With $4,000m of funding over eight years approved for the Joint European Submicron Silicon consortium, the US Sematech co operative, realising that the thing is going to go ahead anyway, has decided that it had better try to adopt it as an ally than a foe, and is discussing areas of common interest with the three leading members of JESSi, Siemens AG, Philips NV and SGS Thomson Microelectronics BV; the US has taken the attitude that with Uncle Sam’s money going into Sematech, it should be for US firms only, but the Europeans believe reciprocal membership is the answer.
