Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

Richtige Fernseher haben Röhren!

In Brief: On this site you will find pictures and information about some of the electronic, electrical and electrotechnical Obsolete technology relics that the Frank Sharp Private museum has accumulated over the years .
Premise: There are lots of vintage electrical and electronic items that have not survived well or even completely disappeared and forgotten.

Or are not being collected nowadays in proportion to their significance or prevalence in their heyday, this is bad and the main part of the death land. The heavy, ugly sarcophagus; models with few endearing qualities, devices that have some over-riding disadvantage to ownership such as heavy weight,toxicity or inflated value when dismantled, tend to be under-represented by all but the most comprehensive collections and museums. They get relegated to the bottom of the wants list, derided as 'more trouble than they are worth', or just forgotten entirely. As a result, I started to notice gaps in the current representation of the history of electronic and electrical technology to the interested member of the public.

Following this idea around a bit, convinced me that a collection of the peculiar alone could not hope to survive on its own merits, but a museum that gave equal display space to the popular and the unpopular, would bring things to the attention of the average person that he has previously passed by or been shielded from. It's a matter of culture. From this, the Obsolete Technology Tellye Web Museum concept developed and all my other things too. It's an open platform for all electrical Electronic TV technology to have its few, but NOT last, moments of fame in a working, hand-on environment. We'll never own Colossus or Faraday's first transformer, but I can show things that you can't see at the Science Museum, and let you play with things that the Smithsonian can't allow people to touch, because my remit is different.

There was a society once that was the polar opposite of our disposable, junk society. A whole nation was built on the idea of placing quality before quantity in all things. The goal was not “more and newer,” but “better and higher" .This attitude was reflected not only in the manufacturing of material goods, but also in the realms of art and architecture, as well as in the social fabric of everyday life. The goal was for each new cohort of children to stand on a higher level than the preceding cohort: they were to be healthier, stronger, more intelligent, and more vibrant in every way.

The society that prioritized human, social and material quality is a Winner. Truly, it is the high point of all Western civilization. Consequently, its defeat meant the defeat of civilization itself.

Today, the West is headed for the abyss. For the ultimate fate of our disposable society is for that society itself to be disposed of. And this will happen sooner, rather than later.

OLD, but ORIGINAL, Well made, Funny, Not remotely controlled............. and not Made in CHINA.

How to use the site:
- If you landed here via any Search Engine, you will get what you searched for and you can search more using the search this blog feature provided by Google. You can visit more posts scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year,
or you can click on the main photo-page to start from the main page. Doing so it starts from the most recent post to the older post simple clicking on the Older Post button on the bottom of each page after reading , post after post.

You can even visit all posts, time to time, when reaching the bottom end of each page and click on the Older Post button.

- If you arrived here at the main page via bookmark you can visit all the site scrolling the left blog archive of all posts of the month/year pointing were you want , or more simple You can even visit all blog posts, from newer to older, clicking at the end of each bottom page on the Older Post button.
So you can see all the blog/site content surfing all pages in it.

- The search this blog feature provided by Google is a real search engine. If you're pointing particular things it will search IT for you; or you can place a brand name in the search query at your choice and visit all results page by page. It's useful since the content of the site is very large.

Note that if you don't find what you searched for, try it after a period of time; the site is a never ending job !

Every CRT Television saved let revive knowledge, thoughts, moments of the past life which will never return again.........

Many contemporary "televisions" (more correctly named as displays) would not have this level of staying power, many would ware out or require major services within just five years or less and of course, there is that perennial bug bear of planned obsolescence where components are deliberately designed to fail and, or manufactured with limited edition specificities..... and without considering........picture......sound........quality........
..............The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of todays funny gadgets low price has faded from memory........ . . . . . .....
Don't forget the past, the end of the world is upon us! Pretty soon it will all turn to dust!

Have big FUN ! !
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©2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial purposes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, btw a link to the original post here , is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !
All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within Fair Use.


Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2011. Show all posts

Monday, October 10, 2011

100.000 VISITORS AT Obsolete Technology Tellye ! TODAY.

Born and developed initially in experimental way and by some time in official way, Obsolete Technology Tellye ! museum is today reaching it's:

100.000 visitor count.

Believe you that I was completely unaware and now highly surprised for this kind of succes of the site / blog in this brief time.

Some around the web have wrote and qualified this site as a quality resource for kind and type of content and therefore it's success an amazing truth.










HERE SOME (Incomplete) STATS from some Site control LOGS :

Approximate STATS Pageviews by Countries

Audience Evaluation:

-


Italy
21,111
United States
8,425
Germany
7,195
United Kingdom
4,649
Romania
2,614
France
2,384
Spain
2,311
India
2,187
Greece
1,966
Hungary
1,690




Almost 15000 Visitors per Month rising up day by day.




HERE MOST VISITED POSTS:


Jun 21, 2010
3,077 Pageviews










Dec 21, 2010
653 Pageviews










Jan 28, 2011
602 Pageviews










Jan 20, 2011
336 Pageviews










Mar 13, 2011
318 Pageviews










Nov 22, 2010
259 Pageviews










Apr 22, 2011
232 Pageviews










Nov 17, 2010
205 Pageviews










Jan 25, 2011
156 Pageviews










Oct 29, 2010
125 Pageviews





I'm Showing a little part of an almost immense collection of electronic stuff, for this many people / visitors gained here, for free , the opportunity to see one more time, in unique original way, on the web what real tellye technology was and further knowledge, who nobody around the web did any equal thing.












And all is presented in a randomized time line order like a crazy time machine running in a space time without control or any pre ordered system.







With an increasing day visitors/traffic, I've seen lot of interest by the public from all around the world without any limit or any bounds, with peaks of traffic very surprising, even on only 1 or 2 posts per day.




A special mention to the Followers / readers because joining the site they have had special kind of interest and personal passion and love to this type of project and for that those have the opportunity to have first read the new articles coming from Obsolete Technology Tellye ! directly awailable to them.Even all of you can join the site with the Join this site module present on page.









On top of all I'm preparing another 2 SITES dedicated to:



- VIDEORECORDERS WITH: VIDEO2000 , VCR , BETAMAX , VHS , SHVS , UMATIC MACHINES in the same "Franks Sharp BLOGGERISH Style"















- RADIO: Tubes radios, transitor radio, tape recorder, reel recorders, Audio amplifiers, record players, stereo boomboxes, even this in the same "Franks Sharp BLOGGERISH Style"

























....................... it's all a matter of time............................








Furthermore I've seen lots of discussions on forums and many others resources using Obsolete Technology Tellye ! as a technical reference or a photographic reference to give a knowledgeable source for various argumentation and discussion and debates of some and many types and models of tellyes and or circuitry, chassis or components.

It's important since on the web there isn't similar sources or if they're they are only fragments of a immense world almost vanished.






Remembering the past brings up who you / we are, if you don't know the past you can't know the future and further you can't evaluate / comprise the future.
This is the main vantage of the WEB and Obsolete Technology Tellye ! is part of it and his job is what you see here.







Some times i've seen photo from the site used for sales and auctions of tellyes around the web.
This is higly unfair and utterly crap and it's in high contrast with the specified rules of the use of it.







And more........ thank's to Obsolete Technology Tellye ! museum I've seen starting new trends around, like recovering tellyes in similar models here shown and starting restoring them.
I'm proud to be the new point of view in such world of throw away culture LCD chinese ass-crap oriented !








FURTHER SOME INTERESTING ASPECTS:


Believe me this projects costs to me a lot of money and VERY high time consuming work, divided in this type of things and jobs: (And I'm not millionaire............)

  1. - STORAGE FOR ALL TELLYES AND PARTS. (MOST EXPENSIVE PART)
  2. - SEARCH AND RESCUEING ACTIVITY ALL AROUND .
  3. - TRANSPORT OF THE STUFF FROM SOURCE OF PLACE OF STORAGE.
  4. - TRANSPORT OF THE STUFF TO AND FROM STORAGE.
  5. - TRANSPORT EXPENSES EVEN UNRELATED TO STUFF DIRECTLY.
  6. - DETAILED INVENTORY.
  7. - SOME ADJUSTMENTS BEFORE PRESENTATION EVALUATIONS.
  8. - EVALUATION OF SINGLE MODELS AND INPUT TO SITE TARGET AND PUBLISHING.
  9. - PHOTOGRAPHING IN ALL WAY: OUT AND IN AND PARTS ALL TELLYES IN FRONT OF "THE RUSTY LADDER" SCENE.
  10. - DOCUMENTATION OF THE TELLYE ITSELF ALONE.
  11. - DOCUMENTATION AND CIRCUITS DESCRIPTIONS AND INDUSTRY STANDARDS APPLICATIONS KNOWLDEGE DISCUSSIONS / R&D .
  12. - PHOTO MANAGEMENT AND DIGITAL POST PROCESSING VERSUS WEB COMPATIBILTY AND SERVER FRIENDLY.
  13. - POST DEVELOPMENT.
  14. - MANY COMPUTER SYSTEMS FOR VARIOUS TASKS AND WORK AROUND.
  15. - GRAPHIC ASSET FOR EVERY TELLYE AND PARTS OF IT.
  16. - UPLOADING AND POST EDITING.
  17. - END TARGET PUBLISHING .



To me i have to say that I made famous what basically for many time was an unknown thing
In a original way and style.


Many of The tellyes apparatus what many people have had in their house living rooms by ages and even NOW SADLY THROWN AWAY now they're here to show their best with my (little ????) help instead of waiting on a ground container, under rain and crap, to be shredded.







For now I say thank's for appreciating who understands this kind of effort .




THIS IS A NEVER ENDING JOB !!



©2010, 2011 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial scopes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, this is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of
Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !

Thursday, October 6, 2011

STEVE JOBS PASSED AWAY TODAY ! ! !!!

May be unrelated here but since this man was the main example of I'll do myself here is a dedica to him at Obsolete Technology Tellye ! even because I have some of his early products, and now seeing that it's passed away so young makes me think..............................(Engineer feelings)

(Note That I don't use and never used one of his products and never will do and do not to sponsor them.)







I’m hearing that Steve Jobs won’t be at tomorrow’s press event. He’s just not feeling well enough to come out in public, I hear (and yes, that makes me sad, the industry will really miss him and they will see again tomorrow why). I keep wishing that these continued rumors are wrong, but know in my head that they probably are right.

Steve Jobs, from his early days of tinkering with electronics to today's groundbreaking designs of the iPhone and iPad, never wavered from his vision. An iconoclast who changed the way we do everything, from how we listen to music and watch movies to how we teach our children, Jobs died today. He was 56.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives," Apple said in a statement. "The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

Jobs, an Apple co-founder and most recently chairman of the company, had been suffering from various health issues following the seventh anniversary of his surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in August 2004. Apple announced in January that he would be taking an indeterminate medical leave of absence, with Jobs then stepping down from his role as CEO in late August.

Jobs had undergone a liver transplant in April 2009 during an earlier planned six-month leave of absence. He returned to work for a year and a half before his health forced him to take more time off. He told his employees in August, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."
A man that was the main
example....................

Steve Jobs is undeniably an extraordinary man by any standard. He has left his mark on no less than five industries: personal computers with Apple II and Macintosh, music with iPod and iTunes, phone with iPhone, and animation with Pixar. The middle-class hippie kid with no college education that he was built a computer empire and became a multi-millionaire in a few years, was fired from his own company before coming back a decade later to save it and turn it into one of the world’s most influential corporations, with millions of fans around the world. He has also contributed to the creation of the new leader in animated movies for decades to come. He has been called a fluke for years, but is now widely acknowledged as one the world’s most eminent business executives and an unrivaled visionary. He has changed millions of lives by making technology easy-to-use, exciting and beautiful.…










Youth (1955-75)

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on February 24 1955. His biological parents, unwed college graduates Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah Jandali, had him adopted by a lower-middle-class couple from south of the Bay Area, Paul and Clara Jobs.
Young Steve grew up in a valley of apricot orchards that was already turning into the world center of computer technology: Silicon Valley. It was not uncommon to see engineers fill their garages with all kind of electronic devices in that part of California. Steve Jobs was fascinated by these, and that’s why, in 1969, he met with a computer whiz kid who shared his interests in electronics: Stephen Wozniak — commonly known as Woz. Steve and Woz quickly became friends even though Woz was five years older.
When Steve Jobs reached college age, he decided he would go to Reed College in Oregon. It was an expensive liberal arts college, way too pricey for his modest parents; but they had to keep their promise to Steve’s biological mother, and therefore paid for the tuition. Steve only stayed at Reed for one semester though, after which he dropped out. He then spent a lot of time learning about Eastern mysticism and adopted strange diets, fasting or eating only fruits: it was his hippie period. He even traveled to India with a friend to seek enlightenment at age 19.


Apple’s early years (1975-81)

After Steve came back to the Valley, he focused on Woz’s work on a computer board. Woz was attending a group of early personal computer hobbyists called the Homebrew Computer Club, where he got the idea of designing his own computer (which consisted only of a circuit board at the time). Steve Jobs saw that many people were interested in his friend’s brilliant work: he suggested they sell the board to them. Apple Computer was born.

Apple’s first year in business consisted of assembling the boards in Steve’s garage and driving to local computer stores to try and sell them. Meanwhile, Woz worked on a new, much improved computer, the Apple II, which he basically finished in 1977. Both Woz and Steve knew the Apple II was a breakthrough computer, much more advanced than anything the market had ever seen. That’s why Steve set out to find venture capitalists to fund Apple’s expansion. After a while, he made a deal with Mike Markkula, an enthusiastic former Intel executive who invested $250,000 in their business and assured them their company would enter the Fortune 500 list in less than two years.
Mike was right. The Apple II soon became the symbol of the personal computing revolution worldwide. It crushed all competition both because of its breakthrough hardware features (including its color graphics) and its very large supply of compatible software. The key to Apple II’s success was actually VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program ever brought to market. Thousands of people bought Apple IIs just to use it. As a result, the company grew at a very fast rate, and went public after just four years of existence, in December 1980. Steve Jobs’ net worth passed the $200 million mark on that day — he was only 25.
But Apple’s success was threatened, as industry giant IBM was planning to enter the personal computer market in 1981. Apple had to fight back or they would go out of business in a couple of years’ time. Their Apple III computer had already bombed on the marketplace. They focused all their energy on a project headed by Steve Jobs: Lisa. He had named it after his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, although he denied all paternity (that difficult situation actually caused him to miss Time Magazine’s Man of the Year 1982). The Lisa computer was a breakthrough because it used a graphical user interface instead of a command-line interface. This technology, like many others that would revolutionize computing, was invented at Xerox PARC — but Apple was the first company to bring it to market.

Macintosh (1981-85)

Yet Steve Jobs was soon thrown out of the Lisa project because he was considered too temperamental a manager. Deeply angry, he took revenge by taking over a small project called Macintosh, determined to make it a cheaper GUI computer that would cannibalize sales of Lisa. Macintosh was in development since 1979 and its concept was “a computer as easy to use as a toaster.” Steve Jobs recruited brilliant young engineers in his Mac team and invigorated them by insufflating a spirit of entrepreneurship and rebellion, calling them “pirates”, unlike the rest of the company, “the Navy.”
Even though the Mac project was controversial as it threatened both Apple II and Lisa, and because Steve Jobs antagonized it against the rest of the company, it soon became crucial to Apple’s future because Lisa proved yet another market failure. Steve was supported in his mission by John Sculley, Apple’s CEO, whom he hired in 1983 to help him run the company and groom him into a top executive. In January 1984, he introduced Macintosh in great fanfare.
Although Mac’s first months were encouraging, sales soon started to plummet. There was growing fear in the company that this third flop in a row would put Apple out of business. Besides, Steve Jobs’ continued arrogance drove everyone nuts, starting with CEO John Sculley. After a failed board coup initiated by Jobs in mid-1985, Sculley announced he and the directors had agreed on a new org chart for Apple, in which Steve had no managerial duties whatsoever. He was only to remain chairman of the board.
Steve was stunned. Apple was his life, and he was kicked out of it. He started traveling around looking for new ways to spend his energy. It was actually in that second half of 1985 that he was introduced to a small team of brilliant computer graphics experts that George Lucas was trying to sell. They all shared a common dream of making animated movies with computers. Steve was interested and he eventually bought the company for $10 million in 1986, incorporating it as Pixar.

The NeXT years (1985-95)

Yet his main passion was still to make great computers. In September 1985, he announced to the Apple board that he was going to found a new company, called NeXT, to build an advanced computer for higher education and scientific research. He was going to take with him some of the best engineers and salesmen from the Mac team. Apple disapproved and threatened to sue him. It was at that point that Steve left his company for good and sold almost all of his stock in disgust.
NeXT started work on its computer in early 1986, after Apple dropped its lawsuit. Steve aimed at the highest possible standards for his new machine: he wanted the best hardware, built in the world’s most automated factory, and running the most advanced software possible. He decided the computer’s operating system, NeXTSTEP, would be based on UNIX, the most robust and most complex system in the world — but that it would also be as easy to use as a Macintosh, thanks to its own graphical user interface. In addition, it would make software development real easy with its object-oriented programming technology. These ambitious plans put off the release date of the computer — called the NeXT Cube — to October 1988.
However great it was, the NeXT Cube didn’t sell. It was overpriced and missing useful software. NeXT struggled for years to sell it, expanding its target from just education to businesses, and introducing a cheaper box, the NeXT Station. Yet the number of computers they sold each month remained in the hundreds. The company was bleeding money and all its co-founders left one after the other, as well as its first outside investor, Texan billionaire Ross Perot. By 1993, NeXT had to give up its hardware business and focus only on promoting its advanced software technology. NeXT Software, far from beating Apple, had turned into a niche software development business. Steve was devastated.
In addition, his investment in Pixar also seemed to lead nowhere. The small company had tried to sell advanced graphic workstations to specialized markets since it had been founded, without success. Jobs shut down Pixar’s hardware operations in 1990, decided to focus on developing an advanced 3D language called RenderMan. He kept the animation division, headed by John Lasseter, only because its work on TV commercials were one of the company’s only source of revenues. Hope was brought by a contract with Disney to make a full feature film with computers in 1991. But by the end of 1993, the contract was canceled by Burbank. With both his ventures failing, Steve had reached the nadir of his career. He spent most of his days at home with his young son Reed and his wife Laurene, whom he had married in 1991.

Comeback (1995-97)

Fortunately, as John Lasseter came back to Disney with an improved script for the feature film, called Toy Story, the project got back on track. The movie was to be released for Thanksgiving 1995. As the date approached, Steve Jobs realized what an incredible power the Disney brand was. He decided Pixar would go public the week after the release of Toy Story, cashing in on the media hype surrounding the first computer-generated animation movie of all time. It worked wonders: Toy Story’s box-office success was only surpassed by the Pixar stock’s success on Wall Street. Steve Jobs, who owned 80% of the company, saw his net worth rise to over $1.5 billion — five times the money he had ever made at Apple in the 1980s!
Speaking of Apple, the fruit company was in the midst of his worst year ever. After the release of Windows 95, the Mac, which had turned profitable but had failed to evolve for a decade while Steve Jobs was away, started losing market share at an alarming rate. By 1996, the company’s newly appointed CEO, Gil Amelio, was looking for new software to replace the old and bloated Mac OS. He eventually chose Steve’s NeXTSTEP. Apple paid $400 million to acquire NeXT, and Steve was back to the company that had thrown him out a decade earlier. His official title was that of “informal adviser to the CEO.”
But when Amelio announced Apple’s losses of $700 million for the first quarter of 1997, the board decided it was time to get rid of this terrible manager. Steve Jobs organized a board coup and was named interim CEO of Apple in July 1997. He immediately started an extensive review of the whole company, cutting the number of projects from hundreds to a dozen. The number of hardware products would be cut down to just four. He also made a shocking announcement at Macworld Boston in August: Apple would be teaming up with its arch-rival Microsoft, in an unprecedented deal that would put an end to interminable patent disputes.

Apple back on track (1998-2001)

Steve Jobs quickly gave confidence back to the Apple community. The company launched a revolutionary marketing campaign around a new slogan: Think Different, spreading the idea that people who used Macs were dreamers who could change the world. As the Apple brand grew stronger, the company launched a couple of new successful products, the Power Mac G3 and the PowerBook. Six months after he had come back, Steve Jobs had led the company to profitability.
Yet Apple’s resurgence really came a little later, when Steve introduced a new, amazing consumer desktop computer: iMac. Introduced in May 1998, it was Apple’s first really innovative product basically since the original Macintosh in 1984. The iMac’s stunning translucent design blew away the whole personal computer industry, which had failed to produce anything but black or beige boxes for over a decade. Moreover, iMac was a hot seller, and it was essential in bringing back tons of developers to the Mac platform. Design innovations continued throughout 1998 and 1999 with the colored iMacs and iBook, Apple’s consumer notebook. After three years in charge, Steve Jobs had brought Apple back to greatness. That’s why he finally accepted to become full-time CEO of Apple in January 2000 — the first time one man became CEO of two public companies at the same time.
Still, the very reason Steve Jobs was brought back to Apple had not yet materialize — it was to bring NeXT’s software technology to the Mac platform. This eventually happened in early 2001, as Apple released the first version of its breakthrough operating system, Mac OS X. Mac OS X was really NeXTSTEP with a Mac facade. But it turned out an essential asset to Apple as the company developed breakthrough applications for its Macs as part of the digital hub strategy.
The digital hub strategy was unveiled by Steve Jobs at Macworld San Francisco in January 2001. It was a vision for the future of the personal computer. Although many analysts and self-appointed experts were proclaiming PCs would disappear within a couple of years to be replaced by Internet terminals, Apple believed they would evolve into digital centers or hubs for our new digital lifestyles. In other words, the PC would become the centerpiece of our new lives filled with digital cameras and camcorders, MP3 players, smart phones and other digital devices. The digital hub strategy led Apple to develop a suite of applications designed to manage our new lifestyle, the so-called iApps: iMovie (1999), iTunes (2001), iDVD (2001), iPhoto (2002), iCal and iSync (2002), GarageBand (2004) and finally iWeb (2006). The iApps were a strategic move in Apple’s greater plan to gain market share over the PC, as there was simply no equivalent solution on the Windows platform. Other moves included an aggressive ad campaign (Switchers) and the start of Apple’s retail operations in mid-2001.

The iPod revolution (2001-2006)

However the greatest momentum for Apple came from an unexpected source: the iPod. iPod was an integral part of the digital hub strategy. It was started in early 2001, when Steve Jobs realized that he had misplaced his enthusiasm for “desktop video”, i.e. the ability to edit movies on the computer — which was still far from mainstream. What was really hot at the turn of the century was not movies but digital music, as exemplified by the success of Napster. He focused on catching up and bought an outside hardware developer to work on Apple’s own MP3 player, which was brought to market in record time, just in time for 2001’s holiday season.
iPod’s breakthrough features — its beautiful design, its brilliant user interface and click wheel, its fast FireWire connectivity and its ability to sync with iTunes seamlessly — made it a hot seller from the start. For the first time, people were buying Macs just so they could use this little music player the size of a cigarette box. Apple cashed in on that success and went further in the following years, first by making iPod Windows-compatible in 2002, then by opening the iTunes Music Store and developing a Windows version of iTunes in 2003.
As of 2006, after Apple had continually pushed innovation in its music business by introducing iPod mini in 2004, iPod shuffle then iPod nano in 2005, and expanded its Music Store internationally, it had become the undisputed leader of the new digital music era. A significant landmark was passed in 2006 when Apple’s revenues from iPod equaled those made on computers. For the first time in its history, the firm from Cupertino had left its niche markets to become as influential a player in consumer electronics as Microsoft was in the PC space. iPod’s market share was close to 75%!

The Pixar-Disney merger (2003-2006)

Interestingly enough, iPod also played a critical role in setting Pixar’s future. After having released success after success (A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003)), the animation studio had decided to let go of its distribution deal with Disney, mainly because of increasing tensions between Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Steve Jobs openly said he would not make another deal with the Magic Kingdom until Eisner was out. Turns out his opinion was shared by many an executive at Disney — including Walt’s own nephew, Roy Disney, who started a public campaign to oust the company’s CEO. This led to the nomination of Bob Iger as new CEO in March 2005.
Steve Jobs and Bob Iger started working together because Apple decided to sell TV shows on its iTunes store. In October 2005, in front of an audience of stunned journalists, Steve Jobs shook hands (as Apple’s boss) with the new CEO of Disney — implying a renewed cooperation with Pixar in the near future. This eventually led to no less than the merger of both companies, announced in January 2006. Steve Jobs, who still owned half of Pixar’s stock, became Disney’s largest individual shareholder (owning 7% of the company’s stock). As for Pixar executives Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, they were given critical roles in the new studio.

Apple Inc. (2006-today)

2006 was a critical year for Apple in three respects.
The first was the success of the Mac. Mac sales were finally taking off, and after years of struggle to gain market share, its growth rate was exceeding that of the PC. Several factors accounted for this historic change: the success of iPod of course, and the positive side effect it had on the Apple brand. The move to Intel as well: after years of fighting the so-called Wintel monopoly, Steve had announced in 2005 that the company would start using Intel processors in their Macs form then on. The entire product line was transitioned over in less than a year. Intel Macs were faster and cheaper, but their main advantage was their ability to run Windows — which was a key argument in making Windows users switch, afraid as they were not to find their favorite software on the Mac. Finally, Apple was encountering unexpected success with its chain of retail stores, the fastest growing in the US.


The second crucial development from 2006 was the full acceptance by Apple of its new status of consumer electronics powerhouse, thanks to the success of iPod, the walkman of the digital age. It became obvious in February 2006, when the company released iPod hi-fi, a boom-box designed to work only with iPod (which was discontinued the following year), and Apple TV less than a year later. But the biggest move of course came in January 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced iPhone at Macworld. iPhone was arguably the ultimate Apple product. Its beautiful hardware ran no less than Apple’s full operating system, OS X. Its multi-touch technology, Web surfing and iPod capabilities, easy-to-use interface, and more, made it a smartphone “light-years ahead of its competition”, as Steve Jobs said. It shook the phone industry to its core, down to the exclusive deal that Apple cut with AT&T for subscription plans. Three years after it was introduced, it is already fair to say that iPhone will go down in history as the first digital convergence device, equivalent to putting a computer, an iPod and a phone in your pocket. It was such an obvious part of Apple’s move outside the PC business that Steve announced at the end of Macworld 2007 that the company’s name would be changed from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.
Finally, the third major event of 2006 for Steve was the so-called backdating scandal. Backdating consists of picking a date in the past, when a stock's value is lower, to assign the exercise price of options. It is an illegal practice that was commonplace in Silicon Valley until it was exposed by a Wall Street Journal article in 2006. Apple swiftly hired lawyers to lead an internal investigation of its own records. They did find irregularities, which were confirmed by the SEC in mid-2007. Two big frauds were unveiled that took place in 2000 and 2001, under Steve Jobs’ leadership. However he was cleared the following year as the SEC found out he had no idea of the legal or accounting implications of the matter. The SEC only charged Apple’s former CFO and legal counsel with fraud. The scandal was significant in the sense that it raised the issue of Apple’s future without Steve Jobs... But the main occasion this issue was raised was not the SEC investigation, it was unfortunately after Steve’s health problems.
In late 2003, Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Fortunately, his tumor was not of the deadly type: Steve would be saved if he agreed to have surgery. But he didn’t, and for nine long months, followed a special type of diet that he thought would cure him from the disease. It was only in August 2004 that he agreed to have the surgery. Everybody thought the troubles were over, as he claimed he was “cured”. Of course there is no such thing as being cured from cancer, and in 2008, people started commenting heavily on Steve’s being increasingly thinner. Although he and Apple kept on denying any serious problem, in December 2008, they announced to everyone’s surprise that the CEO would not go on stage for the last Macworld keynote in history in January 2009. Steve Jobs took six months off (the first half of 2009), as he was awaiting a liver transplant — which he got in April 2009. The whole story of Steve’s cancer raised many a discussion about a public company’s necessary transparency regarding its CEO’s health, especially when that CEO is as essential to its market value as Steve Jobs is to Apple’s.
2010 has seen the incredible rebirth of Steve Jobs as a very active CEO. In sharp contrast with 2009, he came back on stage for many Apple events that year, and surprised the world many times over with insanely great new Apple products. The biggest announcement of all was undeniably iPad, Apple’s iOS-based tablet, which Steve unveiled on January 27, 2010. At the industry conference D8 in June 2010, Steve Jobs clearly stated that in his opinion, iPad had started the post-PC era, and that PCs would eventually become “like trucks”, a marginal part of a market dominated by portable tablets... If this comes true, this one man Steve Jobs will have played a crucial part in both giving birth and putting an end to the personal computer industry.

R.I.P





Friday, September 23, 2011

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR.

Texas Instruments completes acquisition of National Semiconductor

National becomes part of TI's Analog business and expands company's ability to deliver more products, expertise and support for customers
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced the acquisition of National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM) is complete.
"National is now a strategic part of TI's Analog growth engine. Together, we're focused on accelerating semiconductor innovation to improve performance and power efficiency for our customers' electronic systems," said Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and chief executive officer.
More than 5,000 National employees will immediately become part of TI. The two companies will begin the work to integrate National as a unit of TI's Analog business, which will have a combined portfolio of nearly 45,000 analog products, strong customer design tools, and a sales force that is 10 times larger than National's previous footprint.
"The closing of this transaction allows TI to expand its market presence with more leading-edge analog products, greater manufacturing capacity, and the largest sales and applications team in the industry. Together, we will serve more customers in more markets," Templeton said.
The transaction, announced on April 4, 2011, cleared all required regulatory reviews and was approved by National's shareholders. TI will include National's contribution to financial performance in the company's third-quarter earnings announcement on October 24.
With today's close, TI's Analog semiconductor business now represents more than 50 percent of the company's revenue.
TI will continue to operate National's manufacturing sites, located in Maine, Scotland and Malaysia, as well as business headquarters in Santa Clara and sales/design support around the world.
For more information, see www.ti.com/deliveringmoretogether
History:
  • Founded in 1930 as a geophysical exploration company that used seismic signal processing technology to search for oil
  • Adopted the name Texas Instruments Incorporated in 1951
  • Introduced the first commercial silicon transistor in 1954.

Patents:
  • TI patents issued worldwide cumulatively: more than 38,000
  • 2010 TI patents issued worldwide: more than 1,200.

  • TI was the first semiconductor company to go global.
  • TI’s analog chips are used in electronics ranging from portable ultrasound equipment to set-top boxes, from eBooks to computer servers, and from robotics to LED streetlights.
  • A single 100-watt light bulb consumes as much power as 60 million MSP430™ microcontrollers.
  • TI connectivity chips power about 50 percent of all mobile phone Wi-Fi connections.
  • TI has shipped more than 1 billion wireless connectivity chipsets to date.
  • TI’s Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958.
  • TI invented the handheld calculator in 1967.
  • The use of graphing calculators leads to significantly better student attitudes toward math.
  • DLP® imaging technology is so flexible it can light up a 100-foot movie screen or project an image from a cell phone.
  • TI has won two Emmy® Awards for DLP technology.
  • TI was the first semiconductor company to earn certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for constructing environmentally responsible manufacturing facilities.
  • TI recycled 95 percent of its total waste worldwide in 2010.


National Semiconductor Birth of Industry and Silicon Valley

The analog industry was started by pioneering engineers such as National’s Bob Widlar. In 1967, National developed the first integrated voltage regulator, the LM100. National went on to develop the industry’s first modern operational amplifier (LM101), which is still in use today. National developed the first band-gap voltage reference (LM113) and the first low-dropout (LDO) regulator (LM2930). Over time, the analog industry has grown to $37.5 billion in worldwide revenue, driven by some of the industry’s most profitable companies. Many of these companies can trace their histories back to products, packaging technology and processes -- as well as people -- from National Semiconductor.
National Semiconductor founded May 27, 1959Eight former engineers from Sperry Rand Corporation founded National Semiconductor in Danbury, Connecticut, on May 27, 1959, to make the new silicon transistors.
1966 Peter Sprague named chairman
Young entrepreneur Peter Sprague notices the fledging transistor startup and provides the funding to help the company move forward. Sprague is named chairman and appoints CEO Charlie Sporck. National moves into production of silicon diffused-junction transistors and hybrid integrated circuits.

1967 CEO Charlie Sporck initiates headquarters move to Silicon Valley
Charlie Sporck moves company headquarters to Silicon Valley, from Danbury, Connecticut, to Santa Clara, California, as a pioneer of developing today's Silicon Valley.

1967 Launches industry’s first voltage regulator and operational amplifier ICs
National’s acquisition of Molectro Corporation paves its entry into the monolithic integrated circuit market and lays the foundation for two of the company’s most successful and enduring businesses – power management and operational amplifiers. Robert Widlar, who joined National from Molectro, designs the first integrated circuit, the LM100 voltage regulator. He also designs the industry’s first operational amplifier with today’s modern architecture, the LM101, which uses a modern input stage with high gain and the industry’s first fully integrated, monolithic voltage regulator, the LM109, which gained wide acceptance and led to National’s large industry portfolio of linear regulators.

1971 Develops industry’s first band-gap voltage reference
In 1971, Robert Widlar introduces the LM113, the industry’s first band-gap reference. Prior to the debut of the bandgap reference, designers had to put up with noisy, drifty, higher-voltage Zener diodes. The LM113 used conventional junction-isolated bipolar IC technology to make a stable low-voltage (1.220 V) reference. This type of reference becomes popular as a stable voltage reference for low-voltage circuits, such as in 5V data acquisition systems where zener diodes were not suitable.


The Cold War & the Space Race Era

Growth in the early days of the industry was driven by the Cold War and the Space Race. Robust integrated circuits allowed lightweight payloads to exit the atmosphere and survive in harsh environments. National’s highly reliable products were used in 32 NASA programs, including the Venus probe and the Mars Rover, which is still roving the surface and sending back photos today.
1961 Launches Mil-Aerospace businessNational ships 85% of its transistors to military accounts, laying the foundation for National’s continued successful military and aerospace business.
1962 Launches INCH volume ICs as one of the first volume production ICs on space probeNational launches the INCH™ integrated chopper in 1962, one of the first volume production ICs used on a space probe, including the Mariner Venus flight - the first flight to study another planet.
1970: Develops linear circuits for 32 NASA space and missile programsIn 1969 National’s linear circuits are used in 32 U.S. space and missile programs. National receives NASA’s line certification, one of the military’s most rigid IC production qualifications. In addition, the company established the industry’s first standard high-reliability IC product line – circuits processed to a rigorous military standard and placed in inventory for immediate shipment.

Mainframes and Telecom Era

1973 Introduces the industry’s first single-card 16-bit µPNational introduces the first single-card 16-bit microprocessor, the IMP-16C in 1973. It consisted of a 16-bit microprocessor, clock system, input/output bus drivers, 256 words of read/write memory. The next year it introduces the IMP-8, an 8-bit single-card microprocessor. With these low-cost, small-size and powerful microprocessor cards, National’s products move further into computer-oriented equipment such as data terminals, test systems, communication equipment, process controllers, and peripheral device controllers.
1973 Introduces Datachecker point-of-sale terminals (POS)National’s DataChecker point-of-sale terminal systems began popping up in retail and grocery stores, growing the business into worldwide leadership in the manufacture, sale, and service of point-of-sale systems. In a few short years, National’s DataChecker point-of-sale systems enhanced the operation of mainframe computers by gathering data to monitor electrical power usage, labor and inventory control, shrinkage control, and other useful efficiencies. Power management systems sharply reduced electrical consumption that plagued supermarket operations, and computer controls using an advanced range of sensors regulated traditional power-eaters such as lighting, heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration units.
1973 Creates advanced “Epoxy B” packaging formulation enabling industry volume production of chipsNational introduces an innovative molded package called “Epoxy B,” which upgraded the reliability of the low-cost molded dual in-line package (DIP). Epoxy B practically eliminates thermal intermittent open connections which had previously created costly reject rates during production testing. Epoxy B also has better moisture resistance than previous epoxies, making it useful for telco and national defense/aerospace applications.
1976 Builds IBM compatible mainframe computersNational leverages its microprocessor and memory expertise and products to build its own mainframe computers. Itel contracted with National and Hitachi in 1976 to build and sell IBM-compatible mainframe computers. National shipped its 100th IBM 370 compatible mainframe computer 14 months later. Due to its success, National forms the Advanced Systems Division in 1980, dedicated to selling its IBM-compatible mainframes, and ships more than 900 mainframes three years later to more than 2,000 customer sites. NAS shifted from manufacturing mainframes and began marketing IBM-compatible systems from Hitachi. NAS is sold to Hitachi Data Systems in 1989.
1977/78 First semiconductor company to deliver CODEC devicesUntil the late 1970s, digital switching and transmission in the telephone system had been expensive, high-speed discrete systems which handle as many as 20 lines. National is the first company to develop and deliver to several telephone companies worldwide a more efficient and lower-cost way of performing this conversion on a line-by-line basis: Bi-FET/CMOS monolithic CODEC (coder/decoder) devices, which convert voice signals to a standardized digital code and back. National also supports the telephone marketplace with a product line that includes signal filters, modems, and touchtone generators and receivers.
1980 Digitalker™ speech synthesizerDataChecker Digitalker™ technology introduced first speech synthesizer, consisting of random access memory (RAM) and a speech processor. Two years later, designers used DataChecker's POSitalker™ technology to build cash registers that call out prices in a clear human voice.

Early Consumer Electronics Era

Launches consumer devices
Leading IC makers begin to develop vertically into consumer products as they work to replace electromechanical devices. National is a leader in consumer electronics products, producing watches and video games that leveraged our competences in ICs and LEDs. Handheld calculators and digital watch lines under the Novus name are introduced in 1973. In 1974 National introduces 16 families of power transistors, including the Durawatt series of horizontal drivers, video, and chroma outputs for the U.S. color TV industry.

Enters LED marketIn 1972, the company entered the light-emitting diode (LED) and custom circuit business.
Helps with automotive safetyIn 1973, National contributed to automotive control and safety devices, including programs for fuel injection, seat belt interlocks, and anti-skid controls. By 1976, the company is working with every major automobile manufacturer on a variety of programs with transducer ICs, transistors and microprocessors.
Introduces all-IC calculatorNational introduces one of the first all-IC calculators.
One of the first major electronics companies to enter gaming and electronic toy marketsIn 1975 National became one of the first major electronics companies to enter the toy and game market with electronic video games with the introduction of the Whiz Kid and Quiz Kid educational toys. In 1977 the company introduced its Adversary TV add-on video game series.
Invents Bi-FET ProcessNational engineers invent the Bi-FET product technology, which combines junction field transistors with bipolar transistors on a single chip. This pairing achieves performance previously attained only by expensive hybrid circuits or combinations of various discrete components. This technology allows National to introduce an entirely new product line aimed at data acquisition, a market not previously served by integrated circuits.
Launches telecom Combo coding/decoding/filtering deviceCOMBO I, which combined coding/decoding and filtering functions in the same device, is used on nearly half of the world's non-captive analog line cards, or about 200 million telephones. At the same time, National’s NSVOICE provides customers with a complete solution for digital answering machines.
First integrated ADC1978/79 National introduces the first single-chip data acquisition system, the ADC0816. National was an early leader in using metal-gate CMOS (metal gate) for data acquisition.

The PC Era

The PC era drove the next significant growth phase for the industry. In addition to being the first company to develop a full 32-bit microprocessor, National led the industry in the development of mixed-signal interface and communication devices, such as the first 10 Megabit-per-second (Mb/s) Ethernet chips, which were to become the industry’s de facto standard. National also pioneered Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS), now a worldwide standard interface used in notebook PCs, LCD displays and a wide variety of multi-media applications.
1981 Launches industry’s first silicon-gate advanced CMOS uPIn 1981 the NSC800™, the industry's first silicon-gate advanced CMOS microprocessor, is introduced.
1984 Launches industry’s first 32-bit central processing unit (CPU)In 1984, National introduces the NS32032, the world’s first commercial full 32-bit microprocessor. National also introduces 256K dynamic RAM (DRAM).
1986 First junction-isolated Vertically Integrated PNP (VIP) process drives new thin-film transistor (TFT) flat-panel displaysThe Vertically Integrated PNP (VIP) process for high-performance linear circuits drives new thin-film transistor (TFT) flat-panel displays. Five years later, National’s Arlington, Texas, fabrication facility develops the VIP10 process, a high-speed, dielectrically-isolated, complementary bipolar process, to design the most power-efficient, performance-oriented high-speed amplifiers. This process, as well as the VIP50 silicon-on-insulator BiCMOS process, continues to provide dramatic improvements in power consumption and noise levels.
1987 Acquires Fairchild SemiconductorIn 1987, National acquired Fairchild Semiconductor for $122 million from Schlumberger Ltd. the following year to strengthen its technology portfolio and production capability with additional wafer fabrication and assembly facilities as well as new processes. National sold majority ownership of Fairchild to a private equity group in 1997.
1998 Joins with Acer to integrate critical PC functions into Super I/O chipMouse over: In 1998, National formed a strategic alliance with Acer to create the Super I/O controller chip, which pulled one half dozen critical functions common to all computers into a single chip. The Super I/O later becomes a PC industry standard with National as the leading supplier of integrated Super I/O products, having shipped more than 137 million units in 10 years.

Connected PC and the Internet Era

1990 Establishes industry’s first Power Management GroupNational redefines the meaning of power management, addressing the complexity and increasing importance of modern power supply design. Recognizing the growing complexity in power supply design beyond simple voltage regulation toward complete power management of varying power domains, National organized the industry’s first Power Management Group.
1990 Introduces design software-enabled SIMPLE SWITCHER regulatorsThe first family of its kind, National introduces design software-enabled SIMPLE SWITCHER® regulators to enable circuit designers with little experience in switch-mode power design to build their power supplies – and in less time. The devices included an easy, step-by-step guide for selection of critical external components. These products continue to be popular with design engineers nearly 20 years later. The portfolio of more than 500 products includes a variety of feature-set, packaging, voltage, and current options.
1990 Launches industry’s First 10 Mbps TransceiverNational’s chipset becomes the defacto standard for 10 Mb/s (IEEE 802.3) Ethernet. Novell introduces the NE2000 NIC based on a National reference design comprising DP8390 (NIC), DP8391 (SNI), DP8392 (CTI). The success of this card, and subsequent clones, is widely recognized as establishing Ethernet as the most widely used local area networking (LAN) standard still in use today.
1992 Invents Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS)Now a worldwide standard, National develops Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS), a high-speed (>155.5 Mbps), low-power, general-purpose interface standard that solves the physical layer bottleneck problems in transferring data quickly. Growth in high-end processors, multimedia, virtual reality and networking demanded more bandwidth than ever before. But point-to-point physical layer interfaces were not dealing with moving information at the data rates required and were too expensive. National helped standardize LVDS in 1994 and developed many industry firsts including FPD Link, Channel-Link, military-grade LVDS, and even the first stand-alone line driver/receiver standard products.
1994 Boomer® Audio amplifiers debut in PCsNational’s Boomer® audio amplifiers debuted in PC and Macintosh computers. This family of audio power amplifiers provided high-quality output power with a minimal number of external components. Four years later, National added a high-performance audio amplifier for multimedia laptop computers to its family of high-efficiency, quality-sound Boomer audio amplifiers. (generic laptop
1995 Launches industry’s first Fast Ethernet (10/100 Mbps) transceiverIn 1994 National’s N-Way protocol is adopted by the IEEE 802.3 working group as the standard for auto negotiation of speed and duplex. This standard subsequently fuels the migration to 100 Mb/s Ethernet. National launches the industry’s first Fast Ethernet (10/100 Mb/s) transceiver one year later. The DP8340 (PHY) + DP83223 (Twister) combination, incorporating N-Way, is first demonstrated at Networld Interop in March 1995. Two years later National launches the PHYTER transceiver, the industry’s first integrated 10/100 Mbps transceiver. This lowest-power single-chip CMOS physical layer and transceiver solution allows for easy implementation of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet local area networks (LANs).
1998 Integrates PC system on a single chipNational buys Cyrix for its integrated (audio and video) processor technology to help build information appliances using a "PC on a chip." Seven other companies are acquired to help build systems. This effort in 1998 replaces the dozen or more separate chips typically found in a PC, dramatically lowering the cost for PC manufacturers and their customers, as well as improving performance.
1998 Information appliances using the Geode processorNational’s system-on-a-chip for information appliances create a new class of consumer products with push-button simplicity, delivering the information…anywhere, anytime. Information appliances are the industry's first conceptual designs for low-cost, portable, wireless consumer device for Internet access. It allowed users to effortlessly surf the Web or read and send email from anywhere around the home or office, and is widely considered the predecessor to many of today’s multimedia devices.
2000 Releases WEBENCH® online design environment for power suppliesNational released the free WEBENCH online design environment for power supplies and wireless phase-locked loops to give time back to busy engineers by accelerating design cycles through automated design creation. Readers of Electronic Design magazine named the WEBENCH online design tool its 2001 Innovation of the Year competition in the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool category.

Late 90s to 2000s: Wireless Phones and Portable Devices Era

The next growth phase for the semiconductor industry was the rapid adoption of cellular phones and other mobile devices. National led the industry with the development of ultra-small packages (SOT23-5, micro SMD and LLP®) used in mobile power, audio, amplifier and interface products. The first true-color mobile displays were enabled by National’s breakthrough white LED drivers. As users demanded rich audio, National developed Boomer® audio amplifiersMobile Pixel Link (MPL) providing high-quality sound at low power. National enabled breakthrough products with full-sized, touchscreen displays through its development of the interface and display driver technology. National’s power technology extended the battery life of mobile devices, and National continues to be the market leader in innovative mobile power solutions.
1981 Invents micropower low dropout regulator for mobile phones and notebooksMouse over: In 1981 National invents the industry’s first low dropout regulator (LDO), the LM2930, for the automotive market. Four years later, the company releases the industry’s first micropower LDO to address the growing notebook computer and nascent mobile phone markets. This expertise forms the basis for National’s leadership in power management in the handset market, leading to the industry’s first SOT LDO, the LP2980, in 1995.
1985 Launches industry’s first high-performance CMOS op ampNational launches the first high-performance CMOS operational amplifier, the LMC660, which had a rail-to-rail output stage and other unique specifications. CMOS was viewed as great for digital but not for analog, and this litmus test showed the industry that designers could do full mixed-signal chips in CMOS. This discovery creates a new product genre and becomes the basis for National’s current operational amplifier group.
1993 Develops industry’s first DECT ICsNational introduces the industry's first chipset meeting the Digital European Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) standard for cordless phone.
1998 Launches world’s smallest operational amplifier to extend battery lifeNational introduces the LMV321, the industry’s smallest ever operational amplifier and the first integrated circuit to be packaged in the miniature SC70-5 package, now taking only half the space in a portable device of previous products. The package is about the size of a flake of coarse-ground pepper.
2001 Industry’s 1st White LED DriverNational launches the world’s first drivers for white light-emitting diode (LED) display lighting, the LM2791 and LM2792, which bring true-color mobile displays to consumers by dynamically controlling the brightness for new effects. Up to that point, designers used discrete drivers or built from general-purpose components. The white LED driver has become a standard in mobile products, and National has continued to grow its portfolio to also include white LED flash drivers and RGB drivers.
2002 Focuses its business on high-performance analogStarting in 2002, National focuses on its high-performance analog business by divesting its digital technologies such as Super I/O and imaging. The company reorganized around standard analog, resulting in gross margin improvements and a tripling of its stock price over the next five years.
2005 Introduces first audio subsystem with digital and analog input pathsNational introduces the LM4934 Boomer® stereo audio subsystem, the industry’s first subsystem to incorporate both digital and analog input paths for multimedia, smart and voice-over-Internet procotol (VoIP) phones.

Energy Era

Today, non-mobile electronic systems faced similar issues with heat dissipation, space constraints and the rising cost of energy. For example, data centers housing thousands of servers grapple with the cost of powering and cooling these energy-hungry systems. While previous generations of systems focused on performance at all costs, the industry is now focused on balancing performance with power consumption. In 2003, National led the way with the development of PowerWise® Adaptive Voltage Scaling (AVS), a technology for intelligently reducing the power consumption of digital systems by up to two-thirds. National continues to lead the industry with the development of its PowerWise® products and subsystems. Turning to the creation of renewable energy and leveraging its strength in analog power management, National has developed SolarMagic™ power optimizers. This new category of product dramatically improves the energy output of solar arrays by intelligently distributing power electronics within solar installations.
Energy Consumption
2005 PowerWise Adaptive Voltage Scaling reduces device power consumption up to 70 percentNational introduces Adaptive Voltage Scaling (AVS) technology. This patented sub-system for reducing the power consumption of digital processors (ASICs and FPGAs) by up to 70% utilizes a closed-loop communication and power control system whereby each individual processor die is allowed to run at its specific lowest possible power while maintaining a fixed level of performance. National's licenses this IP to digital partners and sells complementary power ICs called Energy Management Units (EMUs) to end customers.
2007 PowerWise family of energy-efficient products and subsystems introducedWith a long-term focus on energy creation, storage, and consumption, National developed its PowerWise family of energy-efficiency products and subsystems. These products with outstanding performance-to-power ratios help design engineers identify optimal solutions for energy-efficient systems.
Energy Creation
2008 Launches SolarMagic technology to maximize solar panel energy production
Mouse over: National announces SolarMagic™ technology to maximize solar panel energy production. SolarMagic technology recoups up to 50 percent of energy lost due t.como real-world condition such as shade and debris. National acquires Act Solar, expanding its portfolio of power optimization technologies along with the acquisition of new diagnostics and panel monitoring capabilities for solar arrays.