The Microprocessor: Just Another Component

By now a great deal has been written about the micro‐processor and its related technology and a great many management appreciation seminars have been organised. Yet the fact remains that only 10–15 per cent of manufacturing companies are actually using micro‐processors and over 50 per cent of managers still seem to be unaware of what microelectronics can do for them. Placed in an international context the UK rate of adoption, adaptation and absorption of micro‐electronics is poor, specialists are being produced slowly and the Government is providing neither the strategy nor the support to be found in other OECD countries. Although there are a few bright spots, the picture is largely one of unrelieved gloom.