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Computer Automation
Computer Automation Inc. was a computer manufacturer founded by David H. Methvin in 1968, based originally in Newport Beach, California, United States.Datamation, June 1968 p.167 It opened a sales, support and repair arm in the UK in 1972, based at Hertford House, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. Later relocated to Suite 2 Milfield House, Croxley Centre, Croxley Green, Watford, Hertfordshire. In 1981 they moved the corporate offices to Boulder, Colorado, manufacturing and sales remained in California. In 1985 the offices moved to Irvine, California. Finally in 1990 they moved to Richardson, Texas. They had previously opened a manufacturing and engineering development facility there in 1978 as a way to escape high California tax and labor rates. The first products were the Computer Automation PDC 404 and PDC 808 "Programmed Digital Controllers". The PDC 808 announced circa July 1969 was designed for control, monitoring and/or data logging applications. It featured 4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas. It is home to the University of Texas at Dallas and the Telecom Corridor, with a high concentration of telecommunications companies. More than 5,000 businesses have operations within Richardson's , including many of the world's largest telecommunications and networking companies, such as AT&T, Verizon, Cisco Systems, Samsung, ZTE, MetroPCS, Texas Instruments, Qorvo, and Fujitsu.COR.net Press Release Richardson's largest employment base is provided by the insurance industry, with |
Magnetic Tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic tape could with relative ease record and playback audio, visual, and binary computer data. Magnetic tape revolutionized sound recording and reproduction and broadcasting. It allowed radio, which had always been broadcast live, to be recorded for later or repeated airing. Since the early 1950s, magnetic tape has been used with computers to store large quantities of data and is still used for backup purposes. Magnetic tape begins to degrade after 10–20 years and therefore is not an ideal medium for long-term archival storage. Durability While good for short-term use, magnetic tape is highly prone to disintegration. Depending on the environment, this process may begin after 10–20 years. Over time, magnetic tape made in the 197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Current Loop
In electrical signalling an analog current loop is used where a device must be monitored or controlled remotely over a pair of conductors. Only one current level can be present at any time. A major application of current loops is the industry de facto standard 4–20 mA current loop for process control applications, where they are extensively used to carry signals from process instrumentation to PID controllers, SCADA systems, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). They are also used to transmit controller outputs to the modulating field devices such as control valves. These loops have the advantages of simplicity and noise immunity, and have a large international user and equipment supplier base. Some 4–20 mA field devices can be powered by the current loop itself, removing the need for separate power supplies, and the "smart" HART protocol uses the loop for communications between field devices and controllers. Various automation protocols may replace analog cur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serial Interface
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. Throughout most of the history of personal computers, data has been transferred through serial ports to devices such as modems, terminals, various peripherals, and directly between computers. While interfaces such as Ethernet, FireWire, and USB also send data as a serial stream, the term ''serial port'' usually denotes hardware compliant with RS-232 or a related standard, such as RS-485 or RS-422. Modern consumer personal computers (PCs) have largely replaced serial ports with higher-speed standards, primarily USB. However, serial ports are still frequently used in applications demanding simple, low-speed interfaces, such as industrial automation systems, scientific instruments, point of sale systems and some industrial and consumer produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Programmable Read-only Memory
A programmable read-only memory (PROM) is a form of digital memory where the contents can be changed once after manufacture of the device. The data is then permanent and cannot be changed. It is one type of read-only memory (ROM). PROMs are used in digital electronic devices to store permanent data, usually low level programs such as firmware or microcode. The key difference from a standard ROM is that the data is written into a ROM during manufacture, while with a PROM the data is programmed into them after manufacture. Thus, ROMs tend to be used only for large production runs with well-verified data. PROMs may be used where the volume required does not make a factory-programmed ROM economical, or during development of a system that may ultimately be converted to ROMs in a mass produced version. PROMs are manufactured blank and, depending on the technology, can be programmed at wafer, final test, or in system. Blank PROM chips are programmed by plugging them into a device call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microcode
In processor design, microcode (μcode) is a technique that interposes a layer of computer organization between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. Microcode is a layer of hardware-level instructions that implement higher-level machine code instructions or internal finite-state machine sequencing in many digital processing elements. Microcode is used in general-purpose central processing units, although in current desktop CPUs, it is only a fallback path for cases that the faster hardwired control unit cannot handle. Microcode typically resides in special high-speed memory and translates machine instructions, state machine data, or other input into sequences of detailed circuit-level operations. It separates the machine instructions from the underlying electronics so that instructions can be designed and altered more freely. It also facilitates the building of complex multi-step instructions, while red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Datasaab D16 Computer
Datasaab was the computer division of, and later a separate company spun off from, aircraft manufacturer Saab in Linköping, Sweden. Its history dates back to December 1954, when Saab got a license to build its own copy of BESK, an early Swedish computer design using vacuum tubes, from Matematikmaskinnämnden (the Swedish governmental board for mathematical machinery). This clone was completed in and was named SARA. Its computing power was needed for design calculations for the next generation jet fighter Saab 37 Viggen. Intending to develop a navigational computer to place in an airplane, a team led by Viggo Wentzel came up with an all transistorized prototype computer named D2, completed in 1960, which came to define the company's activities in the following two decades. This development followed two lines. The main purpose was the development of a navigational computer for Viggen. A spinoff was the production of a line of civilian mini and mainframe computers for the commerci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Am2900
Am2900 is a family of integrated circuits (ICs) created in 1975 by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). They were constructed with bipolar devices, in a bit-slice topology, and were designed to be used as modular components each representing a different aspect of a computer control unit (CCU). By using the bit slicing technique, the Am2900 family was able to implement a CCU with data, addresses, and instructions to be any multiple of 4 bits by multiplying the number of ICs. One major problem with this modular technique was that it required a larger number of ICs to implement what could be done on a single CPU IC. The Am2901 chip was the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), and the "core" of the series. It could count using 4 bits and implement binary operations as well as various bit-shifting operations. The 2901 and some other chips in the family were second sourced by an unusually large number of other manufacturers, starting with Motorola and then Raytheon both in 1975 and also Cypr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems, formerly with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The company produced power management integrated circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers, communication interface products and data conversion solutions. National's key markets included wireless handsets, displays and a variety of broad electronics markets, including medical, automotive, industrial and test and measurement applications. On September 23, 2011, the company formally became part of Texas Instruments as the "Silicon Valley" division. History Founding National Semiconductor was founded in Danbury, Connecticut, by Dr. Bernard J. Rothlein on May 27, 1959, when he and seven colleagues, Edward N. Clarke, Joseph J. Gruber, Milton Schneider, Robert L. Hopkins, Robert L. Koch, Richard R. Rau and Arthur V. Siefert, left their employment at the semiconductor division of Sperry Rand Corp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Gorman
Ken Gorman (July 12, 1946 – February 17, 2007) was a marijuana rights activist who was shot and killed in his home on February 17, 2007 in Colorado. He ran for Colorado state governor as a write-in candidate and supported pro-legalization candidates, particularly Libertarian candidate Ralph Shnelvar in the 1990s. Biography Gorman graduated from Denver's Lincoln High School in 1964. As his father had before him, Gorman joined the US Air Force, working as an air traffic controller. He worked in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines. He was stationed near Miyakojima in Japan at a long-range radar facility during the Vietnam War. His first wife introduced him to marijuana in Loveland, Colorado in 1969. Gorman was often quoted as saying "It has been a friend of mine ever since." He went on to a career with the FAA as an air traffic controller. On August 5, 1981, while stationed in Hawaii, he was fired by Ronald Reagan along with 11,358 other PATCO ( Professional Air T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arithmetic Logic Unit
In computing, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a Combinational logic, combinational digital circuit that performs arithmetic and bitwise operations on integer binary numbers. This is in contrast to a floating-point unit (FPU), which operates on floating point numbers. It is a fundamental building block of many types of computing circuits, including the central processing unit (CPU) of computers, FPUs, and graphics processing units (GPUs). The inputs to an ALU are the data to be operated on, called operands, and a code indicating the operation to be performed; the ALU's output is the result of the performed operation. In many designs, the ALU also has status inputs or outputs, or both, which convey information about a previous operation or the current operation, respectively, between the ALU and external status registers. Signals An ALU has a variety of input and output net (electronics), nets, which are the electrical conductors used to convey Digital signal (electronics), digi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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