Founded in 1910 as an electronics
repair shop by Namihei Odaira. Hitachi's product line expanded to electric
transformers, motors and generators through the 1930's. In the 1940's and 50's,
Hitachi's product diversified even further to electric locomotives to transistor
based computers. In the sixties, Hitachi's diversification continued. Hitachi
began to build its semiconductors producing LSI chips in the late sixties.
In 1974, Hitachi entered the large-scale mainframe market and in 1978 produced a
computer that was the fastest in the world. The seventies also saw many memory
and microprocessor products from its semiconductor division. The eighties
brought the Japanese domination of the world's memory markets, of which Hitachi
was a major player. Hitachi further enhanced its computer product line with the
introduce of series of supercomputers.
Today Hitachi continues as a manufacturer
of chemicals, electronics, computers, supercomputers, communications equipments,
electric trains, nuclear
reactors and electronic devices.
