VLSI—The technological giant—And the developing countries

At a time when developing nations, after centuries of drift, are in search of an appropriate technology, they are confronted with a technological giant-Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) Circuit Technology-which seems to be gripping various aspects of the industrial sector and areas of human activity in the developed nations. In VLSI, the latest happens to be the most appropriate technology. The developing nations are yet to decide how appropriate and sustainable the VLSI technological edifice is in the context of their urge for modernization and the problems of an unemployment explosion, weak technological and scientific infrastructure, rural and agricultural bias, etc. The author believes that the developing countries will be involved in repeated technology transfer from developed nations in the area of VLSI through systems related to industry, defense, communication, instrumentation, etc. The various options of VLSI technology acquisition have been analyzed with their attendent problems. Downstream applications of VLSI to problems characteristic of developing nations, education and training in hardware and software, silicon foundry to serve as a technological listening post, and customdesign capability are some of the possible short-and long-term options for the developing nations to make optimum use of VLSI.