Pentagon to Cut Funds to Chip Consortium
The Defense Department plans to cut its funding of Sematech, a consortium founded in 1987 to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry’s competitiveness.
The General Accounting Office said Monday that the Pentagon will scale back its research budget on chip manufacturing to $80 million and that not all of that will go to Sematech in future years.
The Defense Department agency has spent $100 million during each of Sematech’s first five years. Its industry members have combined for another $100 million annually.
Also in its report, the GAO said Sematech is on target toward achieving its five-year goals.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, asked Congress for $80 million for Sematech in 1993. Congress raised the amount to $100 million.
Sematech leaders have said that reduced government funding would change the direction of the research consortium, which has achieved numerous advances in its first five years.
The GAO study said Sematech “appears to be on schedule for achieving, by the end of the year, its overall objective of demonstrating the capability to manufacture state-of-the-art semiconductors using only U.S. equipment.”
“Overall, we think it’s a very positive report,” said Sematech spokesman Buddy Price.
Studies have shown that the U.S. share of the world market for semiconductors turned around last year after nearly a decade of decline. However, there has been no study that directly links Sematech’s accomplishments to the turnaround.
Member companies and DARPA said continued federal support of Sematech will improve the U.S. industry’s competitive.
The Pentagon supported the consortium out of concern that a decline in the U.S. semiconductor industry could harm computers and weapons that rely on them. But DARPA officials now want flexibility to spend money on other projects, the report said.
Sematech’s member companies are Advanced Micro Devices Inc., AT&T;, Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., IBM Corp., Motorola Inc., National Semiconductor Corp., NCR Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc.
