Gallium Arsenide technology, although seen by the likes of IBM and Cray Research as the technology of the future for at least the speed-critical parts of top-end computers for the 1990s, is proving extremely problematic for companies specialising in its manufacture. Nothing has been heard from Vitesse Semiconductor, Plessey Co had to scale back its efforts because of lack of demand, and now Grumman Corp has found no buyers coming forward for its Tachonics GaAs fabrication subsidiary in Plainsboro, New Jersey, and says that it will be closed at the end of the year. The closure will cost 47 people their jobs.
