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- BUSINESS, Page 53Business NotesRESEARCHChips Across The Atlantic
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- Japanese companies have dominated the market for computer
- memory chips since the mid-1980s, but they may soon be facing
- stiffer competition from the U.S. and Europe. Last week IBM and
- West Germany's Siemens said they will join forces to develop
- a chip with a capacity of 64 million bits of information, or
- four times as much as today's experimental 16-megabit chips.
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- The Siemens-IBM venture is a welcome boost for the U.S.
- high-tech industry, which has suffered from a downturn in
- corporate spending on research and development. According to
- a study by the National Science Foundation, the growth in U.S.
- research spending in 1989 failed to keep pace with inflation
- for the first time since 1975. U.S. outlays rose 3.4% last
- year, to $68.8 billion, but inflation hit 4.6%. Among reasons
- for the downturn is the relatively high level of U.S. interest
- rates, which increases the cost of financing research, and
- corporate America's emphasis on short-term results.
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