Aeneas, which comprises roughly 20 percent of Harvard's $5.4 billion endowment, includes some of HMC's most volatile investments in venture capital, real estate and energy commodities.

According to HMC's annual report, venture capital makes up the largest portion of the Aeneas portfolio, with investments totalling $887 million as of June 30, 1992.

Aeneas venture capital investments performed well in fiscal 1992, earning a respectable return of 22.6 percent and slightly exceeding HMC's internal benchmark target of 20.7 percent for the year.

But the portfolio's real estate and energy commodities investments earned negative returns over the same period.

Just last month, the U.S. Navy announced plans to vacate two HMC-owned office buildings in Virginia that it has been leasing. According to several experts, the Navy's move from the Crystal City buildings could significantly reduce the investment's estimated value of $113 million.

X-Ray Lithography Equipment

Hampshire Instruments, based in Rochester, NY and with a local office in Marlborough, was founded in 1984 as a developer and supplier of X-ray lithography equipment for the semiconductor industry.

According to a Hampshire fact sheet, the company's research was aimed at developing an "X-ray stepper," a device designed to imprint features on integrated circuits.

If successful, the X-ray system would allow for the production of denser, more precise circuits than those produced with standard optical lithography technology, which uses ultraviolet light.

But according to one industry expert, any results to Hampshire's efforts were on the very distant horizon, and would require substantial, long-term financial investments.

"[X-ray lithography] is a technology that people don't expect to be widely used until the next century," said Charles F. Boucher, a senior industry analyst with San Jose-based Dataquest Inc., an international high-technology market research firm. "So they were working on a technology that didn't have any wide near-term application."

If successful, an investment in X-ray lithography could prove profitable in the distant future, Boucher said, adding that Hampshire, as an early venture into the development of the new technology, faced some inevitable stumbling blocks.

"As one of the early companies in this field, they were the company that was going to solve all the initial problems," Boucher said. "They were at the very beginning of the learning curve."

"Most private investors don't have the patience to wait that long for a return on their investment," Boucher added.

Much of Hampshire's backing came from state and federal investors, he said.