Flicking through modern text books for undergraduate students, I find
it startling that little seems to have changed in the way of
electronic design. Can anyone think of obvious examples?
Regards, Larry.
two categories of improvement:
1. parts to work with
2. functions of those parts
the contributions in the first category enabled what we all 'see' in
the second category.
Electronics became smaller, cheaper, lower power, faster, and
INCREDIBLY complex! Enabling a plethora of functions to come into
existance...GPS everywhere, wireless widgets, awesome display screens,
expansion of the internet, USB memory sticks, power scavenging, etc
etc. But the major impact [to me] has been the shift towards software
becoming the dominating factor of how those basic components became
utilized. For example, whole companies have come into existance that
provide only aps and software. Just as the industry moved away from
providing a solution that EXACTLY fits the problem to providing a
solution that is a 'slight' overkill with digital solution, we are now
starting to provide WAAAYYY overkill by having WHOLE systems become
the basic building block!
Can you imagine trying to print a data sheet for a whole system? It's
like a data sheet for a micro, only more so.
With the advent of all these advancements, The list of 'new' things
becomes long:
video phones, digital TV, true artificial intelligence as part of the
user interface, humanoid robots, etc etc
To me, the most monumental changes have been the advent of 'extremes'
to make new components -- low temperature SQUIDS, gravity free crystal
growth, etc; the acceptance of carbon composites; and exploration into
nano, where ALL the rules of physics I was familiar with seem to have
changed -- tunneling electrons [pure magic!]
Just how much improvement in basic components? longer battery life,
higher energy density in inductors and capacitors, stronger materials
has occurred since 80's? Seems like sometimes slow, but the synergy of
ALL the small changes has been awesome.
