Misplaced Pages

#87912

40-407: RAMDACs became obsolete as DVI , HDMI , DisplayPort and other digital interface technology became mainstream, which transfer video data digitally (via transition-minimized differential signaling or low-voltage differential signaling ) and defer digital-to-analog conversion until the monitor's pixels are actuated. The term RAMDAC did not enter into common PC-terminology until IBM introduced

80-474: A "breakthrough" technology. This is often included in the process of product development and relies on research. This can be demonstrated in the invention of the spreadsheet software . Newly invented technologies are conventionally patented. Diffusion pertains to the spread of a technology through a society or industry. The diffusion of a technology theory generally follows an S-shaped curve as early versions of technology are rather unsuccessful, followed by

120-447: A biological sense, it means imperfect or rudimentary when compared with the corresponding part of other organisms. The international standard IEC 62402:2019 Obsolescence Management defines obsolescence as the "transition from available to unavailable from the manufacturer in accordance with the original specification". Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that has, in sum, more advantages compared to

160-406: A communications-type approach. Rogers proposed that there are five main attributes of innovative technologies that influence acceptance. He called these criteria ACCTO, which stands for Advantage, Compatibility, Complexity, Trialability, and Observability. Relative advantage may be economic or non-economic, and is the degree to which an innovation is seen as superior to prior innovations fulfilling

200-488: A general agreement on the importance of social context and communication. According to this model, technological change is seen as a social process involving producers and adopters and others (such as government) who are profoundly affected by cultural setting, political institutions, and marketing strategies. In free market economies, the maximization of profits is a powerful driver of technological change. Generally, only those technologies that promise to maximize profits for

240-411: A new product or technology supersedes the old one, and it is preferred to use the new technology instead. Historical examples of new technologies superseding old ones include bronze replacing flint in hand-tools, DVDs replacing videocassettes , and the telephone replacing the telegraph . On a smaller scale, a particular product may become obsolete when a newer version replaces it. Many products in

280-399: A period of successful innovation with high levels of adoption, and finally a dropping off in adoption as a technology reaches its maximum potential in a market. In the case of a personal computer, it has made way beyond homes and into business settings, such as office workstations and server machines to host websites . Underpinning the idea of a technological change as a social process is

320-624: A product. For example, many integrated circuits , including CPUs, memory and even some relatively simple logic chips may no longer be produced because the technology has been superseded, their original developer has gone out of business or a competitor has bought them out and effectively killed off their products to remove competition. It is rarely worth redeveloping a product to get around these issues since its overall functionality and price/performance ratio has usually been superseded by that time as well. Some products become technologically obsolete due to changes in complementary products which results in

360-569: A shrinking user base becomes unprofitable. This causes scarcity of spare parts and skilled technicians for repairs and thus escalates maintenance costs for obsolete products. This ultimately leads to prohibitive expense in keeping old technology functioning. The term "obsolescence" was first applied to the built environment in 1910 in an attempt to explain American skyscrapers' sudden loss of value. New York engineer Reginald P. Bolton attributed this phenomenon to "something new and better out-competing

400-637: Is a mode of operation that allows the SVGA -controller to pass a pixel's color value directly to the DAC-inputs, thereby bypassing the RAM lookup-table. Another innovation was Edsun's CEGDAC, which featured hardware-assisted spatial anti-aliasing for line/vector draw operations. By the early 1990s, the PC chip industry had advanced to the point where RAMDACs were integrated into the display controller chip, thus reducing

440-407: Is adopted. The structure of the social system affects technological change in several ways. Social norms, opinion leaders, change agents, government and the consequences of innovations are all involved. Also involved are cultural setting, nature of political institutions, laws, policies and administrative structures. Time enters into the acceptance process in many ways. The time dimension relates to

SECTION 10

#1732772291088

480-455: Is based on both better and more technology. In its earlier days, technological change was illustrated with the ' Linear Model of Innovation ', which has now been largely discarded to be replaced with a model of technological change that involves innovation at all stages of research, development, diffusion, and use. When speaking about "modeling technological change," this often means the process of innovation. This process of continuous improvement

520-411: Is defined as to the activities that are undertaken to mitigate the effects of obsolescence. Activities can include last-time buys, lifetime buys, and obsolescence monitoring. Technological change Technological change ( TC ) or technological development is the overall process of invention , innovation and diffusion of technology or processes . In essence, technological change covers

560-408: Is facing issues where life cycles of products no longer fit together with life cycles of required components. This issue is known as obsolescence, the status given to a part when it is no longer available from its original manufacturer. The problem of obsolescence is most prevalent for electronics technology, wherein the procurement lifetimes for microelectronic parts are often significantly shorter than

600-489: Is no longer desirable because style trends have moved away from the flared leg cut. Because of the "fashion cycle", stylistically obsolete products may eventually regain popularity and cease to be obsolete. An example is " acid-wash " jeans, which were popular in the 1980s, became stylistically obsolete in the mid to late 1990s, and returned to popularity in the 2000s. Obsolescence management, also referred to as "Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages" (DMSMS),

640-420: Is often modeled as a curve depicting decreasing costs over time (for instance fuel cell which have become cheaper every year). TC is also often modelled using a learning curve , ex.: Ct=C0 * Xt^-b Technological change itself is often included in other models (e.g. climate change models) and was often taken as an exogenous factor. These days TC is more often included as an endogenous factor. This means that it

680-489: Is taken as something you can influence. Today, there are sectors that maintain the policy which can influence the speed and direction of technological change. For example, proponents of the Induced Technological Change hypothesis state that policymakers can steer the direction of technological advances by influencing relative factor prices and this can be demonstrated in the way climate policies impact

720-475: The XGI Volari XP10 run at 420 MHz DAC. The highest documented DAC frequency ever achieved on a production video card for the PC platform is 550 MHz, set by BarcoMed 5MP2 Aura 76Hz by Barco . Obsolete Obsolescence is the process of becoming antiquated, out of date, old-fashioned, no longer in general use, or no longer useful, or the condition of being in such a state. When used in

760-423: The invention of technologies (including processes) and their commercialization or release as open source via research and development (producing emerging technologies ), the continual improvement of technologies (in which they often become less expensive), and the diffusion of technologies throughout industry or society (which sometimes involves disruption and convergence ). In short, technological change

800-681: The IBM VGA display adapter in 1987. The IBM VGA adapter used the INMOS G171 RAMDAC. The INMOS VGA RAMDAC was a separate chip, featured a 256-color (8-bit CLUT) display from a palette of 262,144 possible values, and supported pixel-rates up to approximately 30   Mpix/s. As clone manufacturers copied IBM VGA hardware, they also copied the INMOS VGA RAMDAC. Advances in semiconductor manufacturing and PC processing power allowed RAMDACs to add direct-color operation, which

840-601: The RAMDAC can be clocked much faster in true color modes, when only the DAC part without the SRAM is used. A quick estimation on the pixel clock for a given output can be found with: The ability to drive transitions for sharp edges usually incurs, for the RAMDAC, a significant requirement in excess of the pixel clock. As of 2006, the DAC of a modern graphics card runs at a clock rate of 400   MHz . However, video cards based on

SECTION 20

#1732772291088

880-433: The RAMDAC, to provide a CLUT -based display mode, is rarely used, having been supplanted by True Color display modes. However, many CAD and video editing applications use hardware overlay , combined with the programmable palette, to ensure the user interface does not disrupt the rendering of editing window. The size of each DAC of the RAMDAC is 6 to 10 bits . The SRAM's word length must be at least three times as large as

920-403: The computer industry become obsolete in this manner. For example, central processing units (CPUs) frequently become obsolete in favor of newer, faster units. Singularly, rapid obsolescence of data formats along with their supporting hardware and software can lead to loss of critical information, a process known as digital obsolescence . In many cases, a new technology does not totally replace

960-481: The disadvantages incurred by maintaining or repairing the original. Obsolete also refers to something that is already disused or discarded, or antiquated. Typically, obsolescence is preceded by a gradual decline in popularity. Driven by rapid technological changes , new components are developed and launched on the market with increasing speed. The result is a dramatic change in production methods of all components and their market availability. A growing industry sector

1000-495: The display, which occurs during the vertical blanking interval between every frame . The SRAM can usually be bypassed and the DACs can be fed color directly by display data, for True color modes. In fact this has become very much the normal mode of operation of a RAMDAC since the mid-1990s, so the programmable palette is mostly retained only as a legacy feature to ensure compatibility with old software. In many newer graphics cards,

1040-709: The function of the first product being made unnecessary. For example, buggy whips became obsolete when people started to travel in cars rather than in horse-drawn buggies. Items become functionally obsolete when they can no longer adequately perform the function for which they were created. For example, while one could theoretically adapt an Avro Lancaster to deploy modern JDAM bombs, the situations in which it could actually succeed at doing so against modern air defenses would be so few that it would be essentially useless. Manufacturers and repair companies will typically cease support for products once they become obsolete as keeping production lines in place and parts in storage for

1080-440: The innovativeness of an individual or other adopter, which is the relative earliness or lateness with which an innovation is adopted. In economics , technological change is a change in the set of feasible production possibilities . A technological innovation is Hicks neutral , following John Hicks (1932), if a change in technology does not change the ratio of capital 's marginal product to labour's marginal product for

1120-517: The manufacturing and support life cycles for the products that use the parts. However, obsolescence extends beyond electronic components to other items, such as materials, textiles, and mechanical parts. In addition, obsolescence has been shown to appear for software, specifications, standards, processes, and soft resources, such as human skills. It is highly important to implement and operate an active management of obsolescence to mitigate and avoid extreme costs. Technical obsolescence usually occurs when

1160-426: The means by which a source conveys a message to a receiver. Information may be exchanged through two fundamentally different, yet complementary, channels of communication. Awareness is more often obtained through the mass media , while uncertainty reduction that leads to acceptance mostly results from face-to-face communication . The social system provides a medium through which and boundaries within which, innovation

1200-438: The more complex an innovation, the slower its acceptance. Trialability is the perceived degree to which an innovation may be tried on a limited basis, and is positively related to acceptance. Trialability can accelerate acceptance because small-scale testing reduces risk. Observability is the perceived degree to which results of innovating are visible to others and is positively related to acceptance. Communication channels are

1240-488: The number of discrete chips and the cost of video cards. Consequently, the market for standalone RAMDACs disappeared. Today, RAMDACs are still manufactured and sold for niche applications, but in obviously limited quantity. In modern PCs, the RAMDAC(s) are integrated into the display controller chip, which itself may be mounted on an add-in-board or integrated into the motherboard core-logic chipset. The original purpose of

RAMDAC - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-562: The old technology because the old technology is still useful in certain applications. For example, transistors replaced vacuum tubes in TV and radio receivers in the 1960s, but vacuum tubes were still used for powerful transmitters because transistors for these power levels were not available. Even today, one has to use multiple transistors for a purpose that used to require just one tube. Products may also become obsolete when supporting technologies are no longer available to produce or even repair

1320-448: The old" and calculated the average architectural lifespan of varying building types in order to formulate a rough estimate for their impending obsolescence. For example, he suggested that hotels' obsolescence will occur faster than banks due to their ever-changing functions and tastes. Sometimes marketers deliberately introduce obsolescence into their product strategy , with the objective of generating long-term sales volume by reducing

1360-406: The owners of incoming producing capital are developed and reach the market. Any technological product that fails to meet this criterion - even though they may satisfy important societal needs - are eliminated. Therefore, technological change is a social process strongly biased in favor of the financial interests of capital. There are currently no well established democratic processes, such as voting on

1400-472: The risks of products becoming obsolete and have a detrimental effect on the organisation's cash flow . Companies may address this problem alongside a periodic stock count by assessing which of their stock items are slow-moving or not selling at all. When a product is no longer desirable because it has gone out of the popular fashion, its style is obsolete. One example is flared leg jeans ; although this article of clothing may still be perfectly functional, it

1440-440: The same needs. It is positively related to acceptance (e.g. the higher the relative advantage, the higher the adoption level, and vice versa). Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation appears consistent with existing values, past experiences, habits and needs to the potential adopter; a low level of compatibility will slow acceptance. Complexity is the degree to which an innovation appears difficult to understand and use;

1480-403: The size of each DAC. The SRAM acts as a color lookup table (CLUT). It usually has 256 entries (and thus an 8-bit address). If the DAC's word length is also 8 bits, we have a 256   × 24-bit SRAM which allows a selection of 256 out of 16,777,216 (16.7 million) possible colors for the display. The contents of this SRAM can be altered when no pixel needs to be generated for transmission to

1520-493: The social or environmental desirability of a new technology prior to development and marketing, that would allow average citizens to direct the course of technological change. Emphasis has been on four key elements of the technological change process: (1) an innovative technology (2) communicated through certain channels (3) to members of a social system (4) who adopt it over a period of time. These elements are derived from Everett M. Rogers ' diffusion of innovations theory using

1560-440: The time between repeat purchases. One example might be producing an appliance which is deliberately designed to wear out within five years of its purchase, pushing consumers to replace it within five years. Inventory obsolescence occurs when retailers and other vendors hold stocks for anticipated future sales which turn out to be too slow to materialise. Holding excessive levels of stock or over-predicting potential demand increase

1600-549: The use of fossil fuel energy, specifically how it becomes relatively more expensive. Until now, the empirical evidence about the existence of policy-induced innovation effects is still lacking and this may be attributed to a variety of reasons outside the sparsity of models (e.g. long-term policy uncertainty and exogenous drivers of (directed) innovation). A related concept is the notion of Directed Technical Change with more emphasis on price induced directional rather than policy induced scale effects. The creation of something new, or

#87912