated, it was possible to conduct professional optimization targeting Apple’s own devices to improve data by several notches.
Therefore, the use of self-provided equipment was strictly prohibited. Instead, participants had to use and test their products in conjunction with Apple’s devices, which would demonstrate their actual performance in real-world usage.
Kappad was quite pleased with this requirement, as it would leave no room for those inferior entities attempting to fabricate bids through fraudulent means.
He simply couldn't believe that products manufactured in China could offer similar performance at a fraction of the price. He found it utterly unscientific.
Kappad found the presentations of the first three companies, including his own, rather uninteresting. After all, his competitors hadn't released any new products; their offerings were well-known, old technologies that held no novelty.
However, when the new company named "America First" began its introduction, Kappad was greatly surprised.
Firstly, this company had abandoned computational servers and was only bidding for storage servers.
Secondly, the quality of their storage server was exceptionally high, on par with IBM’s storage servers. All the specifications were essentially identical.
Kappad clearly recalled the look on the IBM representative's face when they heard that the storage capacity of the rival’s single storage server was 6TB, with a minimum response time of 0.18 seconds, a maximum response time of 1.24 seconds, and a power consumption of 550W.
Upon careful comparison, America First’s product had a power consumption that was lower by 550W. This figure should not be underestimated; it signified an approximately 10% energy saving. Given that Apple was to procure tens of thousands of such storage servers, saving 50W per hour for each unit would translate to 500,000W, or 500 kilowatts per hour.
Over a day, this would amount to 2.4 million W, or 2400 kilowatts. Annually, it would be 900,000 kilowatts, valued at 90,000 USD. Well, indeed, America didn't need to worry about energy conservation and emission reduction; they had plenty of electricity, so this difference could be ignored.
Therefore, the electricity cost could be disregarded. However, when America First’s representative announced their price, the IBM representative's face turned purple.
This was because the executives who had handled the detailed quotes were aware of the figures, which were now being revealed at the bidding conference. America First's storage server was priced at 7999 USD per unit, a staggering 2000 USD cheaper than IBM’s equipment. This was a price IBM absolutely could not accept, hence the purple hue of the representative's face.
Yet, Kappad’s expression wasn't much better. The storage server from HP Compaq had a storage capacity of only 4TB per unit, with a minimum response time as high as 0.32 seconds and a maximum dragging on for over 5 seconds.
Kappad swore to the heavens that in their own lab, the response time would never be that long. It was entirely due to the incompatibility between Apple's iMac devices and their own equipment that such high response times occurred. He absolutely did not fabricate the data.
In fact, even with these figures, Kappad was still very confident about winning the bid, as their equipment was priced at only 5999 USD per unit.
On average, IBM's equipment required 1666 USD per TB of data.
However, their own equipment required only 1499 USD per TB of data storage on average. Although the response time was longer and power consumption was higher, Apple wasn't an application-focused website that pursued extreme reaction speeds. Their website actually provided some basic services to their users, not requiring overly long response times.
Therefore, Kappad believed his product was very competitive. He saw that Yahoo had ultimately chosen their equipment due to the 200 USD per TB difference.
But after America First announced their pricing, their equipment required only 1333 USD per TB, about 150 USD cheaper than his own, and their other specifications completely surpassed IBM's equipment.
In the subsequent performance demonstrations, America First’s equipment perfectly showcased its value, with all data falling within the reported range.
They even had time to conduct a stress test. In just 10 minutes, data up to tens of TB poured in, constantly writing and rewriting data onto the server.
After more than 10 minutes of such terrifying torment, the entire server continued to operate normally, with no decrease in any data metrics. This made the faces of IBM and Kappad turn completely purple.
These experiments demonstrably proved that the suddenly appearing company, America First, had actually achieved technology surpassing IBM.
No, it had surpassed the technology of all storage electronic device manufacturers globally. It was like if America had only competed in the 110-meter hurdles, believing they were certain to win the Olympic gold. Then, Liu Xiang, whom they had never even seen before, appeared and snatched the Olympic gold before they even knew what the event looked like.
It was utterly preposterous.
But as preposterous as it was, it was reality. America First had proven its strength with solid data and experiments. Moreover, this could not possibly be fabricated. After all, even if you copied from the first-place paper, you could at best get second place. Have you ever seen someone surpass the first place by copying?
“It’s over. A new entrant is appearing in the market, and it will disrupt the entire market structure!” Kappad, the IBM representative, and the Samsung representative exchanged glances. They all felt a significant threat and began to consider how to nip this threat in the bud.
After America First finished demonstrating its equipment, it was the turn of the final presenter, the Jiangnan Group.
There was a reason for arranging the Jiangnan Group as the final act. The computational server they had displayed in the previous competition was incredibly imposing, with a volume more than five times larger than any other computational server displayed.
Finally, when the specific data was revealed, although its volume was five times larger, its computing power was only at the average level of several others. Furthermore, while it excelled at multi-threaded operations, its single-core performance was rather poor, barely meeting the basic requirements of the bid.
Most critically, the rated power consumption of such a computational server reached a staggering 1900W, while others were only around 800W, equivalent to more than double the power consumption of their competitors.
Of course, as mentioned earlier, electricity prices in America were very cheap. Therefore, the increased electricity cost for such a computational server per year might only be 10,000 USD. However, its selling price was a mere 400,000 USD, one-third of the price of other computational servers, saving a substantial 800,000 USD.
Considering that a server had a lifespan of at most 10 years, this energy consumption was quite cost-effective.
“It’s just a bunch of junk connected together, isn’t it!” As industry experts in the audience saw these figures, they generally understood how this computational server with its peculiar data worked, and a look of disdain appeared on most of their faces.
However, their expressions soon turned serious, as according to the bid, the Jiangnan Group's most unbelievable storage server was about to be unveiled.
Soon, this mysterious storage server appeared before everyone.
Unlike the colossal size of the previous computational server, this storage server was remarkably small, about half the size of a DVD player, smaller than any other company's storage server present.
Furthermore, this server utilized a baked lacquer finish, making its exterior appearance undeniably superior and overshadowing the servers from other companies present.
Finally, the data was released. The information had been leaked through the bid documents, so everyone was aware of it. However, when the Jiangnan Group representative finally announced the specifications – a single storage server capacity of 8TB, a minimum response time of 0.12 seconds, a maximum response time of 0.98 seconds, and a power consumption of 600W – everyone present from rival companies couldn't help but gasp. The data was truly astonishing, though they wondered about the actual test results.
Soon, this server was connected to the equipment provided by Apple.
Starting with the first server, the same testing equipment was used without any changes, so there were no issues with the devices.
Therefore, the rival companies present could only watch as this server underwent one rigorous on-site test after another. It also went through the extreme stress test that America First had undergone. The entire process was flawless, with no problems whatsoever.
“What kind of monster is packed inside this thing?” Kappad muttered to himself. All he wanted now was to dismantle this storage server and examine its internal structure and chips. He simply couldn’t fathom how such a small storage server could possess such incredible data.
Unfortunately, it was clear that the Jiangnan Group would not give them the opportunity to dismantle it.
Concurrently, after the demonstrations were completed, it was time for the final selection phase.
All manufacturer representatives could now return to their hotels to rest. Apple would announce the final confirmed results the following day.