13) Japanese Manufacturers Leading Ahead in DRAM
with NMOS Technology
[µPD404], full-fledged 1K bit NMOS DRAM developed by NEC
(Provided by Mr. Toshio Kurosawa)
NEC, having sensitively detected the US movement, tried to
catch up on the development delay from US manufacturers, and announced [µPD403],
the first domestic 1K bit DRAM product in 1971. They then developed [µPD404]
(shown in the picture) with design modification in 1972. Intel used PMOS technology,
while NEC used NMOS technology, in which NEC had accumulated their development
experiences. Shigeki Matsue, the product designer (and later a board member
of NEC), said “Our product was far better than Intel 1103 even in understatement,
in speed, usability and production yield.”
With this background, did NEC products drive out Intel products? No. Intel,
who was strongly pursuing their sales activities in the huge US computer market,
tried to make PMOS the industry standard, and asked second source manufacturers
to use the same standard.
On the other hand, NEC believed that NMOS would eventually become the industry
standard and kept their NMOS strategy. This decision proved to be correct
when 4K DRAM era started. However, in 4K DRAM era, the top runner was Hitachi
who newly entered this market, and NEC followed Hitachi. In addition, Intel’s
4K DRAM also turned out to be NMOS after all, and Japanese manufacturers praised
Noyce as “quite a businessman.” (Provided by Mr. Toshio Kurosawa)
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