IBM
International Business Machines Corporation is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924. IBM produces and sells computer hardware and software, provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is a major research organization, holding the record for most U. S. patents generated by a business for 26 consecutive years. Inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine, the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the SQL programming language, the UPC barcode, dynamic random-access memory; the IBM mainframe, exemplified by the System/360, was the dominant computing platform during the 1960s and 1970s. IBM has continually shifted business operations by focusing on higher-value, more profitable markets.
This includes spinning off printer manufacturer Lexmark in 1991 and the sale of personal computer and x86-based server businesses to Lenovo, acquiring companies such as PwC Consulting, SPSS, The Weather Company, Red Hat. In 2014, IBM announced that it would go "fabless", continuing to design semiconductors, but offloading manufacturing to GlobalFoundries. Nicknamed Big Blue, IBM is one of 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and one of the world's largest employers, with over 380,000 employees, known as "IBMers". At least 70% of IBMers are based outside the United States, the country with the largest number of IBMers is India. IBM employees have been awarded five Nobel Prizes, six Turing Awards, ten National Medals of Technology and five National Medals of Science. In the 1880s, technologies emerged that would form the core of International Business Machines. Julius E. Pitrap patented the computing scale in 1885. On June 16, 1911, their four companies were amalgamated in New York State by Charles Ranlett Flint forming a fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company based in Endicott, New York.
The five companies had offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York. C.. They manufactured machinery for sale and lease, ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders and cheese slicers, to tabulators and punched cards. Thomas J. Watson, Sr. fired from the National Cash Register Company by John Henry Patterson, called on Flint and, in 1914, was offered a position at CTR. Watson joined CTR as General Manager 11 months was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved. Having learned Patterson's pioneering business practices, Watson proceeded to put the stamp of NCR onto CTR's companies, he implemented sales conventions, "generous sales incentives, a focus on customer service, an insistence on well-groomed, dark-suited salesmen and had an evangelical fervor for instilling company pride and loyalty in every worker". His favorite slogan, "THINK", became a mantra for each company's employees. During Watson's first four years, revenues reached $9 million and the company's operations expanded to Europe, South America and Australia.
Watson never liked the clumsy hyphenated name "Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company" and on February 14, 1924 chose to replace it with the more expansive title "International Business Machines". By 1933 most of the subsidiaries had been merged into one company, IBM. In 1937, IBM's tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data, its clients including the U. S. Government, during its first effort to maintain the employment records for 26 million people pursuant to the Social Security Act, the tracking of persecuted groups by Hitler's Third Reich through the German subsidiary Dehomag. In 1949, Thomas Watson, Sr. created IBM World Trade Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM focused on foreign operations. In 1952, he stepped down after 40 years at the company helm, his son Thomas Watson, Jr. was named president. In 1956, the company demonstrated the first practical example of artificial intelligence when Arthur L. Samuel of IBM's Poughkeepsie, New York, laboratory programmed an IBM 704 not to play checkers but "learn" from its own experience.
In 1957, the FORTRAN scientific programming language was developed. In 1961, IBM developed the SABRE reservation system for American Airlines and introduced the successful Selectric typewriter. In 1963, IBM employees and computers helped. A year it moved its corporate headquarters from New York City to Armonk, New York; the latter half of the 1960s saw IBM continue its support of space exploration, participating in the 1965 Gemini flights, 1966 Saturn flights and 1969 lunar mission. On April 7, 1964, IBM announced the first computer system family, the IBM System/360, it spanned the complete range of commercial and scientific applications from large to small, allowing companies for the first time to upgrade to models with greater computing capability without having to rewrite their applications. It was followed by the IBM System/370 in 1970. Together the
Co-fired ceramic
Co-fired ceramic devices are monolithic, ceramic microelectronic devices where the entire ceramic support structure and any conductive and dielectric materials are fired in a kiln at the same time. Typical devices include capacitors, resistors and hybrid circuits; the technology is used for robust assembly and packaging of electronic components multi-layer packaging in the electronics industry, such as military electronics, MEMS, microprocessor and RF applications. Due to a multilayer approach based on glass-ceramics sheets this technology offers the possibility to integrate into the LTCC body passive electrical components and conductor lines manufactured in thick film technology; this differs from semiconductor device fabrication where layers are processed serially and each new layer is fabricated on top of previous layers. Co-firing can be divided into low temperature and high temperature applications: low temperature means that the sintering temperature is below 1,000 °C, while high temperature is around 1,600 °C.
Compared to LTCC, HTCC has higher resistance conductive layers. Co-fired ceramics were first developed in the late early'60s to make more robust capacitors; the technology was expanded in the'60s to include multilayer printed circuit board like structures. LTCC technology is beneficial for RF and high-frequency applications. In RF and wireless applications, LTCC technology is used to produce multilayer hybrid integrated circuits, which can include resistors, inductors and active components in the same package. In detail, these applications comprise mobile telecommunication devices, wireless local networks such as Bluetooth to in-car radars. LTCC hybrids have a smaller initial cost as compared with ICs, making them an attractive alternative to ASICs for small scale integration devices. Inductors are formed by printing conductor windings on ferrite ceramic tape. Depending on the desired inductance and current carrying capabilities a partial winding to several windings may be printed on each layer.
Under certain circumstances, a non-ferrite ceramic may be used. This is most common for hybrid circuits where capacitors and resistors will all be present and for high operating frequency applications where the hysteresis loop of the ferrite becomes an issue. Resistors may be added to the top layer post-firing. Using screen printing, a resistor paste is printed onto the LTCC surface, from which resistances needed in the circuit are generated; when fired, these resistors deviate from their design value and therefore require adjustment to meet the final tolerance. With Laser trimming one can achieve these resistances with different cut forms to the exact resistance value desired. With this procedure, the need for additional discrete resistors can be reduced, thereby allowing a further miniaturization of the printed circuit boards. LTCC transformers are similar to LTCC inductors. To improve coupling between windings transformers includes a low-permeability dielectric material printed over the windings on each layer.
The monolithic nature of LTCC transformers leads to a lower height than traditional wire wound transformers. The integrated core and windings mean these transformers are not prone to wire break failures in high mechanical stress environments. Integration of thick-film passive components and 3D mechanical structures inside one module permitted the fabrication of sophisticated 3D LTCC sensors e.g. accelerators. The possibility of the fabrication of many various passive thick-film components, sensors and 3D mechanical structures enabled the fabrication of multilayer LTCC microsystems. Using HTCC technology, microsystems for harsh environments, such as working temperatures of 1000 °C, have been realized. LTCC substrates can be most beneficially used for the realization of miniaturized devices and robust substrates. LTCC technology allows the combination of individual layers with different functionalities such as high permittivity and low dielectric loss into a single multilayer laminated package and thereby to achieve multi-functionality in combination with a high integration and interconnection level.
In addition, it provides the possibility to fabricate three-dimensional, robust structures enabling in combination with thick film technology the integration of passive, electronic components, such as capacitors and inductors into a single device. Low-temperature co-firing technology presents advantages compared to other packaging technologies including high temperature co-firing: the ceramic is fired below 1,000 °C due to a special composition of the material; this permits the co-firing with conductive materials. LTCC features the ability to embed passive elements, such as resistors and inductors into the ceramic package minimising the size of the completed module. HTCC components consist of multilayers of alumina or zirconia with platinum and molymanganese metalization; the advantages of HTCC in packaging technology includes mechanical rigidity and hermeticity, both of which are important in high-reliability and environmentally stressful applications. Another advantage is HTCC's thermal dissipation capability, which makes this a microprocessor packaging choice for higher performance processors.
Tape casting Laser trimming Hybrid integrated circuit www.ltcc.org.pl - Description of the whole LTCC process and LTCC applications with animations of each process stage LTCC Technology - description of LTCC and related drawings Kyocera LTCC - drawings showing an LTCC hybrid circuit s
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series, it competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo; the Xbox 360 features an online service, Xbox Live, expanded from its previous iteration on the original Xbox and received regular updates during the console's lifetime. Available in free and subscription-based varieties, Xbox Live allows users to: play games online. In addition to online multimedia features, it allows users to stream media from local PCs. Several peripherals have been released, including wireless controllers, expanded hard drive storage, the Kinect motion sensing camera; the release of these additional services and peripherals helped the Xbox brand grow from gaming-only to encompassing all multimedia, turning it into a hub for living-room computing entertainment.
Launched worldwide across 2005–2006, the Xbox 360 was in short supply in many regions, including North America and Europe. The earliest versions of the console suffered from a high failure rate, indicated by the so-called "Red Ring of Death", necessitating an extension of the device's warranty period. Microsoft released two redesigned models of the console: the Xbox 360 S in 2010, the Xbox 360 E in 2013; as of June 2014, 84 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide, making it the seventh-highest-selling video game console in history, the highest-selling console made by an American company. Although not the best-selling console of its generation, the Xbox 360 was deemed by TechRadar to be the most influential through its emphasis on digital media distribution and multiplayer gaming on Xbox Live; the Xbox 360's successor, the Xbox One, was released on November 22, 2013. On April 20, 2016, Microsoft announced that it would end the production of new Xbox 360 hardware, although the company will continue to support the platform.
Known during development as Xbox Next, Xbox 2, Xbox FS or NextBox, the Xbox 360 was conceived in early 2003. In February 2003, planning for the Xenon software platform began, was headed by Microsoft's Vice President J Allard; that month, Microsoft held an event for 400 developers in Bellevue, Washington to recruit support for the system. That month, Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, joined Microsoft. On August 12, 2003, ATI signed on to produce the graphic processing unit for the new console, a deal, publicly announced two days later. Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several Alpha development kits were spotted using Apple's Power Mac G5 hardware; this was because the system's PowerPC 970 processor running the same PowerPC architecture that the Xbox 360 would run under IBM's Xenon processor. The cores of the Xenon processor were developed using a modified version of the PlayStation 3's Cell Processor PPE architecture. According to David Shippy and Mickie Phipps, the IBM employees were "hiding" their work from Sony and Toshiba, IBM's partners in developing the Cell Processor.
Jeff Minter created the music visualization program Neon, included with the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 was released on November 2005, in the United States and Canada, it was launched in Mexico, Chile, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Russia. In its first year on the market, the system launched in 36 countries, more countries than any other console has launched in a single year. In 2009, IGN named the Xbox 360 the sixth-greatest video game console of all time, out of a field of 25. Although not the best-selling console of the seventh-generation, the Xbox 360 was deemed by TechRadar to be the most influential, by emphasizing digital media distribution and online gaming through Xbox Live, by popularizing game achievement awards. PC Magazine considered the Xbox 360 the prototype for online gaming as it "proved that online gaming communities could thrive in the console space". Five years after the Xbox 360's original debut, the well-received Kinect motion capture camera was released, which set the record of being the fastest selling consumer electronic device in history, extended the life of the console.
Edge ranked Xbox 360 the second-best console of the 1993–2013 period, stating "It had its own social network, cross-game chat, new indie games every week, the best version of just about every multiformat game... Killzone is no Halo and nowadays Gran Turismo is no Forza, but it's not about the exclusives—there's nothing to trump Naughty Dog's PS3 output, after all. Rather, it's about the choices Microsoft made back in the original Xbox's lifetime; the PC-like architecture meant the early EA Sports games ran at 60fps compared to only 30 on PS3, Xbox Live meant every dedicated player had an existing friends list, Halo meant Microsoft had the killer next-generation exclusive. And when developers demo games on PC now they do it with a 360 pad—another industry benchmark, a critical one." The Xbox 360 began production only 69 days before launch, Microsoft was not able to supply enough systems to meet initial consumer demand in Europe or North America, selling out upon release in all regions except in Japan.
Forty thousand units were offered for sale on auction site eBay during the initial week of
Haswell (microarchitecture)
Haswell is the codename for a processor microarchitecture developed by Intel as the "fourth-generation core" successor to the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. Intel announced CPUs based on this microarchitecture on June 4, 2013, at Computex Taipei 2013, while a working Haswell chip was demonstrated at the 2011 Intel Developer Forum. With Haswell, which uses a 22 nm process, Intel introduced low-power processors designed for convertible or "hybrid" ultrabooks, designated by the "Y" suffix. Haswell CPUs are used in conjunction with the Intel 8 Series chipsets, Intel 9 Series chipsets, Intel C220 series chipsets; the Haswell architecture is designed to optimize the power savings and performance benefits from the move to FinFET transistors on the improved 22 nm process node. Haswell has been launched in three major forms: Desktop version: Haswell-DT Mobile/Laptop version: Haswell-MB BGA version: 47 W and 57 W TDP classes: Haswell-H 13.5 W and 15 W TDP classes: Haswell-ULT 10 W TDP class: Haswell-ULX ULT = Ultra Low TDP.
All other models have GT1 integrated graphics. See Intel HD and Iris Graphics for more details. Due to the low power requirements of tablet and UltraBook platforms, Haswell-ULT and Haswell-ULX are only available in dual-core configurations. All other versions come as dual- or quad-core variants. Compared to Ivy Bridge: Approximately 8% faster vector processing Up to 5% faster single-threaded performance 6% faster multi-threaded performance Desktop variants of Haswell draw between 8% and 23% more power under load than Ivy Bridge. A 6% increase in sequential CPU performance Up to 20% performance increase over the integrated HD4000 GPU Total performance improvement on average is about 3% Around 15 °C hotter than Ivy Bridge, while clock frequencies of over 4.6 GHz are achievable 22 nm manufacturing process 3D Tri-Gate FinFET transistors Micro-operation cache capable of storing 1.5 K micro-operations 14- to 19-stage instruction pipeline, depending on the micro-operation cache hit or miss Mainstream variants are up to quad-core.
Native support for dual-channel DDR3/DDR3L memory, with up to 32 GB of RAM on LGA 1150 variants 64 KB L1 cache and 256 KB L2 cache per core A total of 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes on LGA 1150 variants Wider core: fourth arithmetic logic unit, third address generation unit, second branch execution unit, deeper buffers, higher cache bandwidth, improved front-end and memory controller, higher load/store bandwidth. New instructions; the instruction decode queue, which holds instructions after they have been decoded, is no longer statically partitioned between the two threads that each core can service. New sockets and chipsets: LGA 1150 for desktops, rPGA947 and BGA1364 for the mobile market. Z97 and H97 chipsets for the Haswell Refresh and Broadwell, in Q2 2014. LGA 2011-v3 with X99 chipset for the enthusiast-class desktop platform Haswell-E. Intel Transactional Synchronization Extensions for the Haswell-EX variant. In August 2014 Intel announced that a bug exists in the TSX implementation on the current steppings of Haswell, Haswell-E, Haswell-EP and early Broadwell CPUs, which resulted in disabling the TSX feature on affected CPUs via a microcode update.
Hardware graphics support for Direct3D 11.1 and OpenGL 4.3. Intel 10.18.14.5057 driver is the last planned driver release on Windows 7/8.1. DDR4 for the enthusiast and enterprise/server segments and for the Enthusiast-Class Desktop Platform Haswell-E Variable Base clock like LGA 2011. Four versions of the integrated GPU: GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT3e, where GT3 version has 40 execution units. Haswell's predecessor, Ivy Bridge, has a maximum of 16 EUs. GT3e version with 40 EUs and on-package 128 MB of embedded DRAM, called Crystalwell, is available only in mobile H-SKUs and desktop R-SKUs; this eDRAM is a Level 4 cache. Optional support for Thunderbolt technology and Thunderbolt 2.0 Fully integrated voltage regulator, thereby moving some of the components from motherboard onto the CPU. New advanced power-saving system. 37, 47, 57 W thermal design power mobile processors. 35, 45, 65, 84, 88, 95 and 130–140 W TDP desktop processors. 15 W or 11.5W TDP processors for the Ultrabook platform leading to reduced heat, which results in thinner as well as lighter Ultrabooks, but the performance level is lower than the 17 W version.
Shrink of the Platform Controller Hub, from 65 nm to 32 nm. Haswell-EP variant, released in September 2014, with up to 18 cores and marketed as the Xeon E5-1600 v3 and Xeon E5-2600 v3 series. Haswell-EX variant, released in May 2015, with 18 cores and functioning T
Sony
Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Tokyo. Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming and financial services; the company owns the largest music entertainment business in the world, the largest video game console business and one of the largest video game publishing businesses, is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets, a leading player in the film and television entertainment industry. Sony was ranked 97th on the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list. Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, engaged in business through its four operating components: electronics, motion pictures and financial services; these make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures, Sony Mobile, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Financial Holdings, others.
Sony is among the semiconductor sales leaders and since 2015, the fifth-largest television manufacturer in the world after Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, TCL and Hisense. The company's current slogan is Be Moved, their former slogans were The One and Only, It's like.no.other and make.believe. Sony has a weak tie to the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group corporate group, the successor to the Mitsui group. Sony began in the wake of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo; the company started with a total of eight employees. In May 1946, Ibuka was joined by Akio Morita to establish a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo; the company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G. In 1958, the company changed its name to "Sony"; when Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK.
The company used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name, tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company using Teletech as a brand name; the name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the Latin word "sonus", the root of sonic and sound, the other was "sonny", a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a young boy. In 1950s Japan, "sonny boys" was a loan word in Japanese, which connoted smart and presentable young men, which Sony founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka considered themselves to be; the first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958. At the time of the change, it was unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji; the move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, had strong feelings about the name.
They pushed for a name such as Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however. Both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval. According to Schiffer, Sony's TR-63 radio "cracked open the U. S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid-1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5 million units by the end of 1968. Sony co-founder Akio Morita founded Sony Corporation of America in 1960. In the process, he was struck by the mobility of employees between American companies, unheard of in Japan at that time; when he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony. The company filled many positions in this manner, inspired other Japanese companies to do the same. Moreover, Sony played a major role in the development of Japan as a powerful exporter during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
It helped to improve American perceptions of "made in Japan" products. Known for its production quality, Sony was able to charge above-market prices for its consumer electronics and resisted lowering prices. In 1971, Masaru Ibuka handed the position of president over to his co-founder Akio Morita. Sony began a life insurance company in one of its many peripheral businesses. Amid a global recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company was forced to cut prices. Sony's profits fell sharply. "It's over for Sony," one analyst concluded. "The company's best days are behind it." Around that time, Norio Ohga took up the role of president. He encouraged the development of the Compact Disc in the 1970s and 1980s, of the PlayStation in the early 1990s. Ohga went on to purchase CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989 expanding Sony's media presence. Ohga would succeed Morita as chief executive officer in 1989. Under the vision of co-founder Akio Morita and his successors, the company had aggressively expanded in
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs were discontinued in the early 2010s after the widespread adoption of capable smartphones, in particular those based on iOS and Android. Nearly all PDAs have the ability to connect to the Internet. A PDA has an electronic visual display. Most models have audio capabilities, allowing usage as a portable media player, enabling most of them to be used as telephones. Most PDAs can access intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi or Wireless Wide Area Networks. Sometimes, instead of buttons, PDAs employ touchscreen technology; the technology industry has recycled the term personal digital assistance. The term is more used for software that identifies a user's voice to reply to the queries; the first PDA, the Organizer, was released in 1984 by Psion, followed by Psion's Series 3, in 1991. The latter began to resemble the more familiar PDA style, including a full keyboard; the term PDA was first used on January 7, 1992 by Apple Computer CEO John Sculley at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, referring to the Apple Newton.
In 1994, IBM introduced the first PDA with full telephone functionality, the IBM Simon, which can be considered the first smartphone. In 1996, Nokia introduced a PDA with telephone functionality, the 9000 Communicator, which became the world's best-selling PDA. Another early entrant in this market was Palm, with a line of PDA products which began in March 1996. A typical PDA has a touchscreen for navigation, a memory card slot for data storage, IrDA, Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi. However, some PDAs may not have a touchscreen, using softkeys, a directional pad, a numeric keypad or a thumb keyboard for input. To have the functions expected of a PDA, a device's software includes an appointment calendar, a to-do list, an address book for contacts, a calculator, some sort of memo program. PDAs with wireless data connections typically include an email client and a Web browser, may or may not include telephony functionality. Many of the original PDAs, such as the Apple Newton and Palm Pilot, featured a touchscreen for user interaction, having only a few buttons—usually reserved for shortcuts to often-used programs.
Some touchscreen PDAs, including Windows Mobile devices, had a detachable stylus to facilitate making selections. The user interacts with the device by tapping the screen to select buttons or issue commands, or by dragging a finger on the screen to make selections or scroll. Typical methods of entering text on touchscreen PDAs include: A virtual keyboard, where a keyboard is shown on the touchscreen. Text is entered by tapping the on-screen keyboard with stylus. An external keyboard connected via Infrared port, or Bluetooth; some users may choose a chorded keyboard for one-handed use. Handwriting recognition, where letters or words are written on the touchscreen with a stylus, the PDA converts the input to text. Recognition and computation of handwritten horizontal and vertical formulas, such as "1 + 2 =", may be a feature. Stroke recognition allows the user to make a predefined set of strokes on the touchscreen, sometimes in a special input area, representing the various characters to be input.
The strokes are simplified character shapes, making them easier for the device to recognize. One known stroke recognition system is Palm's Graffiti. Despite research and development projects, end-users experience mixed results with handwriting recognition systems; some find it frustrating and inaccurate, while others are satisfied with the quality of the recognition. Touchscreen PDAs intended for business use, such as the BlackBerry and Palm Treo also offer full keyboards and scroll wheels or thumbwheels to facilitate data entry and navigation. Many touchscreen PDAs support some form of external keyboard as well. Specialized folding keyboards, which offer a full-sized keyboard but collapse into a compact size for transport, are available for many models. External keyboards may attach to the PDA directly, using a cable, or may use wireless technology such as infrared or Bluetooth to connect to the PDA. Newer PDAs, such as the HTC HD2, Apple iPhone, Apple iPod Touch, Palm Pre, Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi, Palm Pixi Plus, Google Android include more advanced forms of touchscreen that can register multiple touches simultaneously.
These "multi-touch" displays allow for more sophisticated interfaces using various gestures entered with one or more fingers. Although many early PDAs did not have memory card slots, now most have either some form of Secure Digital slot, a CompactFlash slot or a combination of the two. Although designed for memory, Secure Digital Input/Output and CompactFlash cards are available that provide accessories like Wi-Fi or digital cameras, if the device can support them; some PDAs have a USB port for USB flash drives. Some PDAs use microSD cards, which are electronically compatible with SD cards, but have a much smaller physical size. While early PDAs connected to a user's personal computer via serial ports or another proprietary connection, many today connect via a USB cable. Older PDAs were unable to connect to each other via USB, as their implementations of USB didn't support acting as the "host"; some early PDAs were able to connect to the Internet indirectly by means of an external modem connected via the PDA's serial port or "sync" connector, or directly by using an expansion card that provided an Ethernet port.
Most modern PDAs have a popular wireless protocol for mobile devices. Bluetooth can be used to connect keyboards, headsets, GPS receiver
Samsung
Samsung is a South Korean multinational conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, is the largest South Korean chaebol. Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, insurance and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since 1990, Samsung has globalised its activities and electronics; as of 2017, Samsung has the 6th highest global brand value. Notable Samsung industrial affiliates include Samsung Electronics, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T. Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Everland and Cheil Worldwide. Samsung has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics and culture and has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River".
Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total exports. Samsung's revenue was equal to 17% of South Korea's $1,082 billion GDP. According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja word Samsung is "tri-star" or "three stars"; the word "three" represents something "big and powerful". In 1938, Lee Byung-chul of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county moved to nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe. Samsung started out as a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong, it dealt in locally-grown groceries and noodles. The company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947; when the Korean War broke out, he was forced to leave Seoul. He started a sugar refinery in Busan named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee built the plant in Chimsan-dong, Daegu, it was the largest woollen mill in the country. Samsung diversified into many different areas. Lee sought to establish Samsung as leader in a wide range of industries. Samsung moved into lines of business such as insurance and retail.
In 1947, Cho Hong-jai, the Hyosung group's founder, jointly invested in a new company called Samsung Mulsan Gongsa, or the Samsung Trading Corporation, with the Samsung's founder Lee Byung-chull. The trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation. After a few years and Lee separated due to differences in management style. Cho wanted a 30 equity share. Samsung Group was separated into Hyosung Group, Hankook Tire and other businesses. In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered the electronics industry, it formed several electronics-related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Corning and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications, made the facility in Suwon. Its first product was a black-and-white television set. In 1980, Samsung acquired the Gumi-based Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered telecommunications hardware, its early products were switchboards. The facility was developed into the telephone and fax manufacturing systems and became the center of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing.
They have produced over 800 million mobile phones to date. The company grouped them together under Samsung Electronics in the 1980s. After Lee, the founder's death in 1987, Samsung Group was separated into four business groups—Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and the Hansol Group. Shinsegae was part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group, the Hansol Group. Today these separated groups are independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group. One Hansol Group representative said, "Only people ignorant of the laws governing the business world could believe something so absurd", adding, "When Hansol separated from the Samsung Group in 1991, it severed all payment guarantees and share-holding ties with Samsung affiliates." One Hansol Group source asserted, "Hansol, CJ have been under independent management since their respective separations from the Samsung Group". One Shinsegae department store executive director said, "Shinsegae has no payment guarantees associated with the Samsung Group".
In 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to invest in research and development, investments that were pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. In 1982, it built a television assembly plant in Portugal; as of 2012, Samsung has invested more than US$13,000,000,000 in the Austin facility, which operates under the name Samsung Austin Semiconductor. This makes the Austin location the largest foreign investment in Texas and
