Topic: Electrical engineering
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π Nvidiaβs CEO Is the Uncle of AMDβs CEO
Lisa Su (Chinese: θε§ΏδΈ°; PeΜh-Εe-jΔ«: SoΝ Chu-hong; born 7 November 1969) is a Taiwanese-born American business executive and electrical engineer, who is the president, chief executive officer and chair of AMD. Early in her career, Su worked at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor in engineering and management positions. She is known for her work developing silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing technologies and more efficient semiconductor chips during her time as vice president of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center.
Su was appointed president and CEO of AMD in October 2014, after joining the company in 2012 and holding roles such as senior vice president of AMD's global business units and chief operating officer. She currently serves on the boards of Cisco Systems, Global Semiconductor Alliance and the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association, and is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Recognized with a number of awards and accolades, she was named Executive of the Year by EE Times in 2014 and one of the World's Greatest Leaders in 2017 by Fortune. She became the first woman to receive the IEEE Robert Noyce Medal in 2021.
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- "Nvidiaβs CEO Is the Uncle of AMDβs CEO" | 2023-08-01 | 158 Upvotes 174 Comments
π Asynchronous (Clockless) CPU
An asynchronous circuit, or self-timed circuit, is a sequential digital logic circuit which is not governed by a clock circuit or global clock signal. Instead it often uses signals that indicate completion of instructions and operations, specified by simple data transfer protocols. This type of circuit is contrasted with synchronous circuits, in which changes to the signal values in the circuit are triggered by repetitive pulses called a clock signal. Most digital devices today use synchronous circuits. However asynchronous circuits have the potential to be faster, and may also have advantages in lower power consumption, lower electromagnetic interference, and better modularity in large systems. Asynchronous circuits are an active area of research in digital logic design.
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- "Asynchronous (Clockless) CPU" | 2018-10-05 | 168 Upvotes 60 Comments
π LK-99
LK-99 is a proposed ambient pressure and room-temperature superconductor with a grayβblack appearance.:β8β LK-99 has a hexagonal structure slightly modified from leadβapatite and is claimed to function as a superconductor below 400Β K (127Β Β°C; 260Β Β°F).:β1β The material was investigated by a team of Sukbae Lee et al. from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).:β1β As of 26Β JulyΒ 2023 the discovery of LK-99 has not been peer reviewed or independently replicated.
The chemical composition of LK-99 is approximately Pb9Cu(PO4)6O such thatβcompared to pure lead-apatite (Pb10(PO4)6O):β5ββapproximately one quarter of Pb(2) ions are replaced by Cu(II) ions.:β9β This partial replacement of Pb2+ ions (measuring 133 picometre) with Cu2+ ions (measuring 87 picometre) is said to cause a 0.48% reduction in volume, creating internal stress inside the material.:β8β
The internal stress is claimed to cause a heterojunction quantum well between the Pb(1) and oxygen within the phosphate ([PO4]3β) generating a superconducting quantum well (SQW).:β10β Lee et al claim to show LK-99 exhibits a response to a magnetic field (Meissner effect) when chemical vapor deposition is used to apply LK-99 to a non-magnetic copper sample.:β4β Pure lead-apatite is an insulator, but Lee et al claim copper-doped lead-apatite forming LK-99 is a superconductor, or at higher temperatures, a metal.:β5β
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- "LK-99" | 2023-07-27 | 101 Upvotes 58 Comments
π Oliver Heaviside
Oliver Heaviside FRS (; 18 May 1850 β 3 February 1925) was an English self-taught electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, invented mathematical techniques for the solution of differential equations (equivalent to Laplace transforms), reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of telecommunications, mathematics, and science.
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- "Oliver Heaviside" | 2014-12-26 | 100 Upvotes 25 Comments
π Sulfur Lamp
The sulfur lamp (also sulphur lamp) is a highly efficient full-spectrum electrodeless lighting system whose light is generated by sulfur plasma that has been excited by microwave radiation. They are a particular type of plasma lamp, and one of the most modern. The technology was developed in the early 1990s, but, although it appeared initially to be very promising, sulfur lighting was a commercial failure by the late 1990s. Since 2005, lamps are again being manufactured for commercial use.
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- "Sulfur Lamp" | 2019-11-30 | 64 Upvotes 31 Comments
π Charlieplexing
Charlieplexing (also known as tristate multiplexing, reduced pin-count LED multiplexing, complementary LED drive and crossplexing) is a technique for accessing a large number of LEDs, switches, micro-capacitors or other I/O entities, using very few tri-state logic wires from a microcontroller, these entities being wired as discrete components, x/y arrays, or woven in a diagonally intersecting pattern to form diagonal arrays.
The method uses the tri-state logic capabilities of microcontrollers in order to gain efficiency over traditional multiplexing, each I/O pin being capable, when required, of rapidly changing between the three states, logical 1, logical 0, and high impedance.
This enables these I/O entities (LEDs, switches etc.) to be connected between any two microcontroller I/Os - e.g. with 4 I/Os, each I/O can pair with 3 other I/Os, resulting in 6 unique pairings (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 2/3, 2/4, 3/4). Only 4 pairings are possible with standard x/y multiplexing (1/3, 1/4, 2/3, 2/4). Also, due to the microcontroller's ability to reverse the polarity of the 6 I/O pairs, the number of LEDS (or diodes) that are uniquely addressable, can be doubled to 12 - adding LEDS 2/1, 3/1, 4/1, 3/2, 4/2 and 4/3.
Although it is more efficient in its use of I/O, a small amount of address manipulation is required when trying to fit Charlieplexing into a standard x/y array.
Other issues that affect standard multiplexing but are exacerbated by Charlieplexing are:
- consideration of current requirements and the forward voltages of the LEDs.
- a requirement to cycle through the in-use LEDs rapidly so that the persistence of the human eye perceives the display to be lit as a whole. Multiplexing can generally be seen by a strobing effect and skewing if the eye's focal point is moved past the display rapidly.
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- "Charlieplexing" | 2024-05-12 | 69 Upvotes 12 Comments
π Ferrite Bead
A ferrite bead (also known as a ferrite block, ferrite core, ferrite ring, EMI filter, or ferrite choke) is a type of choke that suppresses high-frequency electronic noise in electronic circuits.
Ferrite beads employ high-frequency current dissipation in a ferrite ceramic to build high-frequency noise suppression devices.
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- "Ferrite Bead" | 2023-05-18 | 25 Upvotes 12 Comments
π Trancitor
The trancitor as the combined word of a "transfer-capacitor" is to be considered as another active-device category besides the transistor as a "transfer-resistor". As observed in the table shown, four kinds of active devices are theoretically deduced. Among them, trancitors are missing to be the third and fourth kinds, whereas transistors, such as bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and field-effect transistor (FET), were already invented as the first and second kinds, respectively. Unlike the transistor switching the current at its output (i.e., current source), the trancitor transfers its input to the voltage output (i.e., voltage source), so an inverse relationship with each other.
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- "Trancitor" | 2023-07-06 | 24 Upvotes 5 Comments
π Thyratron
A thyratron is a type of gas-filled tube used as a high-power electrical switch and controlled rectifier. Thyratrons can handle much greater currents than similar hard-vacuum tubes. Electron multiplication occurs when the gas becomes ionized, producing a phenomenon known as a Townsend discharge. Gases used include mercury vapor, xenon, neon, and (in special high-voltage applications or applications requiring very short switching times) hydrogen. Unlike a vacuum tube (valve), a thyratron cannot be used to amplify signals linearly.
In the 1920s, thyratrons were derived from early vacuum tubes such as the UV-200, which contained a small amount of argon gas to increase its sensitivity as a radio signal detector, and the German LRS relay tube, which also contained argon gas. Gas rectifiers, which predated vacuum tubes, such as the argon-filled General Electric "Tungar bulb" and the Cooper-Hewitt mercury-pool rectifier, also provided an influence. Irving Langmuir and G. S. Meikle of GE are usually cited as the first investigators to study controlled rectification in gas tubes, about 1914. The first commercial thyratrons appeared circa 1928.
The term "thyratron" is derived from Ancient Greek "ΞΈΟΟΞ±" ("thyra"), meaning "door" or "valve". The term "thyristor" was further derived from a combination of "thyratron" and "transistor". Since the 1960s thyristors have replaced thyratrons in most low- and medium-power applications.
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- "Thyratron" | 2024-05-31 | 14 Upvotes 3 Comments
π Cryotron
The cryotron is a switch that operates using superconductivity. The cryotron works on the principle that magnetic fields destroy superconductivity. This simple device consists of two superconducting wires (e.g. tantalum and niobium) with different critical temperature (Tc). The cryotron was invented by Dudley Allen Buck of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory.
As described by Buck, a straight wire of tantalum (having lower Tc) is wrapped around with a wire of niobium in a single layer coil. Both wires are electrically isolated from each other. When this device is immersed in a liquid helium bath both wires become superconducting and hence offer no resistance to the passage of electric current. Tantalum in superconducting state can carry large amount of current as compared to its normal state. Now when current is passed through the niobium coil (wrapped around tantalum) it produces a magnetic field, which in turn reduces (kills) the superconductivity of the tantalum wire and hence reduces the amount of the current that can flow through the tantalum wire. Hence one can control the amount of the current that can flow in the straight wire with the help of small current in the coiled wire. We can think of the tantalum straight wire as a "gate" and the coiled niobium as a "control".
The article by Buck includes descriptions of several logic circuits implemented using cryotrons, including: one stage of a binary adder, carry network, binary accumulator stage, and two stages of a cryotron stepping register.
A planar cryotron using thin films of lead and tin was developed in 1957 by John Bremer at General Electric's General Engineering Lab in Schenectady, New York. This was one of the first integrated circuits, although using superconductors rather than semiconductors. In the next few years, a demonstration computer was made and arrays with 2000 devices operated. A short history of this work is in the November 2007 newsletter of the IEEE History Center.
Juri Matisoo developed a version of the cryotron incorporating a Josephson junction switched by the magnetic field from a control wire. He also explained the shortcomings of traditional cryotrons in which the superconductive material must transition between superconducting and normal states to switch the device, and thus switch relatively slowly. Matisoo's cryotron switched between a conducting state in which 'pair tunneling' of electrons through the gate took place and a 'resistive' state where only single electrons were able to tunnel. The circuit was (like the traditional cryotron) capable of some amplification (i.e gain greater than unity) had a switching rate of less than 800 picoseconds. Although the requirement for cryogenic cooling limited its practicality, it wasn't until the late 2010s that commercial transistors came close to matching this performance.
There have been periods of renewed interest in various types of cryotron, IBM experimented with using them for limited applications in supercomputers during the 1980s and (as of 2020) there has been some investigation of their potential applications both to I/O and logic in prototype quantum computers.