Product design: The computer: Now it's a component! Large-scale integrated circuits spawned the CPU on a chip, but it raises questions of who designs what

Minicomputer manufacturers are beginning to face a choice not unlike one that confronted the automobile industry a decade ago. At that time, the significant inroads made by small, foreign cars into the U.S. market forced Detroit to counter with small cars of its own, in order to maintain its domestic share of the business. For auto buyers, it wasn't merely a question of size, but one of economics. Small cars were less expensive to own and operate, yet could still perform their basic function of transportation, albeit with less comfort and fewer amenities.