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Software-defined radio

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Software-defined radio ( SDR ) is a radio communication system where components that conventionally have been implemented in analog hardware (e.g. mixers , filters , amplifiers , modulators / demodulators , detectors , etc.) are instead implemented by means of software on a computer or embedded system . While the concept of SDR is not new, the rapidly evolving capabilities of digital electronics render practical many processes which were once only theoretically possible.

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145-474: A basic SDR system may consist of a computer equipped with a sound card , or other analog-to-digital converter , preceded by some form of RF front end . Significant amounts of signal processing are handed over to the general-purpose processor, rather than being done in special-purpose hardware ( electronic circuits ). Such a design produces a radio which can receive and transmit widely different radio protocols (sometimes referred to as waveforms) based solely on

290-404: A PC , is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as word processing , internet browsing , email , multimedia playback, and gaming . Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user , rather than by a computer expert or technician . Unlike large, costly minicomputers and mainframes , time-sharing by many people at the same time

435-714: A Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives , was the Texas Instruments president. Geophysical Service, Inc. became a subsidiary of Texas Instruments. Early in 1988, most of GSI was sold to the Halliburton Company. Texas Instruments exists to create, make, and market useful products and services to satisfy the needs of its customers throughout the world. In 1930, J. Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott founded Geophysical Service, an early provider of seismic exploration services to

580-442: A TV set or an appropriately sized computer display , and is often used as a digital photo viewer, music and video player, TV receiver, and digital video recorder. HTPCs are also referred to as media center systems or media servers . The goal is to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box. HTPCs can also connect to services providing on-demand movies and TV shows. HTPCs can be purchased pre-configured with

725-424: A direct conversion receiver . Unlike direct conversion receivers of the more distant past, the mixer technologies used are based on the quadrature sampling detector and the quadrature sampling exciter. The receiver performance of this line of SDRs is directly related to the dynamic range of the analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) utilized. Radio frequency signals are down converted to the audio frequency band, which

870-401: A kit form and in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians. Minimal programming was done with toggle switches to enter instructions, and output was provided by front panel lamps. Practical use required adding peripherals such as keyboards, computer displays , disk drives , and printers . Micral N was the earliest commercial, non-kit microcomputer based on

1015-511: A multitasking operating system . Eventually, due to the influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market , personal computers and home computers lost any technical distinction. Business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound, and home computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers. Mass-market computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of

1160-553: A portable computer prototype called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the IBM PALM processor with a Philips compact cassette drive, small CRT , and full function keyboard. SCAMP emulated an IBM 1130 minicomputer in order to run APL/1130. In 1973, APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most desktop sized microcomputers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9800 offered only BASIC . Because SCAMP

1305-469: A touchscreen display, which can be controlled using either a stylus pen or finger. Some tablets may use a hybrid or convertible design, offering a keyboard that can either be removed as an attachment, or a screen that can be rotated and folded directly over top the keyboard. Some tablets may use desktop-PC operating system such as Windows or Linux, or may run an operating system designed primarily for tablets. Many tablet computers have USB ports, to which

1450-427: A "USAF competitive advantage". So instead, with USAF permission, in 1991, Mitola described the architecture principles without implementation details in a paper, "Software Radio: Survey, Critical Analysis and Future Directions" which became the first IEEE publication to employ the term in 1992. When Mitola presented the paper at the conference, Bob Prill of GEC Marconi began his presentation following Mitola with: "Joe

1595-835: A 4096-color palette, stereo sound, Motorola 68000 CPU, 256 KB RAM, and 880 KB 3.5-inch disk drive, for US$ 1,295. IBM's first PC was introduced on 12 August 1981 setting what became a mass market standard for PC architecture. In 1982 The Computer was named Machine of the Year by Time magazine. Somewhat larger and more expensive systems were aimed at office and small business use. These often featured 80-column text displays but might not have had graphics or sound capabilities. These microprocessor-based systems were still less costly than time-shared mainframes or minicomputers. Workstations were characterized by high-performance processors and graphics displays, with large-capacity local disk storage, networking capability, and running under

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1740-410: A computer that could fit on a desk was remarkably small, leading to the desktop nomenclature. More recently, the phrase usually indicates a particular style of computer case . Desktop computers come in a variety of styles ranging from large vertical tower cases to small models which can be tucked behind or rest directly beneath (and support) LCD monitors . While the term desktop often refers to

1885-557: A computer with a vertically aligned computer tower case , these varieties often rest on the ground or underneath desks. Despite this seeming contradiction, the term desktop does typically refer to these vertical tower cases as well as the horizontally aligned models which are designed to literally rest on top of desks and are therefore more appropriate to the desktop term, although both types qualify for this desktop label in most practical situations aside from certain physical arrangement differences. Both styles of these computer cases hold

2030-510: A desk, including a keyboard, a small one-line display, and printer. The Wang 2200 microcomputer of 1973 had a full-size cathode ray tube (CRT) and cassette tape storage. These were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses. 1974 saw the introduction of what is considered by many to be the first true personal computer, the Altair 8800 created by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) . Based on

2175-415: A few years before. Even local area networking, originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals, became a standard feature of personal computers used at home. An increasingly important set of uses for personal computers relied on the ability of the computer to communicate with other computer systems, allowing interchange of information. Experimental public access to

2320-432: A graphics card installed. For this reason, desktop computers are usually preferred over laptops for gaming purposes. Unlike desktop computers, only minor internal upgrades (such as memory and hard disk drive) are feasible owing to the limited space and power available. Laptops have the same input and output ports as desktops, for connecting to external displays, mice, cameras, storage devices and keyboards. Laptops are also

2465-512: A hardware specification called Handheld PC was later released by Microsoft that run the Windows CE operating system. Texas Instruments 32°54′40″N 96°45′08″W  /  32.9110°N 96.7523°W  / 32.9110; -96.7523 Texas Instruments Incorporated ( TI ) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas . It is one of

2610-487: A hinged second panel containing a flat display screen. Closing the laptop protects the screen and keyboard during transportation. Laptops generally have a rechargeable battery , enhancing their portability. To save power, weight and space, laptop graphics chips are in many cases integrated into the CPU or chipset and use system RAM, resulting in reduced graphics performance when compared to desktop machines, that more typically have

2755-408: A keyboard or mouse can be connected. Smartphones are often similar to tablet computers , the difference being that smartphones always have cellular integration. They are generally smaller than tablets, and may not have a slate form factor. The ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) is a small tablet computer . It was developed by Microsoft , Intel and Samsung , among others. Current UMPCs typically feature

2900-540: A larger screen or use with video projectors. IBM PC-compatible suitcase format computers became available soon after the introduction of the PC, with the Compaq Portable being a leading example of the type. Later models included a hard drive to give roughly equivalent performance to contemporary desktop computers. The development of thin plasma display and LCD screens permitted a somewhat smaller form factor, called

3045-442: A leader in the graphing calculator industry. Its defense business was sold to Raytheon Company in 1997; this allowed TI to strengthen its focus on digital solutions. After the acquisition of National Semiconductor in 2011, the company had a combined portfolio of 45,000 analog products and customer design tools. In the stock market, Texas Instruments is often regarded as an indicator for the semiconductor and electronics industry as

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3190-465: A little more expensive compared to desktops, as the miniaturized components for laptops themselves are expensive. Notebook computers such as the TRS-80 Model 100 and Epson HX-20 had roughly the plan dimensions of a sheet of typing paper ( ANSI A or ISO A4 ). These machines had a keyboard with slightly reduced dimensions compared to a desktop system, and a fixed LCD display screen coplanar with

3335-494: A lot of digital signal processors ( Texas Instruments C40s). The transmitter had digital-to-analog converters on the PCI bus feeding an up converter (mixer) that led to a power amplifier and antenna. The very wide frequency range was divided into a few sub-bands with different analog radio technologies feeding the same analog to digital converters. This has since become a standard design scheme for wideband software radios. The goal

3480-739: A microprocessor, the Intel 8008 . It was built starting in 1972, and a few hundred units were sold. This had been preceded by the Datapoint 2200 in 1970, for which the Intel 8008 had been commissioned, though not accepted for use. The CPU design implemented in the Datapoint 2200 became the basis for x86 architecture used in the original IBM PC and its descendants. In 1973, the IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed

3625-481: A new naming scheme: devices without an integrated phone are called Windows Mobile Classic instead of Pocket PC, while devices with an integrated phone and a touch screen are called Windows Mobile Professional. Palmtop PCs were miniature pocket-sized computers running DOS that first came about in the late 1980s, typically in a clamshell form factor with a keyboard. Non-x86 based devices were often called palmtop computers, examples being Psion Series 3 . In later years

3770-413: A new signal format in two weeks from a standing start, and demonstrate a radio into which multiple contractors could plug parts and software. The project was demonstrated at TF-XXI Advanced Warfighting Exercise , and demonstrated all of these goals in a non-production radio. There was some discontent with failure of these early software radios to adequately filter out of band emissions, to employ more than

3915-529: A paper: "Some Recent Developments in Silicon and Germanium Materials and Devices". In 1954, Texas Instruments designed and manufactured the first transistor radio . The Regency TR-1 used germanium transistors, as silicon transistors were much more expensive at the time. This was an effort by Haggerty to increase market demand for transistors. Jack Kilby , an employee at TI, invented the integrated circuit in 1958. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning

4060-406: A preview of features that would later become staples of personal computers: e-mail , hypertext , word processing , video conferencing , and the mouse . The demonstration required technical support staff and a mainframe time-sharing computer that were far too costly for individual business use at the time. Early personal computers‍—‌generally called microcomputers‍—‌were often sold in

4205-461: A prototype of the world's first transistor radio , and, through a partnership with Industrial Development Engineering Associates of Indianapolis, Indiana, the 100% solid-state radio was sold to the public beginning in October of that year. In the 1960s, company president Pat Haggerty had a team that included Jack Kilby to work on a handheld calculator project. Kilby and two other colleagues created

4350-438: A reorganization of Geophysical Service Incorporated , a company founded in 1930 that manufactured equipment for use in the seismic industry, as well as defense electronics. TI produced the world's first commercial silicon transistor in 1954, and the same year designed and manufactured the first transistor radio . Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958 while working at TI's Central Research Labs. TI also invented

4495-645: A request for information from Bell South Wireless at the first meeting of the Modular Multifunction Information Transfer Systems (MMITS) forum in 1996 (in 1998 the name was changed to the Software Defined Radio Forum), organized by the USAF and DARPA around the commercialization of their SpeakEasy II program. Mitola objected to Blust's term, but finally accepted it as a pragmatic pathway towards

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4640-615: A shared mainframe computer system was demonstrated as early as 1973 in the Community Memory project, but bulletin board systems and online service providers became more commonly available after 1978. Commercial Internet service providers emerged in the late 1980s, giving public access to the rapidly growing network. In 1991, the World Wide Web was made available for public use. The combination of powerful personal computers with high-resolution graphics and sound, with

4785-655: A television already in the home as the computer display, with low-detail blocky graphics and a limited color range, and text about 40 characters wide by 25 characters tall. Sinclair Research , a UK company, produced the ZX Series‍—;‌the ZX80 (1980), ZX81 (1981), and the ZX Spectrum ; the latter was introduced in 1982, and totaled 8 million unit sold. Following came the Commodore 64 , totaled 17 million units sold,

4930-406: A time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems . Workstations are used for tasks such as computer-aided design , drafting and modeling, computation-intensive scientific and engineering calculations, image processing, architectural modeling, and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects. Before the widespread use of PCs,

5075-402: A whole, since the company sells to more than 100,000 customers. Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green , J. Erik Jonsson , Eugene McDermott , and Patrick E. Haggerty in 1951. McDermott was one of the original founders of Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) in 1930. McDermott, Green, and Jonsson were GSI employees who purchased the company in 1941. In November 1945, Patrick Haggerty

5220-601: A wide range of users, not just experienced electronics hobbyists who had the soldering skills to assemble a computer kit. The Apple I as delivered was still technically a kit computer, as it did not have a power supply, case, or keyboard when it was delivered to the Byte Shop. The first successfully mass-marketed personal computer to be announced was the Commodore PET after being revealed in January 1977. However, it

5365-542: Is a desktop computer that generally comprises a high-performance video card , processor and RAM, to improve the speed and responsiveness of demanding video games . An all-in-one computer (also known as single-unit PCs) is a desktop computer that combines the monitor and processor within a single unit. A separate keyboard and mouse are standard input devices, with some monitors including touchscreen capability. The processor and other working components are typically reduced in size relative to standard desktops, located behind

5510-495: Is a portable computer that provides the full capabilities of a desktop computer . Such computers are currently large laptops. This class of computers usually includes more powerful components and a larger display than generally found in smaller portable computers, and may have limited battery capacity or no battery. Netbooks , also called mini notebooks or subnotebooks , were a subgroup of laptops suited for general computing tasks and accessing web-based applications . Initially,

5655-485: Is absolutely right about the theory of a software radio and we are building one." Prill gave a GEC Marconi paper on PAVE PILLAR, a SpeakEasy precursor. SpeakEasy, the military software radio was formulated by Wayne Bonser, then of Rome Air Development Center (RADC), now Rome Labs; by Alan Margulies of MITRE Rome, NY; and then Lt Beth Kaspar, the original DARPA SpeakEasy project manager and by others at Rome including Don Upmal. Although Mitola's IEEE publications resulted in

5800-524: Is being maintained at Osmocom . The HPSDR (High Performance Software Defined Radio) project uses a 16-bit 135 MSPS analog-to-digital converter that provides performance over the range 0 to 55 MHz comparable to that of a conventional analogue HF radio. The receiver will also operate in the VHF and UHF range using either mixer image or alias responses. Interface to a PC is provided by a USB 2.0 interface, although Ethernet could be used as well. The project

5945-448: Is inherently hampered by the fact that civilian users can more easily settle with a fixed architecture, optimized for a specific function, and as such more economical in mass market applications. Still, software defined radio's inherent flexibility can yield substantial benefits in the longer run, once the fixed costs of implementing it have gone down enough to overtake the cost of iterated redesign of purpose built systems. This then explains

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6090-750: Is made up of four divisions: analog products , embedded processors , digital light processing , and educational technology . As of January 2021, the industrial market accounts for 41 percent of TI's annual revenue, and the automotive market accounts for 21 percent. TI's remaining businesses consisting of DLP products (primarily used in projectors to create high-definition images), calculators and certain custom semiconductors known as application-specific integrated circuits. Texas Instruments sells DLP technology for TVs, video projectors, and digital cinema . On February 2, 2000, Philippe Binant, technical manager of Digital Cinema Project at Gaumont in France, realized

6235-431: Is modular and comprises a backplane onto which other boards plug in. This allows experimentation with new techniques and devices without the need to replace the entire set of boards. An exciter provides 1/2 W of RF over the same range or into the VHF and UHF range using image or alias outputs. WebSDR is a project initiated by Pieter-Tjerk de Boer providing access via browser to multiple SDR receivers worldwide covering

6380-466: Is most often proprietary, or free and open-source software , which is provided in ready-to-run , or binary form. Software for personal computers is typically developed and distributed independently from the hardware or operating system manufacturers. Many personal computer users no longer need to write their programs to make any use of a personal computer, although end-user programming is still feasible. This contrasts with mobile systems, where software

6525-527: Is not used with personal computers. The term home computer has also been used, primarily in the late 1970s and 1980s. The advent of personal computers and the concurrent Digital Revolution have significantly affected the lives of people. Institutional or corporate computer owners in the 1960s had to write their own programs to do any useful work with computers. While personal computer users may develop their applications, usually these systems run commercial software , free-of-charge software (" freeware "), which

6670-738: Is now being used in areas such as wildlife tracking, radio astronomy, medical imaging research, and art. ELF 3 Hz/100 Mm 30 Hz/10 Mm SLF 30 Hz/10 Mm 300 Hz/1 Mm ULF 300 Hz/1 Mm 3 kHz/100 km VLF 3 kHz/100 km 30 kHz/10 km LF 30 kHz/10 km 300 kHz/1 km MF 300 kHz/1 km 3 MHz/100 m HF 3 MHz/100 m 30 MHz/10 m VHF 30 MHz/10 m 300 MHz/1 m UHF 300 MHz/1 m 3 GHz/100 mm SHF 3 GHz/100 mm 30 GHz/10 mm EHF 30 GHz/10 mm 300 GHz/1 mm Personal computer A personal computer , often referred to as

6815-400: Is often available only through a manufacturer-supported channel, and end-user program development may be discouraged by lack of support by the manufacturer. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems (first with MS-DOS and then with Windows ) and Intel hardware – collectively called Wintel – have dominated the personal computer market, and today the term PC normally refers to

6960-483: Is providing a flexible new approach to meet diverse soldier communications needs through software programmable radio technology. All functionality and expandability is built upon the SCA. The SCA, despite its military origin, is under evaluation by commercial radio vendors for applicability in their domains. The adoption of general-purpose SDR frameworks outside of military, intelligence, experimental and amateur uses, however,

7105-460: Is sampled by a high performance audio frequency ADC. First generation SDRs used a 44 kHz PC sound card to provide ADC functionality. The newer software defined radios use embedded high performance ADCs that provide higher dynamic range and are more resistant to noise and RF interference. A fast PC performs the digital signal processing (DSP) operations using software specific for the radio hardware. Several software radio implementations use

7250-505: Is typical), these compete with the desired signals within the amplifier's dynamic range . They may introduce distortion in the desired signals, or may block them completely. The standard solution is to put band-pass filters between the antenna and the amplifier, but these reduce the radio's flexibility. Real software radios often have two or three analog channel filters with different bandwidths that are switched in and out. The flexibility of SDR allows for dynamic spectrum usage, alleviating

7395-536: The Apple I computer circuit board, which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips. The Apple I computer differed from the other kit-style hobby computers of era. At the request of Paul Terrell , owner of the Byte Shop , Jobs and Wozniak were given their first purchase order, for 50 Apple I computers, only if the computers were assembled and tested and not a kit computer. Terrell wanted to have computers to sell to

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7540-590: The Bendix G15 and LGP-30 of 1956, and the Soviet MIR series of computers developed from 1965 to 1969. By the early 1970s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person. The personal computer was made possible by major advances in semiconductor technology. In 1959,

7685-692: The DREAM open-source project decodes the COFDM technique used by Digital Radio Mondiale . There is a broad range of hardware solutions for radio amateurs and home use. There are professional-grade transceiver solutions, e.g. the Zeus ZS-1 or FlexRadio, home-brew solutions, e.g. PicAStar transceiver, the SoftRock SDR kit, and starter or professional receiver solutions, e.g. the FiFi SDR for shortwave, or

7830-656: The Galaksija (1983) introduced in Yugoslavia and the Amstrad CPC series (464–6128). In the same year, the NEC PC-98 was introduced, which was a very popular personal computer that sold in more than 18 million units. Another famous personal computer, the revolutionary Amiga 1000 , was unveiled by Commodore on 23 July 1985. The Amiga 1000 featured a multitasking, windowing operating system, color graphics with

7975-624: The IBM Personal Computer incorporated the designation into its model name, the term originally described personal computers of any brand. In some contexts, PC is used to contrast with Mac, an Apple Macintosh computer. Since none of these Apple products were mainframes or time-sharing systems, they were all personal computers but not PC (brand) computers. In 1995, a CBS segment on the growing popularity of PC reported: "For many newcomers PC stands for Pain and Confusion." The "brain" [computer] may one day come down to our level [of

8120-594: The IEEE Communications Magazine with the cover "Software Radio" was regarded as a watershed event with thousands of academic citations. Mitola was introduced by Joao da Silva in 1997 at the First International Conference on Software Radio as "godfather" of software radio in no small part for his willingness to share such a valuable technology "in the public interest". Perhaps the first software-based radio transceiver

8265-723: The Little Professor in 1976 and Dataman in 1977. TI produces a range of calculators, with the TI-30 being one of the most popular early calculators . TI has also developed a line of graphing calculators , the first being the TI-81 , and most popular being the TI-83 Plus (with the TI-84 Plus being an updated equivalent). Many TI calculators are still sold without graphing capabilities. The TI-30 has been replaced by

8410-400: The PCI computer bus to each other with a layered protocol. As a military project, the radio strongly distinguished "red" (unsecured secret data) and "black" (cryptographically-secured data). The project was the first known to use FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) for digital processing of radio data. The time to reprogram these was an issue limiting application of the radio. Today,

8555-535: The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty . Texas Instruments also continued to manufacture equipment for use in the seismic industry, and GSI continued to provide seismic services. After selling (and repurchasing) GSI, TI finally sold the company to Halliburton in 1988, after which sale GSI ceased to exist as a separate entity. In early 1952, Texas Instruments purchased a patent license to produce germanium transistors from Western Electric ,

8700-847: The Paveway series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs). The first LGB was the BOLT-117 . In 1969, TI won the Harpoon (missile) Seeker contract. In 1986, TI won the Army FGM-148 Javelin fire-and-forget man portable antitank guided missile in a joint venture with Martin Marietta . In 1991, TI was awarded the contract for the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon . In 1988, TI paid the U.S. government $ 5.2 million "to settle allegations one of its divisions overcharged

8845-643: The Speak & Spell , such as the Speak & Read and Speak & Math , were introduced soon thereafter. In 1979, TI entered the home computer market with the TI-99/4 , a competitor to computers such as the Apple II , TRS-80 , and the later Atari 400/800 and VIC-20 . By late 1982, TI was dominating the U.S. home computer market, shipping 5,000 computers a day from their factory in Lubbock. It discontinued

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8990-745: The TI-99/4A (1981), the sequel to the 99/4, in late 1983 amid an intense price war waged primarily against Commodore. At the 1983 Winter CES, TI showed models 99/2 and the Compact Computer 40 , the latter aimed at professional users. The TI Professional (1983) ultimately joined the ranks of the many unsuccessful MS-DOS and x86 -based—but non-compatible —competitors to the IBM PC (the founders of Compaq , an early leader in PC compatibles, all came from TI). The company for years successfully made and sold PC-compatible laptops before withdrawing from

9135-405: The lunchbox computer. The screen formed one side of the enclosure, with a detachable keyboard and one or two half-height floppy disk drives, mounted facing the ends of the computer. Some variations included a battery, allowing operation away from AC outlets. A laptop computer is designed for portability with clamshell design, where the keyboard and computer components are on one panel, with

9280-412: The modem functions, "key processing" and "cryptographic processing" managed the cryptographic functions, a "multimedia" module did voice processing, a "human interface" provided local or remote controls, there was a "routing" module for network services, and a "control" module to keep it all straight. The modules are said to communicate without a central operating system. Instead, they send messages over

9425-460: The silicon integrated circuit (IC) chip was developed by Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor , and the metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistor was developed by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs . The MOS integrated circuit was commercialized by RCA in 1964, and then the silicon-gate MOS integrated circuit was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild in 1968. Faggin later used silicon-gate MOS technology to develop

9570-661: The "1977 trinity". Mass-market, ready-assembled computers had arrived, and allowed a wider range of people to use computers, focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware. In 1977 the Heath company introduced personal computer kits known as Heathkits , starting with the Heathkit H8 , followed by the Heathkit H89 in late 1979. With the purchase of the Heathkit H8 you would obtain

9715-557: The $ 1.8 billion in total TI defense revenues, and was sold to TriQuint Semiconductor , Inc. Raytheon retained its own existing MMIC capabilities and has the right to license TI's MMIC technology for use in future product applications from TriQuint. Shortly after Raytheon acquired TI DSEG, Raytheon then acquired Hughes Aircraft from General Motors . Raytheon then owned TI's mercury cadmium telluride detector business and infrared (IR) systems group. In California, it also had Hughes infrared detector and an IR systems business. When again

9860-433: The 1960s, popularized the use of integrated circuits in computer logic. The military-grade version of this was the 5400 series. Texas Instruments invented the hand-held calculator (a prototype called " Cal Tech ") in 1967 and the single-chip microcomputer in 1971, was assigned the first patent on a single-chip microprocessor (invented by Gary Boone) on September 4, 1973. This was disputed by Gilbert Hyatt, formerly of

10005-555: The 8-bit Intel 8080 Microprocessor, the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution as the first commercially successful personal computer. The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus , and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC . In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold

10150-504: The Cal-Tech, a three-pound battery-powered calculator that could do basic math and fit six-digit numbers on its display. This 4.25 x 6.15 x 1.75 inch calculator's processor would originate the vast majority of Texas Instruments’ revenue. In 1973, the handheld calculator SR-10 (named after slide rule ) and in 1974, the handheld scientific calculator SR-50 were issued by TI. Both had red LED-segments numeric displays. The optical design of

10295-514: The Defense Systems & Electronics Group (DSEG). During the early 1980s, TI instituted a quality program which included Juran training, as well as promoting statistical process control , Taguchi methods , and Design for Six Sigma . In the late 1980s, the company, along with Eastman Kodak and Allied Signal , began involvement with Motorola , institutionalizing Motorola's Six Sigma methodology. Motorola, which originally developed

10440-539: The DoD integrated process team (IPT) for programmable modular communications systems (PMCS) to proceed with what became the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). The basic arrangement of the radio receiver used an antenna feeding an amplifier and down-converter (see Frequency mixer ) feeding an automatic gain control , which fed an analog-to-digital converter that was on a computer VMEbus with

10585-564: The Explorer included the gate assignment system for United Airlines, described as "an artificial intelligence program that captures the combined experience and knowledge of a half-dozen United operations experts." In software for the PC, they introduced "Personal Consultant", a rule-based expert system development tool and runtime engine, followed by "Personal Consultant Plus" written in the Lisp-like language from MIT known as Scheme , and

10730-647: The F-22 Radar and Computer development contract. As the defense industry consolidated, TI sold its defense business to the Raytheon Company in 1997 for $ 2.95 billion. The Department of Justice required that Raytheon divest the TI Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) operations after closing the transaction. The TI MMIC business accounted for less than $ 40 million in 1996 revenues, or roughly 2% of

10875-823: The Industrial Systems Division, which was sold in the early 1990s to Siemens. In 2006, Bain Capital LLC , a private equity firm, purchased the Sensors & Controls division for $ 3.0 billion in cash. The RFID portion of the division remained part of TI, transferring to the Application Specific Products business unit of the Semiconductor division, with the newly formed independent company based in Attleboro taking

11020-678: The Micro Computer Company, in August 1990, when he was awarded a patent superseding TI's. This was overturned on June 19, 1996, in favor of TI (note: Intel is usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor). In 1978, Texas Instruments introduced the first single-chip linear predictive coding speech synthesizer . In 1976, TI began a feasibility study of memory-intensive applications for bubble memory then being developed. They soon focused on speech applications. This resulted in

11165-711: The Quadrus coherent multi-channel SDR receiver for short wave or VHF/UHF in direct digital mode of operation. Eric Fry discovered that some common low-cost DVB-T USB dongles with the Realtek RTL2832U controller and tuner, e.g. the Elonics E4000 or the Rafael Micro R820T, can be used as a wide-band (3 MHz) SDR receiver. Experiments proved the capability of this setup to analyze Perseids meteor shower using Graves radar signals. This project

11310-503: The SR-50 is somewhat similar to the HP-35 edited by Hewlett-Packard before in early 1972, but buttons for the operations "+", "–", ... are in the right of the number block and the decimal point lies between two neighboring digits. TI continued to be active in the consumer electronics market through the 1970s and 1980s. Early on, this also included two digital clock models – one for desk and

11455-741: The Six Sigma methodology, began this work in 1982. In 1992, the DSEG division of Texas Instruments' quality-improvement efforts were rewarded by winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for manufacturing. TI developed the AAA-4 infrared search and track device in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the F-4B Phantom for passive scanning of jet-engine emissions, but it possessed limited capabilities and

11600-584: The US government forced Raytheon to divest itself of a duplicate capability, the company kept the TI IR systems business and the Hughes detector business. As a result of these acquisitions, these former arch rivals of TI systems and Hughes detectors work together. Immediately after acquisition, DSEG was known as Raytheon TI Systems (RTIS). It is now fully integrated into Raytheon and this designation no longer exists. TI

11745-549: The Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Linux operating system , and low-voltage Intel Atom or VIA C7-M processors. A pocket PC is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer ( personal digital assistant , PDA) that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system . It may have the capability to run an alternative operating system like NetBSD or Linux . Pocket PCs have many of

11890-473: The ability to be programmed in both APL and BASIC for engineers, analysts, statisticians, and other business problem-solvers. In the late 1960s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton. Another desktop portable APL machine, the MCM/70 , was demonstrated in 1973 and shipped in 1974. It used the Intel 8008 processor. A seminal step in personal computing

12035-477: The capabilities of desktop PCs . Numerous applications are available for handhelds adhering to the Microsoft Pocket PC specification, many of which are freeware . Microsoft-compliant Pocket PCs can also be used with many other add-ons like GPS receivers , barcode readers, RFID readers and cameras. In 2007, with the release of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft dropped the name Pocket PC in favor of

12180-577: The chassis and CPU card to assemble yourself, additional hardware such as the H8-1 memory board that contained 4k of RAM could also be purchased in order to run software. The Heathkit H11 model was released in 1978 and was one of the first 16-bit personal computers; however, due to its high retail cost of $ 1,295 was discontinued in 1982. During the early 1980s, home computers were further developed for household use, with software for personal productivity, programming and games. They typically could be used with

12325-673: The common people] and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this is speculation and there is no sign of it so far. In the history of computing , early experimental machines could be operated by a single attendant. For example, ENIAC which became operational in 1946 could be run by a single, albeit highly trained, person. This mode pre-dated the batch programming, or time-sharing modes with multiple users connected through terminals to mainframe computers. Computers intended for laboratory, instrumentation, or engineering purposes were built, and could be operated by one person in an interactive fashion. Examples include such systems as

12470-555: The company changed its name to Texas Instruments, spun off to build seismographs for oil explorations and with GSI becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the new company. An early success came for TI-GSI in 1965, when GSI was able (under a Top Secret government contract) to monitor the Soviet Union 's underground nuclear weapons testing under the ocean in Vela Uniform , a subset of Project Vela , to verify compliance of

12615-439: The complete shortwave spectrum. De Boer has analyzed Chirp Transmitter signals using the coupled system of receivers. KiwiSDR is also a via-browser SDR like WebSDR. Unlike WebSDR, the frequency is limited to 3 Hz to 30 MHz ( ELF to HF ) On account of its increasing accessibility, with lower cost hardware, more software tools and documentation, the applications of SDR have expanded past their primary and historic use cases. SDR

12760-687: The development the TMC0280 one-chip linear predictive coding speech synthesizer, which was the first time a single silicon chip had electronically replicated the human voice. This was used in several TI commercial products beginning with Speak & Spell , which was introduced at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978. In 2001, TI left the speech synthesis business, selling it to Sensory Inc. of Santa Clara, California. In May 1954, Texas Instruments designed and built

12905-448: The enablers of cognitive radio . Superheterodyne receivers use a VFO ( variable-frequency oscillator ), mixer , and filter to tune the desired signal to a common IF ( intermediate frequency ) or baseband . Typically in SDR, this signal is then sampled by the analog-to-digital converter. However, in some applications it is not necessary to tune the signal to an intermediate frequency and

13050-403: The first terrain-following radar and surveillance radar systems for both the military and FAA. TI demonstrated the first solid-state radar called Molecular Electronics for Radar Applications. In 1976, TI developed a microwave landing system prototype. In 1984, TI developed the first inverse synthetic aperture radar . The first single-chip gallium arsenide radar module was developed. In 1991,

13195-646: The first SDR, which used the COSMAC (Complementary Symmetry Monolithic Array Computer) chip. Rohde was the first to present on this topic with his February 1984 talk, "Digital HF Radio: A Sampling of Techniques" at the Third International Conference on HF Communication Systems and Techniques in London. In 1984, a team at the Garland, Texas , Division of E-Systems Inc. (now Raytheon ) coined

13340-532: The first digital cinema projection in Europe with the DLP Cinema technology developed by TI DLP technology enables a diverse range of display and advanced light control applications spanning industrial, enterprise, automotive, and consumer market segments. The ASICs business develops more complex integrated-circuit solutions for clients on a custom basis. TI has produced educational toys for children, including

13485-522: The first limited production units, they decided to "throw out those useless C30 boards", replacing them with conventional RF filtering on transmit and receive and reverting to a digital baseband radio instead of the SpeakEasy like IF ADC/DACs of Mitola's prototype. The Air Force would not let Mitola publish the technical details of that prototype, nor would they let Diane Wasserman publish related software life cycle lessons learned because they regarded it as

13630-479: The first single-chip microprocessor , the Intel 4004 , in 1971. The first microcomputers , based on microprocessors, were developed during the early 1970s. Widespread commercial availability of microprocessors, from the mid-1970s onwards, made computers cheap enough for small businesses and individuals to own. In what was later to be called the Mother of All Demos , SRI researcher Douglas Engelbart in 1968 gave

13775-473: The fiscal year 2017, Texas Instruments reported earnings of $ 3.682 billion, with an annual revenue of $ 14.961 billion, an increase of 11.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. TI shares traded at over $ 82 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over $ 88.0 billion in October 2018. As of 2018, TI ranked 192nd on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. As of 2016, TI

13920-559: The government on contracts for guided missiles sold to the Navy ". Because of TI's research and development of military temperature-range silicon transistors and integrated circuits (ICs), TI won contracts for the first IC-based computer for the U.S. Air Force in 1961 (molecular electronic computer) and for ICs for the Minuteman Missile the following year. In 1968, TI developed the data systems for Mariner Program . In 1991 TI won

14065-454: The hand-held calculator in 1967, and introduced the first single-chip microcontroller in 1970, which combined all the elements of computing onto one piece of silicon. In 1987, TI invented the digital light processing device (also known as the DLP chip), which serves as the foundation for the company's DLP technology and DLP Cinema. TI released the popular TI-81 calculator in 1990, which made it

14210-482: The ideal software radio. Although the concept was first implemented with an IF ADC in the early 1990s, software-defined radios have their origins in the U.S. and European defense sectors of the late 1970s (for example, Walter Tuttlebee described a VLF radio that used an ADC and an 8085 microprocessor ), about a year after the First International Conference in Brussels. One of the first public software radio initiatives

14355-633: The increasing commercial interest in the technology. SCA-based infrastructure software and rapid development tools for SDR education and research are provided by the Open Source SCA Implementation ;– Embedded (OSSIE) project. The Wireless Innovation Forum funded the SCA Reference Implementation project, an open source implementation of the SCA specification. ( SCARI ) can be downloaded for free. A typical amateur software radio uses

14500-556: The infrastructure provided by the Internet, and the standardization of access methods of the Web browsers , established the foundation for a significant fraction of modern life, from bus time tables through unlimited distribution of free videos through to online user-edited encyclopedias. A workstation is a high-end personal computer designed for technical, mathematical, or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at

14645-559: The integrated circuit in July 1958, and successfully demonstrated the world's first working integrated circuit on September 12, 1958. Six months later, Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor (who went on to co-found Intel ) independently developed the integrated circuit with integrated interconnect, and is also considered an inventor of the integrated circuit. In 1969, Kilby was awarded the National Medal of Science, and in 1982 he

14790-519: The introduction of the IBM PC, portable computers consisting of a processor, display, disk drives and keyboard, in a suit-case style portable housing, allowed users to bring a computer home from the office or to take notes at a classroom. Examples include the Osborne 1 and Kaypro ; and the Commodore SX-64 . These machines were AC-powered and included a small CRT display screen. The form factor

14935-549: The keyboard. These displays were usually small, with 8 to 16 lines of text, sometimes only 40 columns line length. However, these machines could operate for extended times on disposable or rechargeable batteries. Although they did not usually include internal disk drives, this form factor often included a modem for telephone communication and often had provisions for external cassette or disk storage. Later, clamshell format laptop computers with similar small plan dimensions were also called notebooks . A desktop replacement computer

15080-542: The largest global footprint for software radio, Mitola privately credits that DoD lab of the 1970s with its leaders Carl, Dave, and John with inventing the digital receiver technology on which he based software radio once it was possible to transmit via software. A few months after the National Telesystems Conference 1992, in an E-Systems corporate program review, a vice-president of E-Systems Garland Division objected to Melpar's (Mitola's) use of

15225-441: The manufacturing arm of AT&T, for US$ 25,000, beginning production by the end of the year. Haggerty brought Gordon Teal to the company due to his expertise in growing semiconductor crystals while at Bell Telephone Laboratories . Teal's first assignment was to direct TI's research laboratory. At the end of 1952, Texas Instruments announced that it had expanded to 2,000 employees and $ 17 million in sales. Among his new hires

15370-600: The market and selling its product line to Acer in 1998. TI entered the defense electronics market in 1942 with submarine detection equipment, based on the seismic exploration technology previously developed for the oil industry. The division responsible for these products was known at different times as the Laboratory & Manufacturing Division, the Apparatus Division, the Equipment Group, and

15515-473: The military microwave integrated circuit program was initiated—a joint effort with Raytheon. In 1961, TI won the guidance and control system contract for the defense suppression AGM-45 Shrike antiradiation missile . This led later to the prime on the high-speed antiradiation missile (AGM-88 HARM) development contract in 1974 and production in 1981. In 1964, TI began development of the first laser guidance system for precision-guided munitions , leading to

15660-455: The monitor, and configured similarly to laptops. A nettop computer was introduced by Intel in February 2008, characterized by low cost and lean functionality. These were intended to be used with an Internet connection to run Web browsers and Internet applications. A Home theater PC (HTPC) combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder . It is connected to

15805-582: The name Sensata Technologies. In 1997, TI sold its software division, along with its main products such as the CA Gen , to Sterling Software , which is now part of Computer Associates . However, TI still owns small pieces of software, such as the software for calculators such as the TI Interactive! . TI also creates a significant amount of target software for its digital signal processors, along with host-based tools for creating DSP applications. For

15950-485: The natural language menu system NLMenu. TI was a major original-equipment manufacturer of sensor , control, protection, and RFID products for the automotive, appliance, aircraft, and other industries. The Sensors & Controls division was headquartered in Attleboro, Massachusetts . By the mid-1980s, industrial computers known as PLC's (programmable logic controllers) were separated from Sensors & Controls as

16095-592: The need to statically assign the scarce spectral resources to a single fixed service. In 1970, a researcher at a United States Department of Defense laboratory coined the term "digital receiver". A laboratory called the Gold Room at TRW in California created a software baseband analysis tool called Midas, which had its operation defined in software. In 1982, while working under a US Department of Defense contract at RCA , Ulrich L. Rohde 's department developed

16240-513: The open source SDR library DttSP. The SDR software performs all of the demodulation, filtering (both radio frequency and audio frequency), and signal enhancement (equalization and binaural presentation). Uses include every common amateur modulation: morse code , single-sideband modulation , frequency modulation , amplitude modulation , and a variety of digital modes such as radioteletype , slow-scan television , and packet radio . Amateurs also experiment with new modulation methods: for instance,

16385-556: The other a bedside alarm. From this sprang what became the Time Products Division, which made LED watches. Though these LED watches enjoyed early commercial success due to excellent quality, it was short-lived due to poor battery life. LEDs were replaced with LCD watches for a short time, but these could not compete because of styling issues, excessive makes and models, and price points. The watches were manufactured in Dallas and then Lubbock, Texas . Several spin-offs of

16530-422: The petroleum industry. In 1939, the company reorganized as Coronado Corp, an oil company with Geophysical Service Inc (GSI), now as a subsidiary. On December 6, 1941, McDermott along with three other GSI employees, J. Erik Jonsson, Cecil H. Green, and H. B. Peacock purchased GSI. During World War II, GSI expanded its services to include electronics for the U.S. Army , Army Signal Corps , and U.S. Navy . In 1951,

16675-503: The primary defining characteristic of netbooks was the lack of an optical disc drive, smaller size, and lower performance than full-size laptops. By mid-2009 netbooks had been offered to users "free of charge", with an extended service contract purchase of a cellular data plan. Ultrabooks and Chromebooks have since filled the gap left by Netbooks. Unlike the generic Netbook name, Ultrabook and Chromebook are technically both specifications by Intel and Google respectively. A tablet uses

16820-457: The radio filling the back of a truck. By the late 2000s, the emergence of RF CMOS technology made it practical to scale down an entire SDR system onto a single mixed-signal system-on-a-chip , which Broadcom demonstrated with the BCM21551 processor in 2007. The Broadcom BCM21551 has practical commercial applications, for use in 3G mobile phones . The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

16965-411: The radio frequency signal is directly sampled by the analog-to-digital converter (after amplification). Real analog-to-digital converters lack the dynamic range to pick up sub-microvolt, nanowatt-power radio signals produced by an antenna. Therefore, a low-noise amplifier must precede the conversion step and this device introduces its own problems. For example, if spurious signals are present (which

17110-498: The required hardware and software needed to add television programming to the PC, or can be assembled from components. Keyboard computers are computers inside of keyboards, generally still designed to be connected to an external computer monitor or television . Examples include the Atari ST , Amstrad CPC , BBC Micro , Commodore 64 , MSX , Raspberry Pi 400 , and the ZX Spectrum . The potential utility of portable computers

17255-469: The simplest of interoperable modes of the existing radios, and to lose connectivity or crash unexpectedly. Its cryptographic processor could not change context fast enough to keep several radio conversations on the air at once. Its software architecture, though practical enough, bore no resemblance to any other. The SpeakEasy architecture was refined at the MMITS Forum between 1996 and 1999 and inspired

17400-479: The software used. Software radios have significant utility for the military and cell phone services, both of which must serve a wide variety of changing radio protocols in real time. In the long term, software-defined radios are expected by proponents like the Wireless Innovation Forum to become the dominant technology in radio communications. SDRs, along with software defined antennas are

17545-418: The systems hardware components such as the motherboard , processor chip and other internal operating parts. Desktop computers have an external monitor with a display screen and an external keyboard, which are plugged into ports on the back of the computer case. Desktop computers are popular for home and business computing applications as they leave space on the desk for multiple monitors . A gaming computer

17690-693: The term "DigiCeiver" for their new range of DSP-based tuners with Sharx in car radios such as the Modena & Lausanne RD 148. From 1990 to 1995, the goal of the SpeakEasy program was to demonstrate a radio for the U.S. Air Force tactical ground air control party that could operate from 2 MHz to 2 GHz , and thus could interoperate with ground force radios (frequency-agile VHF , FM , and SINCGARS ), Air Force radios (VHF AM ), Naval Radios (VHF AM and HF SSB teleprinters ) and satellites ( microwave QAM ). Some particular goals were to provide

17835-633: The term "software radio" to refer to a digital baseband receiver, as published in their E-Team company newsletter. A 'Software Radio Proof-of-Concept' laboratory was developed by the E-Systems team that popularized Software Radio within various government agencies. This 1984 Software Radio was a digital baseband receiver that provided programmable interference cancellation and demodulation for broadband signals, typically with thousands of adaptive filter taps, using multiple array processors accessing shared memory. In 1991, Joe Mitola independently reinvented

17980-545: The term "software radio" without credit to Garland. Alan Jackson, Melpar VP of marketing at that time, asked the Garland VP if their laboratory or devices included transmitters. The Garland VP said: "No, of course not — ours is a software radio receiver." Al replied: "Then it's a digital receiver but without a transmitter, it's not a software radio." Corporate leadership agreed with Al, so the publication stood. Many amateur radio operators and HF radio engineers had realized

18125-651: The term software radio for a plan to build a GSM base station that would combine Ferdensi's digital receiver with E-Systems Melpar's digitally controlled communications jammers for a true software-based transceiver. E-Systems Melpar sold the software radio idea to the US Air Force. Melpar built a prototype commanders' tactical terminal in 1990–1991 that employed Texas Instruments TMS320C30 processors and Harris Corporation digital receiver chip sets with digitally synthesized transmission. The Melpar prototype didn't last long because when E-Systems ECI Division manufactured

18270-467: The time to write a program for an FPGA is still significant, but the time to download a stored FPGA program is around 20 milliseconds. This means an SDR could change transmission protocols and frequencies in one fiftieth of a second, probably not an intolerable interruption for that task. The SpeakEasy SDR system in the 1994 uses a Texas Instruments TMS320C30 CMOS digital signal processor (DSP), along with several hundred integrated circuit chips, with

18415-411: The top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog chips and embedded processors , which account for more than 80% of its revenue. TI also produces digital light processing (DLP) technology and education technology products including calculators , microcontrollers , and multi-core processors . Texas Instruments emerged in 1951 after

18560-572: The ubiquitous Wintel platform. Alternatives to Windows occupy a minority share of the market; these include the Mac platform from Apple (running the macOS operating system), and free and open-source , Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux . Other notable platforms until the 1990s were the Amiga from Commodore , and the PC-98 from NEC . The term PC is an initialism for personal computer. While

18705-652: The value of digitizing HF at RF and of processing it with Texas Instruments TI C30 digital signal processors (DSPs) and their precursors during the 1980s and early 1990s. Radio engineers at Roke Manor in the UK and at an organization in Germany had recognized the benefits of ADC at the RF in parallel. Mitola's publication of software radio in the IEEE opened the concept to the broad community of radio engineers. His May 1995 special issue of

18850-418: Was Willis Adcock , who joined TI early in 1953. Adcock, who like Teal was a physical chemist , began leading a small research group focused on the task of fabricating grown-junction, silicon , single-crystal, small-signal transistors. Adcock later became the first TI Principal Fellow. In January 1954, Morris Tanenbaum at Bell Telephone Laboratories created the first workable silicon transistor. This work

18995-517: Was a program of the US military to produce radios that provide flexible and interoperable communications. Examples of radio terminals that require support include hand-held, vehicular, airborne and dismounted radios, as well as base-stations (fixed and maritime). This goal is achieved through the use of SDR systems based on an internationally endorsed open Software Communications Architecture (SCA). This standard uses CORBA on POSIX operating systems to coordinate various software modules. The program

19140-706: Was active in the area of artificial intelligence in the 1980s. In addition to ongoing developments in speech and signal processing and recognition, it developed and sold the Explorer computer family of Lisp machines . For the Explorer, a special 32-bit Lisp microprocessor was developed, which was used in the Explorer II and the TI MicroExplorer (a Lisp Machine on a NuBus board for the Apple Macintosh ). AI application software developed by TI for

19285-508: Was apparent early on. Alan Kay described the Dynabook in 1972, but no hardware was developed. The Xerox NoteTaker was produced in a very small experimental batch around 1978. In 1975, the IBM 5100 could be fit into a transport case, making it a portable computer, but it weighed about 50 pounds. Such early portable computers were termed luggables by journalists owing to their heft. Before

19430-597: Was back-ordered and not available until later that year. Three months later (April), the Apple II (usually referred to as the Apple) was announced with the first units being shipped 10 June 1977, and the TRS-80 from Tandy Corporation / Tandy Radio Shack following in August 1977, which sold over 100,000 units during its lifetime. Together, especially in the North American market, these 3 machines were referred to as

19575-599: Was designed and implemented by Peter Hoeher and Helmuth Lang at the German Aerospace Research Establishment ( DLR , formerly DFVLR ) in Oberpfaffenhofen , Germany, in 1988. Both transmitter and receiver of an adaptive digital satellite modem were implemented according to the principles of a software radio, and a flexible hardware periphery was proposed. In 1995, Stephen Blust coined the term "software defined radio", publishing

19720-458: Was eliminated on F-4Ds and later models. In 1956, TI began research on infrared technology that led to several line scanner contracts and with the addition of a second scan mirror the invention of the first forward looking infrared (FLIR) in 1963 with production beginning in 1966. In 1972, TI invented the common module FLIR concept, greatly reducing cost and allowing reuse of common components. TI went on to produce side-looking radar systems,

19865-529: Was hired as general manager of the Laboratory and Manufacturing (L&M) division, which focused on electronic equipment. By 1951, the L&;M division, with its defense contracts, was growing faster than GSI's geophysical division. The company was reorganized and initially renamed General Instruments Inc. Because a firm named General Instrument already existed, the company was renamed Texas Instruments that same year. From 1956 to 1961, Fred Agnich of Dallas, later

20010-436: Was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame. Kilby also won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part of the invention of the integrated circuit. Noyce's chip, made at Fairchild, was made of silicon, while Kilby's chip was made of germanium . In 2008, TI named its new development laboratory "Kilby Labs" after Jack Kilby. The 7400 series of transistor-transistor logic chips, developed by Texas Instruments in

20155-401: Was intended to allow these systems to be taken on board an airplane as carry-on baggage, though their high power demand meant that they could not be used in flight. The integrated CRT display made for a relatively heavy package, but these machines were more portable than their contemporary desktop equals. Some models had standard or optional connections to drive an external video monitor, allowing

20300-422: Was reported in the spring of 1954, at the IRE off-the-record conference on solid-state devices, and was later published in the Journal of Applied Physics . Working independently in April 1954, Gordon Teal at TI created the first commercial silicon transistor and tested it on April 14, 1954. On May 10, 1954, at the Institute of Radio Engineers National Conference on Airborne Electronics in Dayton, Ohio, Teal presented

20445-450: Was so successful that further development was halted, and the radio went into production with only a 4 MHz to 400 MHz range. The software architecture identified standard interfaces for different modules of the radio: "radio frequency control" to manage the analog parts of the radio, "modem control" managed resources for modulation and demodulation schemes (FM, AM, SSB, QAM, etc.), "waveform processing" modules actually performed

20590-453: Was the 1973 Xerox Alto , developed at Xerox 's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) . It had a graphical user interface ( GUI ) which later served as inspiration for Apple's Macintosh , and Microsoft's Windows operating system. The Alto was a demonstration project, not commercialized, as the parts were too expensive to be affordable. Also in 1973 Hewlett Packard introduced fully BASIC programmable microcomputers that fit entirely on top of

20735-504: Was the U.S. DARPA-Air Force military project named SpeakEasy . The primary goal of the SpeakEasy project was to use programmable processing to emulate more than 10 existing military radios, operating in frequency bands between 2 and 2000 MHz . Another SpeakEasy design goal was to be able to easily incorporate new coding and modulation standards in the future, so that military communications can keep pace with advances in coding and modulation techniques. In 1997, Blaupunkt introduced

20880-425: Was the first to emulate APL/1130 performance on a portable, single user computer, PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer". This seminal, single user portable computer now resides in the Smithsonian Institution , Washington, D.C.. Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype led to the IBM 5100 portable microcomputer launched in 1975 with

21025-403: Was to get a more quickly reconfigurable architecture, i.e. , several conversations at once, in an open software architecture, with cross-channel connectivity (the radio can "bridge" different radio protocols). The secondary goals were to make it smaller, cheaper, and weigh less. The project produced a demonstration radio only fifteen months into a three-year research project. This demonstration

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