Published on Aug. 2, 2023
Last updated on May 10, 2024
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry(MITI) launched, in December 1966, the development of an ultra-high-performance computer that would outperform the IBM System/360 by 1971, as part of a large, five-year project by the Electrotechnical Laboratory(ETL) of the Agency of Industrial Science and Technology. MITI invested a total of 10 billion yen over five years, while eyeing the development of integrated circuits, time sharing, and kana-character reading, as well. Of the investment, 1.5 billion yen was allocated to the ETL and 8.5 billion yen to Hitachi, NEC, and Japan Software. Development of most of the computer main unit hardware was contracted to Hitachi and the integrated circuits to NEC. Japan Software was given the contract for the common components of the operating system software.
MITI was attempting, through this project, to have Hitachi, NEC, and Fujitsu collaborate on a common architecture. However, unlike the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation project, MITI would not be purchasing the products after development. Consequently, the companies did not reach an agreement on collaboration and proceeded to develop their own separate architectures.
