Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation

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The MCC headquarters building in Austin, Texas

Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) was the first, and - at one time - was one of the largest, computer industry research and development consortia in the United States (MCC terminiated operations in 2001).

MCC did research and development in the following areas: ^[1]

System Architecture and Design (optimise hardware and software design, provide for scalability and interoperability, allow rapid prototyping for improved time-to-market, and support the re-engineering of existing systems for open systems).

Advanced Microelectronics Packaging and Interconnection (smaller, faster, more powerful, and cost-competitive).

Hardware Systems Engineering (tools and methodologies for cost-efficient, up-front design of advanced electronic systems, including modelling and design-for-test techniques to improve cost, yield, quality, and time-to-market).

Environmentally Conscious Technologies (process control and optimisation tools, information management and analysis capabilities, and non-hazardous material alternatives supporting cost-efficient production, waste minimisation, and reduced environmental impact).

Distributed Information Technology (managing and maintaining physically distributed corporate information resources on different platforms, building blocks for the national information infrastructure, networking tools and services for integration within and between companies, and electronic commerce).

Intelligent Systems (systems that "intelligently" support business processes and enhance performance, including decision support, data management, forecasting and prediction).

[edit] History

In late 1982, several major computer and semiconductor manufacturers in the United States banded together and founded MCC as an American answer to Japan's Fifth Generation Project, a large Japanese research project aimed at producing a new kind of computer by 1991. The Japanese had formed consortia as early as 1956. ^[2] Such formations were illegal in the United States until the 1984 Congressional passage of the "National Cooperative Research Act" ^[3] Many European and American computer companies saw this new Japanese initiative as an attempt to take full control of the world's high-end computer market, and MCC was created, in part, as a defensive move against that threat.

Since then, MCC's membership has diversified to include a broad range of high-profile corporations involved in information technology products, as well as government research and development agencies and leading universities.

{Note: History Section 1 to be inserted here. See Discussion Page}.

MCC terminated operations in 2001.

[edit] Notes

^ , Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, entry from The Free Online Dictionary of Computing.
^ , David V. Gibson and Everett M. Rogers, R&D Collaborations On Trial, Harvard Business School Press, 1994, ISBN 0-87584-364-6, Introduction, p. 15.
^ , Ibid., Chapter 7.