Articles - History of Electronics - 3

From the 555 timer to the LM317 regulator, many old-time components still can be had from suppliers to help engineers, hobbyists, or even college students complete their projects. I’m in the process of updating my basic electronics book ...

Len Sherman EDN The June 23, 1988 issue of EDN included a Maxim Design News insert where we asked Who in their right mind would choose a computer interface standard that uses 12 V supplies, requires expensive connectors, works over a limited ...

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw perhaps the most dramatic change ever to hit electrical engineering. When transistors came along, many engineers needed to quickly learn how they worked and how to use them. Engineering managers had to convince ...

There was a time when it wasn't so rare to discover an unusual, scope-like object in an electronics lab. This was the curve tracer, able to display detailed characteristic curves of many components. Early models displayed vacuum tube curves; ...

What do horse racing and engineering have in common? The answer is “Nyquist.” Nyquist, the horse, recently won the Kentucky Derby, although he didn’t win his next race, The Preakness Stakes. Nyquist, the engineer was a Swedish ...

Jessica MacNeil EDN Alan Turing was the father of computer science and his Turing machine laid the groundwork for the modern computer. Born in London on June 23, 1912, the mathematician and scientist took an interest in both subjects early on. He ...

Amy Norcross EDN In 1875, while working on a harmonic telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson made an important discovery by accident. Bell had opened the School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech for deaf students in Boston in ...

Max Maxfield EDN I've been in the electronics and computing industries ever since I graduated with my BSc from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK back in 1980. Since that time, I've designed all sorts of weird and wonderful things (some ...

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the first electronic general-purpose computer, was formally announced on February 15, 1946. ENIAC had been heavily veiled before its first announcement, although its construction contract had ...

Louis Westphalen HODINKEE Throwback To The Past: it is 1977, quartz watches are still less than 10 years old; it's the year Star Wars hit theaters for the first time.. and you are actually looking at, not a piece of science fiction, but what ...