cmeisenzahl
Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2005
- Messages
- 57
Thought some of you guys might like these columns.
The microprocessor at 40--The birth of electronics
Jack Ganssle
"Amazingly, radio existed in those pre-electronic days. The Titanic's radio operators sent their dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah dit-dit-dit with a spark gap transmitter, a very simple design that used arcing contacts to stimulate a resonant circuit. The analogy to a modern AM transmitter isn't too strained: today, we'd use a transistor switching rapidly to excite an LC network. The Titanic's LC components resonated as the spark rapidly formed, creating a low-impedance conductive path, and extinguished. The resulting emission is not much different from the EMI caused by lightning. The result was a very ugly wide-bandwidth signal, and the legacy of calling shipboard radio operators "sparks." "
The microprocessor at 40--The birth of electronics
Part 2.
From light bulbs to computers
Part 3.
The semiconductor revolution
The microprocessor at 40--The birth of electronics
Jack Ganssle
"Amazingly, radio existed in those pre-electronic days. The Titanic's radio operators sent their dit-dit-dit dah-dah-dah dit-dit-dit with a spark gap transmitter, a very simple design that used arcing contacts to stimulate a resonant circuit. The analogy to a modern AM transmitter isn't too strained: today, we'd use a transistor switching rapidly to excite an LC network. The Titanic's LC components resonated as the spark rapidly formed, creating a low-impedance conductive path, and extinguished. The resulting emission is not much different from the EMI caused by lightning. The result was a very ugly wide-bandwidth signal, and the legacy of calling shipboard radio operators "sparks." "
The microprocessor at 40--The birth of electronics
Part 2.
From light bulbs to computers
Part 3.
The semiconductor revolution