Short answers, pulled from the story.
MCC was the first, and at one time the largest, computer industry research and development consortium in the United States. It was founded in late 1982 by several major computer and semiconductor manufacturers in response to Japan's Fifth Generation Project. MCC ceased operations in 2000 and was formally dissolved in 2004.
MCC was founded as a defensive response to Japan's Fifth Generation Project, a government-backed research initiative launched in 1982 with the goal of producing a new kind of computer by 1991. American and European companies viewed the Japanese effort as an attempt to take full control of the world's high-end computer market. Japan had been organizing similar industrial research consortia since as early as 1956.
Admiral Bobby Ray Inman led MCC from its founding in late 1982. His previous positions included Director of the National Security Agency and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Despite this government intelligence background, MCC accepted no government funding for many years.
Austin was selected as the site for MCC in 1983 after competing with Atlanta, the Research Triangle in North Carolina, the Washington D.C. area, and Stanford University. The University of Texas offered to build a new facility on their campus specifically designed for MCC. Ross Perot also offered the use of his private plane for two years to assist with staff recruitment.
Fourteen companies were spun out of MCC. Notable spinoffs include Evolutionary Technologies International, focused on database tools, spun off in 1990; Portelligent, which commercialized reverse engineering teardown services and was acquired by CMP Technology in 2007; and TeraVicta Technologies, Austin's first MEMS company, which was liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings in 2015.
The MCC Board of Directors voted to dissolve the consortium in June 2000. The few remaining employees held a wake at Scholz's Beer Garden in Austin on the 25th of October. Formal dissolution papers were not filed until 2004.