There was a time not too long ago when the chip business was riding high, and the National Advanced Systems IBMulator marketing operation was the poor relation in the National Semiconductor empire. Times have changed dramatically, and these days it’s the IBMulators that make the profits while the chip side is mired in heavy losses. And with NAS riding high, the company is gearing up to expand it further. In Europe, the last six months of 1986 saw revenue up 70% and profits up 300% with NAS winning orders from, amongst others, a leading Belgium bank, a major French insurance company, and Nadional Westminster Bank, which it reckons is IBM’s largest UK account. The majority of new business was for peripherals, which now account for more than 50% of turnover. The NAS Europe figures contributed to NatSemi’s Information Systems Group turnover up 60% and profit up 70% between June and December, countering some of the effects from the chip business. Hard figures were hard to come by, but in fiscal 1986 to June, Information Systems had operating profits of $41m on turnover of $640m.
