Electronic devices have hugely influenced the development of many aspects of modern society, such as
telecommunications, entertainment, education, health care, industry, and security. The main driving force behind the advancement of electronics is the
semiconductor industry, which in response to global demand continually produces ever-more sophisticated electronic devices and circuits. The
semiconductor industry is one of the largest and most profitable sectors in the global economy, with annual revenues exceeding $481 billion in 2018. The electronics industry also encompasses other sectors that rely on electronic devices and systems, such as
e-commerce, which generated over $29 trillion in online sales in 2017. (Full article...)
Numerically controlled oscillators offer several advantages over other types of oscillators in terms of agility, accuracy, stability and reliability. NCOs are used in many communications systems including digital up/down converters used in 3G wireless and software radio systems, digital
phase-locked loops, radar systems, drivers for optical or acoustic transmissions, and multilevel
FSK/
PSK modulators/demodulators. (Full article...)
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Row hammer (also written as rowhammer) is a computer security exploit that takes advantage of an unintended and undesirable side effect in
dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) in which
memory cells interact electrically between themselves by leaking their charges, possibly changing the contents of nearby
memory rows that were not
addressed in the original memory access. This circumvention of the isolation between DRAM memory cells results from the high cell density in modern DRAM, and can be triggered by specially crafted
memory access patterns that rapidly activate the same memory rows numerous times.
The iPhone 5s maintained almost the same external design as its predecessor, the iPhone 5, although the 5s received a new white/gold color scheme in addition to white/silver and space gray/black. The 5s has vastly upgraded internal hardware, however. It introduced the
A7 64-bit dual-core system-on-chip, the first
64-bit processor to be used on a smartphone, accompanied by the
M7 "motion co-processor". A redesigned home button with
Touch ID, a
fingerprint recognition system which can be used to unlock the phone and authenticate
App Store and
iTunes Store purchases, was also introduced. The camera was also updated with a larger
aperture and a dual-LED flash optimized for different
color temperatures. Earphones known as EarPods were included with the 5s, and Apple released accessories including a case and a dock. It had a 4-inch display, similar to the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. (Full article...)
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Sinclair Executive Type 1
The Sinclair Executive was the world's first "slimline"
pocket calculator, and the first to be produced by
Clive Sinclair's company
Sinclair Radionics. Introduced in 1972, the calculator was produced in at least two versions with different keyboard markings; a variant called the Sinclair Executive Memory was introduced in 1973.
Its small size was made possible by pulsing current to the
Texas Instruments TMS1802 "calculator on a chip"
integrated circuit, reducing the power consumption more than tenfold. The Executive was highly successful, making £1.8 million of profit for Sinclair and winning a
Design Council Award for Electronics. (Full article...)
The project began with two aims: to prove the practicality of the
Williams tube, an early form of
computer memory based on standard
cathode-ray tubes (CRTs); and to construct a machine that could be used to investigate how computers might be able to assist in the solution of mathematical problems. The first of the series, the
Manchester Baby, ran its first program on 21 June 1948. As the world's first stored-program computer, the Baby, and the
Manchester Mark 1 developed from it, quickly attracted the attention of the United Kingdom government, who contracted the electrical engineering firm of
Ferranti to produce a commercial version. The resulting machine, the
Ferranti Mark 1, was the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer. (Full article...)
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A 10
dB 1.7–2.2
GHz directional coupler. From left to right: input, coupled, isolated (terminated with a load), and transmitted port. Power dividers (also power splitters and, when used in reverse, power combiners) and directional couplers are
passive devices used mostly in the field of radio technology. They couple a defined amount of the electromagnetic power in a
transmission line to a
port enabling the signal to be used in another circuit. An essential feature of directional couplers is that they only couple power flowing in one direction. Power entering the output port is coupled to the isolated port but not to the coupled port. A directional coupler designed to split power equally between two ports is called a hybrid coupler.
Directional couplers are most frequently constructed from two coupled transmission lines set close enough together such that energy passing through one is coupled to the other. This technique is favoured at the
microwave frequencies where transmission line designs are commonly used to implement many circuit elements. However,
lumped component devices are also possible at lower frequencies, such as the audio frequencies encountered in
telephony. Also at microwave frequencies, particularly the higher bands,
waveguide designs can be used. Many of these waveguide couplers correspond to one of the conducting transmission line designs, but there are also types that are unique to waveguide. (Full article...)
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The Nakamichi Dragon is an audio
cassette deck that was introduced by
Nakamichi in 1982 and marketed until 1994. The Dragon was the first Nakamichi model with bidirectional replay capability and the world's first production tape recorder with an automatic
azimuth correction system; this feature, which was invented by
Philips engineers and improved by Niro Nakamichi, continuously adjusts the azimuth of the
replay head to minimize apparent head skew and correctly reproduce the
treble signal present on the tape. The system allows the correct reproduction of mechanically skewed cassettes and recordings made on misaligned decks. Apart from the Dragon, similar systems have only been used in the Nakamichi TD-1200 car cassette player and the
Marantz SD-930 cassette deck.
At the time of its introduction, the Dragon had the lowest-ever
wow and flutter and the highest-ever
dynamic range, losing marginally to the former Nakamichi flagship the 1000ZXL in
frequency response. Competing models by
Sony,
Studer,
Tandberg and
TEAC that were introduced later in the 1980s sometimes surpassed the Dragon in mechanical quality and feature set but none could deliver the same mix of sound quality, flexibility and technological advancement. The Dragon, despite inherent issues with long-term reliability, remained the highest point of
compact cassette technology. (Full article...)
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The Sinclair Sovereign was a high-end
calculator introduced by
Clive Sinclair's company
Sinclair Radionics in 1976. It was an attempt to escape from the unprofitable low end of the market, and one of the last calculators Sinclair produced. Made with a case of pressed
steel that a variety of finishes, it cost between £30 and £60 at a time when other calculators could be purchased for under £5. A number of factors meant that the Sovereign was not a commercial success, including the cost, high
import levies on components, competition from cheaper calculators manufactured abroad, and the development of more power-efficient designs using
liquid-crystal displays. Though it came with a five-year guarantee, issues such as short battery life limited its usefulness. The company moved on to producing computers soon afterwards.
Late version Quad "ESL-57" loudspeaker with black grilles and rosewood end caps
The Quad Electrostatic Loudspeaker (ESL) is the world's first production full-range
electrostatic loudspeaker, launched in 1957 by
Quad Electroacoustics, then known as the Acoustical Manufacturing Co. Ltd. The speaker is shaped somewhat like a home electric
radiator curved slightly on the vertical axis. They are widely admired for their clarity and precision, but known to be difficult speakers to run and maintain.
The original ESL, in production between 1957 and 1985, has been hailed in Sound & Vision as one of the most important speakers of the 20th century. It was succeeded in 1981 by the ESL-63, which remained in production until 1999. As of 2013, Quad maintains four electrostatic speakers in its range. (Full article...)
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NAD 3020 integrated amplifier
The NAD 3020 is a stereo
integrated amplifier by
NAD Electronics, considered to be one of the most important components in the history of
high fidelity audio. Launched in 1978, this highly affordable product delivered a good quality sound, which acquired a reputation as an
audiophile amplifier of exceptional value. By 1998, the NAD 3020 had become the most well known and best-selling audio amplifier in history. (Full article...)
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Air stripline is a form of electrical
planar transmission line whereby a conductor in the form of a thin metal strip is suspended between two
ground planes. The idea is to make the
dielectric essentially air. Mechanical support of the line may be a thin substrate, periodical insulated supports, or the device connectors and other electrical items.
Air stripline is most commonly used at
microwave frequencies, especially in the
C band. Its advantage over standard stripline and other planar technologies is that its air dielectric avoids
dielectric loss. Many useful circuits can be constructed with air stripline and it is also easier to achieve strong coupling between components in this technology than with other planar formats. It was invented by Robert M. Barrett in the 1950s. (Full article...)
The actual impedance may vary quite considerably from the nominal figure with changes in frequency. In the case of cables and other
transmission lines, there is also variation along the length of the cable, if it is not properly terminated. (Full article...)
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The Linn Isobarik DMS (with in-built crossover) in a domestic setting The Linn Isobarik, nicknamed "Bariks" or "Briks", is a
loudspeaker designed and manufactured by
Linn Products. The Isobarik is known for both its reproduction of low bass frequencies and being very demanding on amplifiers.
Launched in 1973, the Isobarik DMS, Linn's maiden and flagship loudspeaker was based on and named for the
isobaric loading principle invented in the 1950s. The speaker exists also as the Isobarik PMS – destined for the professional market. Although discontinued in 1992, it remains popular among audiophiles. (Full article...)
Waffle-iron filters are particularly suitable where both a wide
passband, and a wide
stopband free of spurious transmission modes, are required. They also have a high power-handling capability. Applications include suppressing the
harmonic output of transmitters and the design of wide-band
diplexers. They are also used in industrial microwave manufacturing processes to prevent the escape of microwave radiation from the microwave chamber. Filters with an analogous design are now appearing in
photonics, but, due to the higher frequency, at a much smaller scale. This small size allows them to be incorporated into
integrated circuits. (Full article...)
Joule's laws are a set of two laws concerning the heat produced by a
current and the energy dependence of an
ideal gas to that of pressure, volume, and temperature, respecetively. Joule's first law, also known as the Joule effect, is a
physical law expressing the relationship between the
heat generated by the
current flowing through a
conductor. The heating effect of conductors carrying currents is known as
Joule heating, named for
James Prescott Joule. It is expressed as:
Where Q is the heat generated by a constant current I flowing through a conductor of
electrical resistanceR, for a
timet.
Joule's second law states that the
internal energy of an
ideal gas is independent of its volume and pressure, depending only its temperature.
... that in 2019, Chinese electronics company
Xiaomi posted a video of their third-quarterly financial report featuring a parody of the
anime song "Renai Circulation"?
... that a 1982 court case established that video games may qualify for multiple types of U.S. copyright protection?
... that the source material for
Curtis Roads's electronic composition nscor was realized at six studios for a period of five years?
Electronic paper is a
display technology designed to mimic the appearance of regular
ink on
paper. Unlike a conventional
flat panel display, which uses a
backlight to illuminate its
pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity or using processor power, while allowing the paper to be changed. Electronic paper should not be confused with
digital paper.
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