ABSTRACT
Hyundai Electronics survived through the 1980s as a manufacturer of other’s creations. The Hyundai personal computer was typical — an IBM clone called Hyundai. The Ichon plant also produced cellular telephones and other gadgets of the electronic age, but its biggest new program, at the end of the 1980s, was the foundry operation under which it produced 256K DRAM semiconductors for Texas Instruments. (“Foundry” work, in electronics, means hammering out chips to a client’s design and specification.) TI signed up with Hyundai after modifying its Japanese operation to produce the IM (megabyte) DRAM chip and then sending over some of its Japanese experts to help. Hyundai in 1988 earned 50% of its income from TI, which used the Hyundai facilities for basic manufacturing but contributed little to long-range development.
