April 25Th and Logic

amplifier – all the basics required for computer memory Noyce’s and April 25th and logic. Cryotrons were also small and fast, and consumed Kilby’s Patents very little power. April 25, 1961 Father Giovanni Buck proposed using 75,000 Robert Noyce [Dec 12] was Caselli cryotrons to form a content- granted a patent (US 2,981,877) addressable memory, about as for a “Semiconductor Device- Born: April 25, 1815; large as a briefcase, which he and-Lead Structure,” better Siena, Italy called a “recognition unit.” Each known today as the integrated Died: June 8, 1891 of the memory locations could circuit (IC). He had filed the be checked simultaneously to application on July 30, 1959. Caselli invented the see whether they contained pantélégraphe, the world’s first information. The idea may have This occurred while the patent practical fax machine. It could been motivated by Buck’s earlier office was still considering Jack transmit handwriting or involvement with Naval code- Kilby’s [Nov 8] similar drawings covering an area up to breaking machines, and from his application for “Miniaturized 15 × 10 cm. The name is a consulting work for the NSA [Oct Electronic Circuits,” which had portmanteau word, borrowing 24]). been filed on [Feb 6], some six from “pantograph”, a tool that months earlier. copies words and drawings, and As might be expected, this “telegraph” since the faxed data patent muddle precipitated a was sent over telegraph lines. prolonged hullabaloo over the Caselli was influenced by ownership of the IC idea. But Alexander Bain’s [Oct 12] fax there were differences between device but solved the problem of their work. Kilby had created a synchronizing the transmitting germanium chip, while Noyce and receiving parts by utilizing had made a version based on a regulating pendulum clock. A cryotron (1959). From the silicon. Noyce’s IC design also solved a few problems that Caselli presented a prototype to Bibliothèque nationale de France. CC0. Kilby’s approach still suffered Leopold II, Grand Duke of from, most notably how to easily Tuscany in 1856, and later interconnect all the components. moved to Paris to introduce his Although the transistor won out, research on cryotrons Noyce did this by adding a metal invention to Napoleon III. layer and then removing parts of Napoleon was impressed, and continued, and in the early 1970’s, IBM developed modified it to create the wires needed to ordered the setting up of a link the parts. Noyce utilized pantélégraphe service within the cryotrons known as Josephson junctions which they used for Jean Hoerni’s [Sept 26] planar French national telegraph process for this task, making his network. It went into regular building superconducting computers. More recently, design more suitable for mass service between Paris and production. Marseilles in 1867, some ten Josephson junctions have years before the invention of a become a mainstay of quantum After a long legal battle the workable telephone. In its first computing [May 2] research. inventor’s companies, Noyce’s year, the system transmitted Buck never saw these Fairchild Semiconductor [Oct 1] almost 5,000 faxes. developments, dying of and Kilby’s Texas Instruments pneumonia at the end of the [Oct 1], decided to cross-license 1950's. Indeed, his sudden, early their technologies. Fairchild was Dudley Allen Buck death has been the subject of the first to start selling ICs in some speculation. At the time he 1961. Born: April 25, 1927; was working with boron Kilby and Noyce were eventually San Francisco, California trichloride gas in a process for credited as co-inventors of the Died: May 21, 1959 creating boron that also integrated circuit. generated hydrogen chloride In the 1950’s, Buck invented the gas. Exposure to either can cryotron, a superconducting cause fatal pulmonary edema, switch he hoped would become which can look similar similar to Activision a building block for digital pneumonia. One biography even computers, instead of speculated that he was targeted Fantastic Four antiquated tubes or transistors. by the KGB. April 25, 1980 By wiring together just a few cryotrons, Buck showed that it Four ex-Atari [June 27] game was possible to build a logic designers: David Crane, Larry gate, a flip-flop, and a fan-out Kaplan, Alan Miller, and Bob Whitehead, nicknamed the 1 “Fantastic Four” and also the Fishing Derby) were all Atari The deal was intended to secure “Gang of Four”, teamed up with 2600 games [Oct 14], and all Microsoft’s rightful place as a businessman Jim Levy to form hits. Meanwhile Atari struggled mobile superpower. It had been Activision, the first ever since the departed programmers arranged by outgoing Microsoft independent video game had accounted for more than CEO Steve Ballmer [March 24], software company. half of its cartridge sales. who called it his “best idea”. He Naturally, legal action followed, also promised that Finland Activision was actually founded which wasn't settled until 1982. would become “the hub and the in Oct. 1979 after Crane and center for our phone R&D”. Miller left Atari, but Kaplan and That year saw Activision release Whitehead joined the team on Pitfall!, one of its biggest hits, The Microsoft/Nokia marriage this day. and a game that would kickoff was destined to be short lived. an entirely new genre, platform On July 8, 2015, Microsoft wrote games. off $7.6 billion related to its Nokia acquisition as an After the Great Video Game “impairment charge”. Less than Crash of 1983 [Dec 7], various a year later, on May 4, 2016, members of Activision left to Microsoft sold its Nokia-related form new companies, including feature phone assets to Foxconn in order: Accolade, Acclaim Technology and HMD Global for Entertainment, and Absolute a mere $350 million. Entertainment, all of which moved higher in the "A"s listings HMD Global was a recently- of companies. founded company based in Helsinki, run by former Nokia and Microsoft executive Arto Numella. His dream was to start Do You Yahoo!? selling Nokia-branded phones Co-founder David Crane April 25, 1996 once again, which became a (2013). Photo by Jason Scott. reality on Dec 1, 2016. CC BY 2.0. Prev: [April 12] Next: [May 28] Crane has said that the Yahoo! [March 2] began “Activision” name was based on advertising its search service on Levy’s notion of combining national TV, featuring the tag ‘active’ and ‘television’. It also line “Do You Yahoo?”. One hair- meant that the company raising example is online at appeared above Atari in https://www.youtube.com/watc alphabetical lists, including the h?v=xKmTHHlZ4Vw; another all-important show guide at CES somewhat fishy one is at [June 24]. https://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=Aa0WaSSVeIw The principal reason behind forming the business was the The ads first aired during “Late programmers’ increasing Night with David Letterman”, irritation at never being “Saturday Night Live”, and “Star credited, or properly rewarded, Trek: the Next Generation”, and for the creation of Atari games are a very early example of the that became multi-million dollar Internet impinging on sensations. When they’d taken mainstream media. their grievances to Atari CEO Ray Kassar in May 1979, Kassar had reportedly said, “You guys are no more important to this Microsoft and product than the people on the Nokia assembly line who put the cartridges together." April 25, 2014 Before Activision, all games had Microsoft finalized its been published exclusively by acquisition of Nokia’s [May 12] console’s manufacturer. mobile phone business for Activision also introduced the around $7 billion. This was a possibility of developer "rock bargain since at Nokia's height stardom" by adding credits to in the 1990’s the company had the packaging. been worth close to $300 billion. The company’s first releases Unfortunately, its market share (Boxing, Checkers, Dragster, and had plummeted in recent years. 2 .

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