Hitchhikers' Guide to Electronics in the '90s

Chapter 1 What's Interesting about Electronics? The Potential to Reproduce Human Functions in Silicon; the Democratizing Effects of Technology; Electronics Goodies of the Nineties; 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?'; the International Race for Technology Leadership Chapter 2 What's it all about? From Cavendish to Faraday; from Edison to Kilby; from the Vacuum Tube to the Transistor to the Chip; the Americans Invent the Chip Industry; Moore's LawChapter 3 What Does it all Mean? What the Jargon Means: Actives/Passives; Chips/Discretes; Analogue/Digital; Bits/Bytes; Bipolar/MOS; Memory/LogicChapter 4 Where Does it all Go? The Sectors of the Electronics Industry: Computers; Consumers; Telecommunications ; Industrial; Transportation; MilitaryChapter 5 What's the Chip Business all about? (Part 1) The Importance of Chips; Size of the Market; Technology Evolution; Vast Cost of Chip Research and Development and Production; Erratic Chip Markets; Effect of Erratic Chip Supplies on Equipment Companies; East/West Imbalance in Chip Production; American Approach to Chip-Making; Japanese Approach to Chip-MakingChapter 6 What's the Chip Business all about? (Part 2) Different Approaches to Chip-Making in the Countries of Europe and AsiaChapter 7 Who are the Players? The Biggest Worldwide Companies; the Biggest Company in Each of the '4Cs': Computers; Communications; Consumers; Components. Who They are; How They Got There and What They DoChapter 8 Where Does it all Happen? The 20 Biggest Electronics Producing Countries on Earth from America to MalaysiaChapter 9 Where are We all Going? The Trends for the Nineties: Open Systems; Compatibility; Convergence of Telecommunications and Computing; Globalization ; Trans-Border Makeovers and Mergers; the Decline of Defense Electronics; Systems on a Chip; Multiprocessing; Networking and the Decline of the Mainframe; the Rise of the Cordless Telephone; the Pre-Eminence of Software;Transportability ; Technological DemocratizationChapter 10 What's in it for Me? How to Become a Millionaire; the Developments in the Key Component Technologies for the Nineties-Chips, Screens, Batteries and CD-ROMs. What the Technology/Price Trends are; How to Predict them; How to Exploit the 'Learning Curve'Chapter 11 Where Will it all End? Will the Shrinking Transistor Continue as the Main Force? Will Superconductivity Take Over? Will Biotechnology Take Over? Will Japan Take Over the World Computer Industry? What Would be the Implications for Entrepreneurism? Big Business Versus Individuality. Can the US regain Technological Superiority? Can Europe Re-Build its Technological and Industrial Strength? Will Eastern Europe Become a Significant Market/Producer?Index