IBM, DEC, Hewlett-Packard Co and Apple Computer Inc are among 16 US electronics firms that have agreed to develop a business plan for a commercial limited partnership intended to win for the US a majority of the hardware markets resulting from a move to high definition television transmission and reception. With help from the Federal government, the partnership wants to develop, fund and manage one or more high-definition TV consortia, emphasising research leading to product manufacturing; license the resulting technology to other US firms; and direct technology to TV and related product manufacturing. The other 12 are Varian Associates Inc, Cohu Inc, Motorola Inc, ITT Corp, Prometrix Inc, Harris Corp, PCO Inc, Zenith Electronics Corp, Raychem Corp, Tektronix Inc, Micro Electronics Computer Technology Inc, Texas Instruments Inc and AVX Inc.
