A top IBM executive has confirmed that the company has offered its state-of-the-art computer chips for sale to other companies, according to a report published today. IBM's vice chairman and highest-ranking engineer, Jack D. Kuehler, denied industry speculation that the company was acting to prevent its American competitors from becoming dependent on Japanese suppliers for chips, The New York Times reported. The chip is the core technology in advanced computers. Kuehler acknowledged that for more than two years the company has offered small supplies of advanced chips to fewer than a dozen American and European computer makers. The company did so ``to sharpen our own competitiveness'' by letting other computer makers choose between IBM's chips and those offered by Japanese companies, he said. ``Sometimes we found we were deficient and we have worked to correct that,'' he said. ``Sometimes we found we were truly leaders.'' But the Times reported that other industry officials suspected that International Business Machines had other motives in acting as a chip supplier to competitors, such as driving down its own production costs. ``IBM is in the unusual position of having to worry about the global competitiveness of American chip technology,'' said Richard Shaffer, editor of the Technologic Computer Letter, which follows the computer and semiconductor industries. IBM officials have said the company's own health depends on maintaining a strong domestic ability to produce chips, train a large number of microelectronic engineers and sustain a strong semiconductor equipment manufacturing business so IBM will not need to depend on Japan for the most up-to-date technology. Reports that IBM offered to sell chips to an archrival, Digital Equipment Corporation, surfaced about 10 days ago and industry sources then revealed the offers were more widespread. The company also has said it was selling only its chips, not its underlying designs or process technology.
