Articles – Page 39

xMEMS Labs Aims to Replace Earbud and Hearing Aid Audio Drivers with Semiconductor Speakers

May 8, 2023

The semiconductor story is the story of constant replacement. Early transistors increasingly replaced vacuum tubes. Integrated circuits (ICs) replaced transistors. Our large-screen, flat-panel displays and televisions, which replaced cathode ray tubes, are giant-sized, thin-film semiconductors. Semiconductor-based solid-state drives are currently replacing rotating hard-disk storage in computers and servers. Even dynamic and electret microphones have started to yield to tiny arrays of semiconductor MEMS (Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems) transducers. You’ll find at least one such MEMS microphone in many new mobile phone models.

However, one electronic technology has long resisted replacement by semiconductors: the loudspeaker. … Read More → "xMEMS Labs Aims to Replace Earbud and Hearing Aid Audio Drivers with Semiconductor Speakers"

Metaspectral Takes AI Processing of Hyperspectral Imaging by Storm

by Max Maxfield

May 4, 2023

Do you know any jokes suitable for young kids? The reason I ask is that there are three girls aged 8, 7, and 3 living next door to me. Whenever they see me pottering around outside, the two older girls race over to tell me their latest and greatest jokes and puns (the youngest one toggles along behind to make sure I haven’t forgotten that she’s three fingers old).

Of course, this means I need to have some jokes of my own to tell in return. Furthermore, these jokes need to … Read More → "Metaspectral Takes AI Processing of Hyperspectral Imaging by Storm"

Risk Mitigation: Don’t Make Storage an Afterthought in Software-Defined Vehicles

by Max Maxfield

May 2, 2023

I was just cogitating on the company Western Digital. In turn, this led me to ruminate on the Monty Python movie The Life of Brian. In particular, I was recollecting the What have the Romans ever done for us? sketch.

As you doubtless recall, this salty satire starts with the character played by John Cleese chairing a protest meeting in Jerusalem circa 33 AD and posing the rhetorical question, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” Unfortunately, his audience responds with a series of suggestions, such as “Well, the … Read More → "Risk Mitigation: Don’t Make Storage an Afterthought in Software-Defined Vehicles"

A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 7: HP Loveland, The Hermit Chipmaker

by Steven Leibson

May 1, 2023

The first six parts of this article series described developments at major semiconductor vendors that played big roles in the MOSFET’s development. However, because fabs were relatively easy to create in the early days of ICs, there are many smaller stories as well. The following story, about one HP division’s involvement in MOSFET and NMOS development, happens to be one of those smaller stories that I’m personally familiar with, which is why it’s the seventh and final article in this brief history of the MOS transistor.

Loveland, Colorado was … Read More → "A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 7: HP Loveland, The Hermit Chipmaker"

The Non-Contact Body Temperature Measurement Market Heats Up

by Max Maxfield

April 27, 2023

I don’t like to boast but, as one of the leading engineers of my generation (according to my mother), I’m a dab hand at measuring things like voltage, current, and resistance. These days, we can measure electrical properties like this to extraordinary degrees of accuracy and precision using instruments that are relatively cheap in the scheme of things.

In some ways, we electrical and electronic engineers are spoiled because there are other physical properties that are … Read More → "The Non-Contact Body Temperature Measurement Market Heats Up"

A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 6: Intel – The Third Time’s a Charm

by Steven Leibson

April 26, 2023

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore are inextricably linked to the three most important commercial semiconductor companies in the history of semiconductors. First William Shockley brought Noyce and Moore together at his Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Palo Alto, California to develop silicon transistors. Although the company failed to develop commercially successful products, the team that William Shockley assembled then founded Fairchild Semiconductor, perhaps the most important semiconductor company ever created because it spawned so many other semiconductor companies and was a major factor in the creation of Silicon Valley.

In September 1957, eight Shockley employees – … Read More → "A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 6: Intel – The Third Time’s a Charm"

A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 5: RCA – The Persistent CMOS Contrarian

by Steven Leibson

April 24, 2023

When Bell Labs announced the creation of the first working MOSFET by Atallah and Kahng in 1960, RCA Labs was immediately interested. Like IBM Research, RCA Labs was not closely coupled to RCA’s product development and manufacturing operations. RCA’s bountiful corporate revenues in the early 1950s accustomed RCA Labs to having had plenty of budget, so it was able to explore promising new technologies that would not become products immediately.

However, by the end of the 1950s, successful lawsuits by RCA’s competitors ate into those licensing revenues, and RCA Labs turned … Read More → "A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 5: RCA – The Persistent CMOS Contrarian"

AMD Awes with End-to-End 5G Telco Solutions

by Max Maxfield

April 20, 2023

I’m sure that the folks at AMD and Intel don’t like to be compared to each other, but it’s a bit difficult to avoid doing so from the position of an outside observer. I’m by no means an expert here, but let’s start with my 30,000-foot view of the world. If nothing else, it will give everyone something to moan and groan about.

A portmanteau word is created when two other words or names are smooshed together. For example, the Intel moniker is a portmanteau of “integrated” and “ … Read More → "AMD Awes with End-to-End 5G Telco Solutions"

Welcome to 21st Century Heavy Equipment Automation

by Max Maxfield

April 18, 2023

I have a friend. Why are you laughing? It’s true. We’ll call my friend Howard (because that’s his name). Howard works for a company called Eutaw Construction, which—I just discovered—is named for the strong Eutaw clay prevalent in Northeast Mississippi and Alabama.

Howard and your humble narrator (I pride myself on my humility) are part of a small group of like-minded fellows that gather once a week to watch a couple of episodes of Doctor Who</ … Read More → "Welcome to 21st Century Heavy Equipment Automation"

A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 4: IBM Research, Persistence, and the Technology No One Wanted

by Steven Leibson

April 17, 2023

In 1952, the same year that IBM introduced its first electronic computer, the tube-based Model 701, the company became an original licensee for the Bell Labs transistor patents, and Thomas Watson Jr. became IBM’s president. Prior to 1952, IBM specialized in punched-card machines: card readers, card punches, card tabulators, card calculators, and of course, the punched cards themselves. Before the IBM 701, the company essentially made electromechanical equipment. Starting with the IBM 701, the company entered the electronics era. Just five years later, in 1957, Thomas Watson Jr. became CEO and caused the following product-development policy proclamation to be made: “It shall … Read More → "A Brief History of the MOS transistor, Part 4: IBM Research, Persistence, and the Technology No One Wanted"