D Mold

AUSTIN, TEXAS—The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) violates some fundamental precepts of establishment science. But four years after its creation by a dozen of the country's major high-technology firms, it shows promise of providing American industry with a new model for getting the results of science off the bench and into the market place. The corporation imposes severe restraints on the free exchange of information—both with the outside world and in-house. It does so in part because its shareholders believe secrecy is a valuable weapon in the ongoing battle with foreign competitors and in part because of the management style of its president, Bobby R. Inman, a former director of the National Security Agency and deputy director of the CIA. Next month Inman will become president and chief executive officer of Westmark Systems Inc., a new, privately owned defense-industry holding company in Texas. He leaves behind, in his words, ...