The UK computer and microelectronics industry this year picked up 25 of the Queen’s Awards for Export and Technological Achievement – 14 for export and 11 for technological achievement. The number of awards issued was down on last year at 118 for export and 40 for technology – applications also fell, to 849 for export and 293 for technology. ICL Plc’s Workstations Product Group was granted its export award for its doubling its export of personal computers, terminals and software and services to UKP130m in the three years to the end of 1991. The products are sold into over 20 countries including Australia, Portugal, the Soviet Union and the US. Synon Ltd, which picked up one of each the awards, was commended for increasing the value of its annual foreign earnings by 13 times in the three-year period under review. Motorola Ltd’s International Cellular Subscriber Division got the award for being the only non-Japanese company selling cellular phones made in the UK into China and Japan. Carlton Communications Plc subsidiary Cabletime Ltd was awarded for the export of advanced switch-star cable television systems to mature and undeveloped markets abroad. Newbridge Networks Ltd took its award for the export of its wide-area network products to continental Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa. Durham-based Bede Scientific Instruments Ltd got one for selling to North America, continental Europe, Australia and China, and soon in South Korea its X-Ray analytical kit for use in the characterisation of semi-conductor materials for the electronics industry. Com Dev Europe Ltd got its slice of the celebration cake for exports of multiplexers and other kit for use in communications satellites to countries including India. Cyberscience Plc reaped the benefits of its sales of fourth generation software, and Delcam International Ltd took a bow for increasing overseas sales of its three-dimensional modelling software by 250%. Fisher Controls Ltd’s success was due to its export of process control computer systems to the overseas oil industry, Hurco Europe Ltd was commended for metalwork machinery sales, Lion Cabinets Ltd for its steel enclosures for computer peripherals, and Robertson Geologging Ltd was in the spotlight for its computer-controlled geophysical borehole logging systems for mining. Finally in this section, Technophone Ltd, which gained both Technology and Export awards in 1988 and an export award last year, and was recently acquired by Nokia, took its third award for exporting cellular telephones. The technological awards were dished out between Synon Ltd, Systematica Ltd, STC Optical Devices, Telsis Ltd, Quantel Ltd, Active Memory Technology (Holdings) Ltd, Bede Scientific Instruments Ltd, The Gallium Arsenide Device Division and the VLSI Design and Architecture Division of the Electronics Division of the Defence Research Agency, Foseco (FS) Ltd, GPT Payphone Systems, and Intelligent Applications Ltd. Synon’s award was for the development of Synon/2 program, Systematica’s was for its software engineering products, STC Optical won the award jointly with the Gallium Arsenide Defence Division for the development of advanced crystal growth techniques for semiconductor lasers. Telsis took the award for its Hi-Call interactive voice kit for automatic phones. Quantel’s award was for its Graphics Paintbox, AMT’s award was jointly achieved with the VLSI Design and Architecture Division for the development of a compact VLSI distributed array processor for real-time applications. Bede Scientifics was commended for development of scientific instruments including control software and computer interfaces, Foseco’s Solstar computer system won its prize, GPT Telephone’s cashless phone reaped in its reward, and Intelligent Applications’ Amethyst machine diagnostic system.
