31) The LSI Joint Research Laboratory and the Power of Cooperation

  
All of the members gathered at the entrance of the VLSI Joint Research Laboratory


The VLSI Joint Research Laboratory became the literal center of the VLSI project. Researchers from the five participating companies and the Electro Technical Laboratory (ETL, now the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)) were dispatched to the research institute, and worked on the research of VLSI as a next generation semiconductor technology. As a result, this project was highly successful and was highly appreciated both domestically and abroad, but it developed into a big controversy in trade tensions between Japan and the US as a specific industry development policy (“targeting”) by the Japanese government.

In the story told by Yasuo Tarui, who was appointed to be the Institute Director by ETL, one of the success factors was that "the focus of choosing research theme was on the fundamental and common problems". For this reason, it was narrowed down to basic technologies such as microfabrication technology and crystal technology, and design techniques close to product technology were omitted.

The other success factor was to focus on creating an environment with team atmosphere of ”cooperation is virtue”, which is actually very Japanese way. With as many as 100 researchers gathered together from five different companies, 100 different opinions may lead to no conclusion, but on the contrary, if researchers with these unique ideas can successfully work together, something new will come out. Although the researchers were on a leased facility from NEC Central Research Laboratory, the full time work of all the researchers in one facility gradually cultivated “alumni mentality from eating from the same rice cooker” (by Tarui) and “the benefits of cooperation” were clearly seen.

Photo: All the members gathered at the entrance of the collaborative laboratory.
(Provided by Mr. Yasuo Tarui)

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