1.Transistors are vital for digital circuits to work.

These components are used as very fast

switches in digital logic circuits. Transistors are normally so small that hundreds of thousands fit on one processing chip on a computer motherboard. The types of transistors used in school projects are normally large enough to fit on the end of a small finger. However, the way they switched on and off is the same (click here for transistor information sheets) . When a transistor is switched on it produces a 1 and when it is switched off it produces a 0. Transistors in the circuit of a computer microprocessor can switch on and off thousands of times per second. Without the invention of the transistor, computer processing power would be very limited and slow. Two basic examples of simple transistor driven logic (AND / OR) circuits are shown below.

This is an AND gate circuit and it can be made quite easily. The example shown is built from a modular electronics kit. Both switches A and B must be pressed together for the bulb to light. If you construct this circuit, you may need to alter the value of the resistors. This will depend on the type of transistors used and whether to bulb or an LED is used.

TThis is an OR gate circuit. Either switch A or B must be pressed for the bulb to light. The switches do not have to be pressed together.

Coppermine

A 900 MHz Coppermine Pentium III. The second version, codenamed Coppermine (Intel product code: 80526), was released on 25 October 1999, running at 500, 533, 550, 600, 650, 667, 700, and 733 MHz. From December 1999 to May 2000, Intel released Pentium IIIs running at speeds of 750, 800, 850, 866, 900, 933 and 1000 MHz (1 GHz). Both 100 MHz FSB and 133 MHz FSB models were made. An "E" was appended to the model name to indicate cores using the new 0.18 m fabrication process. An additional "B" was later appended to designate 133 MHz FSB models, resulting in an "EB" suffix. In terms of overall performance, the Coppermine held a slight advantage over the Athlons it was released against, which was reversed when AMD applied their own die shrink and added an on-die L2 cache to the Athlon. Athlon held the advantage in floating-point intensive code, while the Coppermine could perform better when SSE optimizations were used, but in practical terms there was

little difference in how the two chips performed, clock-for-clock. However, AMD were able to clock the Athlon higher, reaching speeds of 1.2 GHz before the launch of the Pentium 4. A 1.13 GHz version was released in mid-2000 but famously recalled after a collaboration between HardOCP and Tom's Hardware[3] discovered various instabilities with the operation of the new CPU speed grade. The Coppermine core was unable to reliably reach the 1.13 GHz speed without various tweaks to the processor's microcode, effective cooling, additional voltage (1.75 V vs. 1.65 V), and specifically validated platforms.[4] Intel only officially supported the processor on its own VC820 i820-based motherboard, but even this motherboard displayed instability in the independent tests of the hardware review sites. In benchmarks that were stable, performance was shown to be sub-par, with the 1.13 GHz CPU equalling a 1.0 GHz model. Tom's Hardware attributed this performance deficit to relaxed tuning of the CPU and motherboard to improve stability.[5] Intel needed at least six months to resolve the problems using a new cD0 stepping and re-released 1.1 GHz and 1.13 GHz versions in 2001. Microsoft's Xbox game console uses a variant of the Pentium III/Mobile Celeron family in a Micro-PGA2 form factor. The sSpec designator of the chips is SL5Sx, which makes it most similar to the Mobile Celeron Coppermine-128 processor. It shares with the Coppermine-128 Celeron its 133 MT/s front side bus, 128 KB L2 cache, and 180 nm process technology.[6] Major improvements introduced with the Coppermine were an on-chip L2 cache (which Intel called an Advanced Transfer Cache, or ATC) and better pipelining. The ATC operates at the core clock rate and has a capacity of 256 KB. It is eight-way set-associative and is accessed via a 256-bit bus. These features resulted in a cache with a lower latency relative to Katmai, improving performance significantly. Under competitive pressure from the AMD Athlon, Intel re-worked the internals, finally removing some well-known pipeline stalls. The result was that applications affected by these pipeline stalls ran faster on the Coppermine by up to 30%. The Coppermine contained 29 million transistors and was fabricated in a 0.18 m process. Although its codename gives the impression that it used copper interconnects, its interconnects were in fact aluminium. The Coppermine was packaged in a 370-pin FC-PGA for use with Socket 370. Early versions have an exposed die, whereas later versions have an integrated heat spreader (IHS) to improve contact between the die and the heatsink. This in itself did not improve thermal conductivity, since it added another layer of metal and thermal paste between the die and the heatsink, but it greatly assisted in holding the heatsink flat against the die. Earlier Coppermines without the IHS made heatsink mounting challenging.[7] If the heatsink was not flat against the die, heat transfer efficiency was greatly reduced. Some heatsink manufacturers began providing pads on their products, similar to what AMD did with the "Thunderbird" Athlon to ensure that the heatsink was mounted flatly. The enthusiast community went so far as to create shims to assist in maintaining a flat interface.[8]

[edit] Coppermine T

This revision is an intermediate step between Coppermine and Tualatin, with support for lower-voltage system logic present on the latter but core power within previously defined voltage specs of the former so it could work in older system boards. Intel used the latest Coppermines with the cD0-Stepping and modified them so that they worked with low voltage system bus operation at 1.25 V AGTL as well as normal 1.5 V AGTL+ signal levels, and would auto detect differential or single-ended clocking. This modification made them compatible to the latest generation Socket-370 boards supporting FC-PGA2 packaged CPUs while maintaining compatibility with the older FC-PGA boards. The Coppermine T also had two way symmetrical multiprocessing capabilities, but only in FC-PGA2 boards. The Coppermine T is the only Coppermine to feature an integrated heat spreader. They can be distinguished from Tualatin processors by their part numbers, which include the digits: 80533 e.g. the 1133 MHz SL5QK P/N is: RK80533PZ006256, while the 1000 MHz SL5QJ P/N is: RK80533PZ001256.[9]

2. Suited for WLAN client and access point applications in 2.42.5 GHz frequency
band, RMPA2455 utilizes InGaP Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor technology combined with 30 dBm output power and 30 dB small signal gain. Linear power amplifier, suited for 5 V environment, comes in 3 x 3 x 0.9 mm, leadless, 16-pin QFN package with 50 ohm internal matching on input and output. On-chip detector provides power-sensing capability, while logic capability provides shutdown options.

Low-profile 3 x 3 mm PAM for 2.4-2.5GHz frequency band offers industry's most advanced 5V performance for desktop PC motherboards and access points South Portland, Maine-July 28, 2004-Fairchild Semiconductor (NYSE: FCS) a leading global supplier of high-performance products for power optimization, announces the RMPA2455, a new RF Power Amplifier Module (PAM) for high-performance Wireless LAN (WLAN) client and access point applications in the 2.4-2.5 GHz frequency band. The device's unique combination of 30 dBm output power, 30 dB small signal gain and 3 x 3 mm low-profile leadless package provides stand-out performance unmatched by any competitive device in the industry. These performance attributes make the RMPA2455 the optimal linear power amplifier design choice for the 5V environment, providing industryleading performance in a substantially smaller footprint package compared to alternative PAM solutions. The RMPA2455 device's low-profile, 16-pin, 3 x 3 x 0.9 mm QFN package with 50 Ohm internal matching on both the input and output minimizes next-level PCB space

requirements and simplifies integration. The device's on-chip detector provides powersensing capability while the logic capability provides power-saving shutdown options. The RMPA2455's low power consumption and excellent linearity are the result of Fairchild's proprietary InGaP Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT) technology. "The RMPA2455's industry-leading performance in the form of 30 dB small signal gain and 3% EVM at 22 dBm modulated power output are the primary reasons why Fairchild was designed into the premier standard platform of one of the world's largest PC motherboard manufacturers," says Russ Wagner, general manager of Fairchild's RF power products group. "Now available in high-volume production quantities, the RMPA2455 device expands Fairchild's growing family of 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 mm RF power amplifiers. Designers can rely on Fairchild for the full spectrum of CDMA/CDMA2000-1X, for U.S. PCS, Korean band, cellular band, WLAN and WCDMA applications." Other key features and specifications of the RMPA2455 power amplifier include: Full optimization for 802.11b/g access point applications; 5.0 V positive collector supply operation; Bias and logic control power-saving shutdown options; Integrated power detector with 20 dB dynamic range; and DC blocked RF input/output

3. In industrial SMPS, the VDR and the bipolar Zener diodes are normally used. Contrarily, in domestic applications only the VDR is used. Fig. 10 shows the voltage and current characteristic curves of these two devices In SMPS the VDR presents typically a conduction

voltage, VCON, of 120% VI and a clamping voltage of 185% VI. This way, a low leakage current above some few A (50 - 200A) is guaranteed. This device can support energy dissipation greater than 10J to 100J. The Zener diodes have a clamping voltage well defined and present low dynamic conduction resistance, but can onlysupport low energy dissipation, typically less than 10J. The correct operation of these two circuits, simultaneously, requires that the Zener clamping voltage is superior to the VDR conduction voltage, to guarantee the main dissipation energy in the VDR. Normally, the Zener diodes clamping voltage is defined for 125% of VI. The Zener diodes are connected after the NTC resistor connection, in order to perform a current limiter. The voltage controller thyristor circuit has a characteristic identical to the VDR, but with a conduction voltage well

defined and presents zero leakage current. The zener diodes are more expensive than the VDR and, therefore, are less utilized in domestic SMPS. The voltage controller thyristor is the most expensive protection circuit and is only used in expensive and ultra sensitive equipments.
support low energy dissipation, typically less than 10J. The correct operation of these two circuits, simultaneously, requires that the Zener clamping voltage

is superior to the VDR conduction voltage, to guarantee the main dissipation energy in the VDR. Normally, the Zener diodes clamping voltage is defined for 125% of VI. The Zener diodes are connected after the NTC resistor connection, in order to perform a current limiter. The voltage controller thyristor circuit has a characteristic identical to the VDR, but with a conduction voltage well defined and presents zero leakage current. defined and presents zero leakage current. The zener diodes are more expensive than the VDR and, therefore, are less utilized in domestic SMPS. The voltage controller thyristor is the most expensive protection circuit and is only used in expensive and ultra sensitive equipments.

4.