Word: ares
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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America's high-tech companies do not have to look back: they know the Japanese are coming. U.S. computer-chip manufacturers, concerned that their survival is threatened, have gone to Congress for protection. And fear is rising that if the chipmakers go down, it will be only a matter of...
But are such apocalyptic visions justified? Not at all, argues conservative pundit George Gilder in his new book, Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology (Simon & Schuster; $19.95), a lively look at the history and prospects of the U.S. microelectronics industry. Gilder, author of the best-selling Wealth and...
Using the new knowledge of the microcosm -- the invisible region populated by protons, electrons and other subatomic particles -- computer-chip manufacturers have been able to pack more and more information (and value) onto slivers of silicon whose material content represents less than 1% of their total expense. As chips are...
Meanwhile, Americans were working on far more valuable computer parts. Using systems called silicon compilers, U.S. engineers have been able to design a vast array of custom chips to suit almost any purpose. These specialized chips can be much more profitable than the commodity chips mass-produced by the Japanese...
Gilder's arguments, while forceful, are not always persuasive. He seems to forget that Japan, an island nation rich in know-how and poor in resources, is itself a prime beneficiary of the triumph of ideas over matter. The Japanese may not be also-rans in software and custom chips...