What if microprocessors had faced the same resistance?

September 20, 1972

Santa Clara, CA   Intel Corporation, a 4-year old maker of memory chips, today announced that its new product line of “micro-processors” will be manufactured in Germany. This follows similar moves to Europe by Bell Labs and General Electric.

“Only in Europe have we found a market large enough to swiftly bring down the costs,” says CEO Andrew Grove. “Unlike Japan and Europe, the US market is resistant to microprocessors. Political leaders don’t see the need to support this technology, and they don’t encourage industry to adopt it. ”

Despite urgings from engineering and science groups, Congress has refused funding for microprocessors in the Minuteman, Apollo or Saturn programs. Nor has Congress approved investment tax credits or direct subsidies, to encourage business to invest in this miniaturized technology.

Congress also does not want to sponsor basic research in the field. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield feels strongly about the matter. “We will not support any bill that wastes government funds on these efforts. DARPA’s mission is military hardware, and we’re not letting them get off-track with all this time-sharing and hypertext and networking stuff.”

“IBM, Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Honeywell are getting subsidies from Washington,” says Mansfield. We don’t want to disrupt a vital American industry, and we don’t believe there are dangers in sticking with transistors for our military. Why, the Intel 4004’s cost thousands of dollars! They would be drag on our economy just when we’re facing a recession.”

Mansfield says, “Those benefits touted by scientists and engineers – if it isn’t an outright hoax, at least they are grabbing for government grants and purchasing programs that serve their own interests.”

Intel’s Grove says the German factory will open in March. “We have $50 million in European orders, most supported in some way by government agencies. We expect the Europeans to begin placing these tiny processors in desk calculators, television receivers, and other consumer applications. There is even talk of using microprocessors to make a computer small enough to fit on a desk.”