Microtech

The **Microtech Corporation** is an American company specializing in information technology, electronics, and research and development, founded by Garrett Knox in Portland, Oregon, UNSA. Microtech's best-known software products are the Foundation series of operating systems and the Newnet Discover search engine, created in the aftermath of the Third World War and the crippling of the pre-war internet. Its flagship hardware products are the Micron line of personal computers, as well as a wide variety of cybernetic implants which include the MicroFrame series of neural processors, the MicroView series of optical enhancers, and the MicroEdge series of neural enhancers. Microtech ranked number two in the Fortune 500 rankings for 2148, sorting the largest corporations in the United States by revenue. It is the world's largest producer of software and cyberware as of 2148, and it is considered part of the New Big Five information technology companies that emerged post-war (alongside Intraserv, Odyssey, Noumenon, and Inoculum).

Microtech was first envisioned by Garrett Knox and his childhood friend Logan Walls while they were taking a pair of computer science classes together in secondary school. Walls had spent the majority of his education aiming to secure a career at an existing tech giant, such as Apple, while Knox had envisioned creating his own startup and selling it to net an extensive profit. The two friends found their ideas to be compatible, and worked to develop a business model and product that would be the face of their company until it was time to sell. This product would become the Foundation line of operating systems that now dominates the personal computing industry. Foundation's expressed purpose was to bring personal computers back to the level of performance and quality they had shown before the outbreak of the Third World War and the destruction of the Oldnet. The system achieved these goals by the end of V1.0's development in 2077, and quickly became the fastest-selling operating system on the market, with an affordable price of N$20.00 per computer and the most advanced graphics, user interface, etc, available to consumers. With this success, and the now complete collapse of the Old Big Five technology giants, both Knox and Walls were convinced of their company's potential and devoted themselves to building it into the Newnet's first megacorporation.

Since the 2070's, Microtech has increasingly diversified, with various high-profile corporate acquisitions aimed towards both increasing its dominance over the personal computing industry and expanding its operations to entirely separate industries, such as cyberware, artificial intelligence, gaming, virtual reality, and more.

As of December, 2149, the Microtech Corporation is the fourth-largest corporation in the world by revenue, and the largest producer of electronics, cyberware, and more in the world.

Microtech has been criticized for its monopolistic practices and the company's software has been criticized for problems with security and safety. The company's MicroWeb series of neural processors in particular was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous pieces of cyberware ever created. Developed and released before cyberware had advanced to the point where it could harness energy directly from the wearer's body, MicroWeb implants required direct charging from a cable plugged into the base of the wearer's skull. As such, more than one hundred wearers died as a result of accidental electrocutions. Microtech was sued and forced to settle for a total of over 5 billion net dollars in 2085 for the MicroWeb's failure, and trust in the company would not recover until the twenty-second century.