Uneasy Alliance

The idea was something along the lines of one for all and all for one. Top- notch U.S. high-tech companies would combine their research efforts and defeat their fierce competitors from Japan. But now the alliance, known as the $ Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC), is suffering some serious defections. Last week MCC announced that Unisys, Lockheed and Allied- Signal had given notice that they will be departing from the consortium at the end of the year. All three companies say in essence that being part of the group no longer fits their needs.

Moreover, the consortium must find a successor to Bobby Inman, the former CIA deputy director, who left his post as chairman of MCC at the end of 1986. Inman, who says he now wants to concentrate on bringing advanced technology to the marketplace, will head Westmark Systems, a new holding company that will acquire high-tech defense-industry firms.

MCC was formed in 1982 by ten companies, in part to counter Japan's Fifth- Generation Project, a combined government and industry effort to develop new supercomputers. The consortium's member firms agreed to pool the results of jointly financed long-term research conducted at an Austin center on such subjects as artificial intelligence and the making of silicon microchips. The original MCC roster was an honor roll of technological titans, including Digital Equipment, Advanced Micro Devices, Honeywell and National Semiconductor. Subsequently other respected firms, including 3M and Boeing, joined, and the current membership numbers 20.

But despite the substantial progress reportedly being made in MCC labs, the consortium's work has been hampered by the wary independence of some of its members. While MCC companies all want to share in the fruits of the consortium's research, they do not want to give competitors an edge. Says Drew Peck, who follows electronics companies for the Gartner Group: "Member firms are reluctant to assign their first-tier researchers to MCC. To them, sharing their research talent and resources with competitors is considered an unnatural act." But that is exactly what U.S. companies may have to do to best their Japanese rivals.