One of the most interesting aspects of Hitachi's work was that the packaging technology looked to us like it was capable of being used cost effectively on products below their highest end machine. Reducing machine cycle time is a very direct way to increase performance, but doing this requires a substantial number of technological improvements. Machine cycle time is a direct function of the switching time delay or fanout delay per gate for logic or the access time for memory, times the number of circuits in the loop. Logic and memory improvements require semiconductor technology, such as developing faster circuit families, or circuits with larger fanout capability. Shortening signal paths, using lower dielectric constant materials, using pins and other conductors with lower inductance, and generally using lsi, modules, boards, and cables with better and more uniform electric characteristics are areas where improvements can be looked for.
Technologies needed here are design automation, packaging, materials, and componentry.
The Hitachi scientists we spoke to emphasized to us that they feel that their products are competitive with IBM technology, and lead in many important areas. The VPX line incorporates some manufacturing cost reductions and the X signifies that it runs Unix. While these have English names they were entirely developed in Japan and looked competitive with Western products. Surprisingly, Fujitsu did not have any exhibit space devoted to its AP1000 parallel computer. I have reported on this several times in the past, but to repeat, this is a 265 processor parallel machine built on 16 boards.