28.10.2014 Views

Synergy User Manual and Tutorial. - THE CORE MEMORY

Synergy User Manual and Tutorial. - THE CORE MEMORY

Synergy User Manual and Tutorial. - THE CORE MEMORY

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

<strong>Synergy</strong> <strong>User</strong> <strong>Manual</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Tutorial</strong><br />

In 1911, while studying the effects of extremely cold temperatures on metals such as<br />

mercury <strong>and</strong> lead, physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that they lost all<br />

resistance at certain low temperatures just above absolute zero. This phenomenon is<br />

known as superconductivity. In 1915, another physicist, Manson Benedicks, discovered<br />

that alternating current could be converted to direct current by using a germanium crystal,<br />

which eventually leads to the use of microchips. In 1919, U.S. physicists William Henry<br />

Eccles (1875 - 1966) <strong>and</strong> F.W. Jordan () invented the flip-flop, the first electronic<br />

switching electric circuit, which was critical to high-speed electronic counting systems.<br />

The flip-flop is a digital logic hardware circuit that can switch or toggle between two<br />

states controlled by its inputs, which is similar to a one-bit memory. The three common<br />

types of flip-flop are: the SR flip-flop, the JK flip-flop <strong>and</strong> the D-type flip-flop (shown<br />

below).<br />

In 1925, Vannevar<br />

Bush (1890 - 1974)<br />

developed the first<br />

analog computer to<br />

solve differential<br />

equations. These<br />

analog computers<br />

were mechanical<br />

devices that used<br />

large gears <strong>and</strong> other<br />

mechanical parts to<br />

solve equations. The<br />

first working machine<br />

was completed in<br />

1931 (left). In 1945,<br />

he published an<br />

article in the Atlantic Monthly called, "As We May Think, which described a theoretical<br />

device called a memex. This device uses a microfilm search system, which is very<br />

similar to hypertext, using a concept that he called associative trails. His description of<br />

the system is:<br />

18

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!