Electronics Industry

Intel, the leading U.S. computer chip company, has agreed to work with Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corp. in the development of an increasingly popular information storage device known as flash memory. The decision to hook up with a Japanese firm could prove controversial for Intel, whose chief executive, Andrew S. Grove, has advocated restrictions on Japanese investments in American high-tech companies and other measures to protect the U.S. electronics industry.

Packard Bell NEC has agreed to pay $3.5 million to the federal government to settle a "whistle-blower" lawsuit that accused the electronics firm of using recycled parts in personal computers that were sold as new. The lawsuit, filed under seal and not disclosed until Wednesday, involved the sale of computers to military base exchanges and other government agencies. Packard Bell, based in Sacramento, denied any wrongdoing or liability as a result of the settlement.

Ed Daddy wasn't very surprised that his neighborhood CompUSA computer and home electronics store was closing. "Look at this," the 43-year-old auto parts salesman said, gesturing around the nearly deserted Glendale store on South Brand Boulevard. "Of course they can't survive." The consumer electronics retail industry, marked by cutthroat competition, suffered more casualties this week.

The Oct. 7 Business section did something worthwhile for California by countering with facts the usual hype dispensed by the California Chamber of Commerce. James Flanigan also picked up on the subject and wrote one of his more cogent columns, "Hardly Lean, We Are No Longer Hungry." California has had it good for so long that it is only natural for chamber of commerce types to believe that the future will simply be more of the same. However, it should be observed that the federal government's willingness to spend a disproportionate amount of its budget in California accounted for much of the state's luster over the years.

The technology gods tell us that in the not-so-distant future, our cameras won't use film and our tape recorders won't use tape. So what will they use? That depends on whom you ask. Three companies--including Toshiba in Irvine as well as Intel and Sandisk in Santa Clara--have three slightly different ideas. Trouble is, high-tech history dating back to the Beta-VHS videotape wars tells us that only one can win.

Considering the backdrop of tense relations between the United States and Japan, members of the Electronic Industries Assn. of Japan could not have expected a warm reception for the message they delivered to their American counterparts in Honolulu last week. With a huge trade deficit looming and the harsh criticism of American workers by some Japanese leaders still ringing in their ears, members of the San Jose-based Semiconductor Industry Assn.

The consumer electronics industry's ongoing transition from analog to digital design is far from simple. But convincing consumers that products such as DVD and digital TV not only offer better quality but are easy to use may be the most difficult challenge facing the $76-billion U.S. industry in 1999. "Digitization leads to a complicated set of choices for consumers," Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive of Sony Corp.

The consumer electronics industry, hungry for major new products that might restore the double-digit growth rates of the early 1980s, will get only an unsatisfying nibble of the future at its semiannual trade show, which begins Thursday in Las Vegas. Two of the most exciting new products to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show--a new type of cassette tape player from Philips and a new model of the Nintendo video game system--will only be demonstrated at the show, not formally introduced.

Like Newton, the apple and gravity, fruit once again has played a big role in a scientific discovery. But instead of getting bopped like Sir Isaac on the noggin, Ray Turner reached into his refrigerator for a lemon and came away with a startling solution to one of the more daunting environmental problems facing mankind. After a few false starts one evening at his La Habra home, the longtime Hughes Aircraft Co.

Customs Service agents raided spy equipment stores from Southern California to the East Coast on Wednesday, ending a 17-month undercover investigation into alleged smuggling of telephone bugging devices and other electronic surveillance equipment. Nine arrests have been made and more are expected, officials said.