The American semiconductor industry leads the world in logic chips, the electronic brains of computers and other smart machines.

Mr. Chang prefers to make only the more sophisticated logic chips.

Some are now gearing up to compete with American industry in logic chips, which can command prices of several hundred dollars.

Already, logic chips represent 25 percent of Samsung's business, and the company expects them to reach 30 percent by 1996.

For instance, two logic chips would have their inputs, outputs, power supply, and ground connections on the same pins.

He hopes this year to announce one of the first logic chips using the technology.

Standard, classic logic chips that implement this or similar frequency division functions include the 7456, 7457, 74292, and 74294.

But that leaves many simpler memory and logic chips that can be produced there.

But in the cutthroat world of designing logic chips, shrinking the time it takes to put a chip on the market has become essential.

Most memory and logic chips used in industry are what are known as 'standards'.