NEC Corp’s semiconductor division in Japan has announced the MIPS Technologies Inc RISC-based personal computer for Windows NT which it showed at Comdex/Spring in Atlanta earlier this year, billing it as the first RISC microprocessor to run NT in Japan. The announcement was sponsored by NEC’s Semiconductor division, which operates independently of the other divisions, in particular of the NEC Home Electronics and NEC Corp personal computer division, which designs and sells Japan’s most popular personal computer, the PC-9800 series. Intended for the US and other overseas markets, the RISC personal computer was shown running Windows NT. Acer Inc is to make some of the machines under its OEM agreement (CI No 2,222) using the MIPS RISC chips provided by NEC; and the RISC personal computers are to be sold through NEC Technologies in the US, via distribution channels. Actual shipment will start in a few months. The machine is not intended for sale in Japan at all, according to NEC officials. NEC’s Semicodncutor Division has revenue valued at $7,200m, with 22% comong from microprocessors, 28% from sales of memory chips and 20% from ASICs.
