Hitachi Ltd doesn’t want to get left behind and is plunging into the fun and games end of the business, joining forces with games king Sega Enterprises Ltd for joint development and sale of hardware and software for multimedia products. Hitachi of course is already a major manufacturer of television sets, and for the development with Sega it will use the new 32-bit RISC-based microprocessor it is currently developing to standardise computer architecture and basic software. The new games machines will be sold next year, Hitachi said, adding that it also plans to develop mulitimedia portable and family educational computers, using the same chip, and Sega’s television games machines and software titles may also be sold through Hitachi’s retail network.The chip in question is thought to be the new Hitachi SH7032 or 7304, described in detail in CI No 2,220 and nothing to do with Hewlett-Packard Co’s Precision Architecture, for which Hitachi is a licensee.
