Newsmaker: Flash goes the notebook

(continued from previous page)

Do you think you will have to expand the overseas?
Appleton: Oh sure, we don't have a choice. We will have to. Sixty percent of Micron's product is sold outside the United States.

What do you think of the job the federal government is doing funding research and development?
Appleton: Terrible. They've got to fix it. The government's investment in the physical sciences in the last 30 years in absolute dollars has been flat.

Don't you think there's a reason that these other countries are focused on this? We need a technology strategy as a country, and we've got to do something about it. A lot of these (other) countries get direct investment and subsidies. We aren't even asking for that. We're saying, "Would you please join us in investing in R&D in our future?"

Do they listen in Washington? You, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett and everyone has been going up to Capitol Hill for years.
Appleton: I think historically they haven't, but I think there are a lot of people waking up to the issue in Washington.

We've got really a couple of particular issues. One is our educational system is broken. It's kind of a circular discussion that you get into about education, because no one person is going to change it. You've got all these moving variables that make it tough to try to address. But hey, however it has to happen, our educational system is broken; we've got to fix it. We aren't creating any longer the kinds of minds, if you will, that are going to drive us forward in the sciences.

This idea that somehow we're going to develop all our technology in the United States and send it over there to be produced is ridiculous.

Maybe we have some great work being done in the medical arena or life sciences, but you know what, we've got the whole world out there that's very focused on the physical sciences. These countries recognize that if you want to have a leading economy, you have to have a solid technology base. And that also means making some stuff--you know, that dirty word, "manufacturing." We have to make some of that stuff. In fact, we need to make a lot of it, and it's because the linkage between R&D and manufacturing is critical.

This idea that somehow we're going to develop all our technology in the United States and send it over there to be produced is ridiculous. There has got to be proximity. The iterative learning process is critical, and we need more investment in the basic sciences.

By the way, how's your back doing? Has it healed from the plane accident?
Appleton: Oh, good. I'm totally normal now.

You have quite a few adventure hobbies, correct?
Appleton: I do triathlons. I like motocross. I like surfing.

How do you squeeze it all in?
Appleton: Well, you know, I have difficulties these days, honestly. I haven't been doing a lot of air shows, and I haven't done a whole lot of surfing lately. But I still like it, and when I get a chance I'll do it. It just has to be kind of in a concentrated period of time.

More Newsmakers