The effects of Hitachi’s announcement won’t be felt for some time: Hitachi says that it won’t have 64-megabit chips available commercially until 1995. Individual U.S. companies have also been working toward higher-density DRAM chips, but cooperative efforts have been troubled so far. One such attempt, the planned U.S. Memories consortium, fell apart late in 1989; the other, Austin-based Sematech, has proved slow off the blocks. It suffered another blow last week when its chief executive, Robert N. Noyce, died of a heart attack. Noyce, 62, hat it seems, the American-bred industry he helped create is in ever more danger of being overtaken by Japan Inc.
