NEC Corporation of America history

Furthermore, Nippon Electric's transmission equipment, Cassegrain antenna (satellite communications parabola antenna), and monitoring facilities were actively used for the live international television broadcasting of the Tokyo Olympic Games in October 1964.

In June 1965, Nippon Electric received an order for a control radar system jointly with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.

The fact that NEC was in charge of memory at a large project of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1966 is the beginning of the development of high-speed n-channel MOS type memory.

1968: First overseas factories are opened in Mexico and Brazil.

The results were announced at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in 1969.

The final stage of this rocket, called Lambda 4 type, was planned to become a satellite, and in February 1970, Japan's first satellite "Osumi" was born due to the success of this launch.

The microcomputer sales department led by Kazuya Watabe released the training kit "TK - 80" in August 1976 in order to help users understand microcomputers and develop new markets, and the support center "Bit-INN" was opened in Akihabara.

1977: Company President Koji Kobayashi puts forth his prescient vision of "C&C"--the future integration of computers and communications.

In response, NEC acquired Electronic Arrays, Inc., in 1978, becoming one of the first Japanese companies to locate some of its semiconductor operations in the United States.

Under Kobayashi and Tanaka, NEC tripled its sales volume in the ten years to 1980.

1981: NEC Electronics, Inc. is formed as the company's manufacturing and marketing arm for semiconductors in the United States.

In 1983 Hillis cofounded the Thinking Machines Corporation to design, build, and market such multiprocessor computers.

By 1984 NEC had sold more than one million personal computers in Japan.

In 1985 the Cray-2, a four-processor computer, became the first machine to exceed one billion FLOPS.

In 1987 Honeywell, Bull, and NEC formed Honeywell-Bull Inc., with 42.5, 42.5, and 15 percent ownership, respectively.

For instance, in 1988 HiTech, built at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., used 64 custom processors (one for each square on the chessboard) to become the first computer to defeat a grandmaster in a match.

In 1989 another United States subsidiary, NEC Technologies, Inc., was established to handle the company's computer peripheral operations in the United States.

In January 1990, as part of the 90th anniversary commemoration project, the new head office building "NEC Super Tower" was completed at Shiba 5-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo where the company originated.

In Europe, NEC began selling its IBM-compatible PowerMate line in 1991.

In late 1993 the relationship between NEC and Groupe Bull was strengthened with an additional NEC investment of ¥7 billion ($64.5 million) in the troubled state-owned computer manufacturer.

In 1994 NEC announced the development of the SX-4 series of supercomputers, touted as the world's fastest.

In 1995 NEC spent $170 million to gain a 19.9 percent stake in Packard Bell Electronics, Inc., the leading United States marketer of home computers.

In February 1996 IBM’s Deep Blue, using 192 custom-enhanced RS/6000 processors, was the first computer to defeat a world champion, Garry Kasparov, in a “slow” game.

The Commerce Department in March 1997 ruled in Cray Research's favor and imposed a 454 percent tariff on NEC's supercomputers.

1998: NEC gains majority control of Packard Bell NEC.

After NTT DOCOMO began its i-mode Internet access service in February 1999, NEC released the Digital Mova N501i Hyper in March.

In 2000 NEC reorganized its corporate structure to facilitate Internet-related sales and service.

In February 2002 NEC sold about a one-third interest in NEC Mobiling, Ltd., a distributor of mobile phones and developer of software for mobile and wireless communications network systems, to the public.

NEC then reduced its stake in the newly formed company to 70 percent through a July 2003 IPO that raised ¥155.4 billion ($1.31 billion).

In particular, the 5th through 10th fastest Chinese supercomputers in 2007 were owned by a company with online rights in China to the electronic game World of Warcraft, which sometimes had more than a million people playing together in the same gaming world.

The first computer to exceed 1,000 TFLOPS, or 1 petaflop, was built by IBM in 2008.

NEC formed a joint venture with the Chinese personal computer maker Lenovo in 2011.

The joint venture, Lenovo NEC Holdings, had about 25 percent of the Japanese personal computer market and was almost completely acquired by Lenovo in 2016.