Interactive cable television, satellite broadcasting, facsimile, viewdata, and teletext have all been in use or on trial for several years and give a basis for understanding how the integrated electronic media of the future will develop. This book summarizes the proceedings of a TECHNOVA seminar at which Japanese and European industrialists, civil servants, and academics discussed the development and application of the new electronic media, showing the different approaches Japan, Europe, and the United States have towards the use of these media. They also raised fundamental questions about the economics of information technology and such basic issues as the ability of the individual to cope with this information explosion.

This book deals with the development and fortunes of Inmos, today the largest British-owned semiconductor manufacturer of high volume, standard micro-electronic components. Authors McLean and Rollands provide a detailed history of the company from its beginnings in the late 1970s as a desperate attempt on the part of the Labour Government to regain a strategic British presence in the microelectronics industry to its present position and future in the world of high-technology industry.