U.S. semiconductor industry getting it together: Despite their history of intense competition, U.S. manufacturers are cooperating in research to gain an edge in the international marketplace

A little less than four years after the U.S. semiconductor industry set up a research consortium to help regain its technical edge in the face of growing Japanese dominance in the integrated circuit market, a few early results are beginning to reach the computer screens and development labs of the consortium's industrial sponsors, including IBM, Digital Equipment Corp., Du Pont, Hewlett-Packard, and AT&T. But the big question is: By the time major research fallout is expected, in the 1990s, will there be enough of the US. semiconductor industry left to take advantage of it?