Introduction to “In Quest of the Joy of Creation”

New introductory remarks introduce a reprint of the authors' 2005 article "In Quest of the Joy of Creation." The original article is reproduced from "Innovate the Future," 2005 Hitachi Hyoron Special Edition, pp. 34-39, Hitachi Hyoronsha, Tokyo, Japan. In it the author recalls his 42-year career at Hitachi, focusing on DRAM design there since the early 1970s. Entrusted with developing a 4-Kb DRAM at the the outset of his career and without any knowledge of semiconductors, the author became the lead designer of the first prototype for each of eight successive generations of Hitachi DRAMs. Faced with the challenge of breaking through limits on each consecutive generation, and after failing four times, Hitachi finally won the race with its 64-Kb DRAM.