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Chips have come a long way since Bell Laboratories developed the transistor in 1948 and opened the way for microprocessors of ever-increasing speed and capacity
Terms such as "microprocessor" and "microcomputer chips" are often used to mean the same thing. Ralston's Encyclopedia of Computer Science (published by Van Nostrand Reinhold) makes a distinction: a microcomputer chip (or just "chip") is "an integrated circuit component" that is typically a very large scale integrated circuit component (hence the acronym, VLSI) and may contain over a million transistors.
The microprocessor is one kind of microcomputer chip that incorporates in a single chip all the things necessary for a central processing unit (CPU). Its first use was in programmable calculators.
There are more than fifty different families of microprocessor with about a thousand varieties in each. The Z80, which drove many of the CP/M systems, is still likely to be the largest-selling microprocessor; switching devices, washing machines, and video recorders are just some of the applications.
The invention of the integrated circuit (IC) is attributed to Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce, each working independently Kilby was with Mxas Instruments and Noyce with Fairchild Semiconductor when they each created the IC in 1959.
The next development was the microprocessor, invented by Marcian Hoff (better known as Ted Hoff) some twenty-three years ago. However, the invention required implementation and that was achieved by an Italian, Federico Faggin, and a Japanese, Masatoshi Shima. Both were engineers with Intel at the time and later went to Zilog. It was largely their design work that brought us the personal computer.
Masatoshi Shima has since returned to Japan where he designs microprocessors for his company VM Technology Federico Faggin founded a company Synaptics, in 1986.
Synaptics has invented and developed a new kind of chip, which they call the neural chip. There has been much written about neural networks; just as the microprocessor integrated the work of a number of chips, so the neural chip is being developed to emulate certain functions of the brain.
It is at the core of an optical reader made specifically for cheque verification at retail outlets. Before the Synaptics reader hit the market such equipment was expensive, bulky and of indifferent reliability
Cheques are read by means of magnetic ink used to print standard fonts. In spite of the fact that uniformity of font, coding, and positioning is observed by banks, the magnetic readers can be affected by a number of factors. Not the least of those is the state of a cheque when it arrives at the reader; paper is a damage-prone medium and not all users are careful about where they write on or cross a cheque.
The neural chip works like the human brain to the extent that it can be intuitive rather than logic-based. Humans don't come already programmed with a set of rules for each and every occasion. They learn from experience and observation. The chip, in its present implementation, has 400 light sensors on each of fourteen "neurons". Just as object-oriented -,,programming techniques look at a collection of data as a single entity so the neural chips -is able to see a character as a complete object rather than a number of pixels.
In addition to the sensors, the chip carries on-board the capacity to recognise the image and convert it to digital data that can be transmitted by fax modem to a central databank. In the case of a cheque reader, that would be for verification. The Synaptics reader is claimed to be virtually 100% accurate.
It is to be expected that something like this will find many more applications. And if you are thinking, OCR, you are right. Ricoh is working on better optical readers using neural chip technology to overcome the problem posed by variations in the Latin alphabet, caused by diacritics (which we often call "accents") and tone marks.
Other uses, it is reported, envision detection systems for counterfeit notes and address readers for postal sorting. However, it seems the neural chips are likely to be limited to printed or typewritten images and text for the time being.
We will, no doubt, be hearing a lot more about neural chips. Federico Faggin has been quoted as saying the technology is likely "to become as big as the whole computer industry is today".
The CD-ROM Market
During 1992 some two million CD-ROM drives were shipped. With one exception, Philips, all the manufacturers were Japanese. It has been estimated by a US market research company Dataquest, that the 1993 figure will be in the order of five million with growth at the rate of 20 per cent annually for the next few years. That does not .include units supplied with arcade games machines and other equipment.
The developers of CD technology Sony and Philips, regarded computer applications as a side issue to the main market, audio. One reason given for the upsurge in non-OEM demand for CD-ROM drives is that economic conditions are encouraging computer users to upgrade rather than invest in new equipment.
Another important reason is that software packages are becoming increasingly obese, requiring large numbers of floppies for installation. There is a significant increase in the number of software houses that now offer programs on CD medium.
The fact that a single CD can hold so much data in more than one media format has led to the development of all kinds of reference material (not to mention games) from phone directories and dictionaries to multimedia encyclopaedias. Two-thirds of all units manufactured are sold in the US where prices have dropped and are expected to fall another 25 per cent by the end of the year. The single largest reseller is Creative 7fchnologx a Singapore company that manufactures the Sound Blaster card; they bundle CD-ROM drives with their high-selling multimedia kits.
While there are some cheap drives advertised locally buyers need to assess their requirements carefully Not all CD-ROM drives are equal and some research is likely to save a lot of post-purchase anguish.
Reprinted from the October 1993 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
