Texas Instruments and Hitachi said they will...

Texas Instruments and Hitachi said they will join forces to develop the next generation of memory chips. The agreement, which calls for a joint technology effort on a chip called the 16-megabit DRAM, is yet another sign of the sometimes schizophrenic relationship that exists between U.S. chip makers and their Asian competitors. Dallas-based Texas Instruments and Hitachi, a Japanese electronics giant, have been on opposite sides in trade skirmishes in recent years. Both companies said, however, that they shrugged off their past differences. They added that linking up on the next generation of memory chips will allow each to diffuse the risks and high costs associated with developing such sophisticated technology.