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Japanese supercomputers

As summarized in Chapter 3, Japanese firms started manufacturing high-performance vector machines in the early 1980s. By the late 1980s, using vector designs based on high-performance custom processor chips, these manufacturers posed a substantial competitive threat to U.S. producers. They benefited substantially from procurement by the Japanese government and the educational system and also received direct government subsidies for related research and development. It has also been alleged that large Japanese private customers that received substantial government funding were under pressure to buy Japanese supercomputers. The U.S. government pressured Japan to open its markets. In 1996, NEC developed the SX-4, a fast and relatively inexpensive CMOS-based vector supercomputer.

On May 17, 1996, the federally funded University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) decided to lease a supercomputer made by a Japanese company, the first such decision by a public entity.1 It awarded a $35 million, 5-year leasing contract for a supercomputer to the U.S.-based integrator company Federal Computer Corporation (FCC), which had out-bid two other finalists for the contract?Fujitsu America, Inc., and Cray Research of Eagan, Minnesota?to supply a supercomputer to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for modeling weather and climate. The heart of FCC?s proposal was four NEC SX-4 machines, to be provided by HNSX Supercomputing, the U.S.-based subsidiary of NEC. Within 2 months, a domestic firm, SGI/Cray Research, which had submitted a bid to UCAR, filed an antidumping complaint.

In 1997, the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Department of Commerce determined in ?Notice of Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Vector Supercomputers from Japan? (A-588-841) that vector supercomputers from Japan were being sold in the United States at less than fair value.

The punitive tariffs of between 173 percent and 454 percent on all supercomputers imported from Japan established a barrier so high that it effectively prevented imports and excluded Japanese supercomputers from the U.S. market.4 NEC and Fujitsu were, however, able to sell many supercomputers outside the United States.

Davison
http://www.ezinedir.com
http://www.myinternetinfo.com

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