Having dumped off its defense and aerospace businesses to Boeing Co, Rockwell International Corp is preparing to make itself much more visible in the semiconductor industry again, this time with its data and telecommunications chips.Well although MOS Technology Inc designed the things and made some of them, there were several second sources, and Rockwell did end up making most of the 6502 microprocessors that powered Apple Computer Inc’s Apple II, Commodore International Ltd’s Pet and 64, Acorn Computer Group Plc’s BBC Model B and the early Atari Corp machines. Now, reports Associated Press, Rockwell wants all those with shorter memories to recognize its name as a leading chipmaker, and is hoping to persuade modem makers to use its chips and sets to put Connect with Rockwell stickers on them. Rockwell is raising research and development expenditure in the field of communications devices, and is raising the spend across the company nearly 17% this year to $700m, a high 13% of sales.
