Modem
A modem is a hardware device that converts data between transmission media so that it can be transmitted from computer to computer. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used with any means of transmitting analog signals from light-emitting diodes to radio. A common type of modem is one that turns the digital data of a computer into modulated electrical signal for transmission over telephone lines and demodulated by another modem at the receiver side to recover the digital data. Modems are classified by the maximum amount of data they can send in a given unit of time expressed in bits per second or bytes per second. Modems can be classified by their symbol rate, measured in baud; the baud unit denotes symbols per second, or the number of times per second the modem sends a new signal. For example, the ITU V.21 standard used audio frequency-shift keying with two possible frequencies, corresponding to two distinct symbols, to carry 300 bits per second using 300 baud.
By contrast, the original ITU V.22 standard, which could transmit and receive four distinct symbols, transmitted 1,200 bits by sending 600 symbols per second using phase-shift keying News wire services in the 1920s used multiplex devices that satisfied the definition of a modem. However, the modem function was incidental to the multiplexing function, so they are not included in the history of modems. Modems grew out of the need to connect teleprinters over ordinary phone lines instead of the more expensive leased lines, used for current loop–based teleprinters and automated telegraphs. In 1941, the Allies developed a voice encryption system called SIGSALY which used a vocoder to digitize speech encrypted the speech with one-time pad and encoded the digital data as tones using frequency shift keying. Mass-produced modems in the United States began as part of the SAGE air-defense system in 1958, connecting terminals at various airbases, radar sites, command-and-control centers to the SAGE director centers scattered around the United States and Canada.
SAGE modems were described by AT&T's Bell Labs as conforming to their newly published Bell 101 dataset standard. While they ran on dedicated telephone lines, the devices at each end were no different from commercial acoustically coupled Bell 101, 110 baud modems; the 201A and 201B Data-Phones were synchronous modems using two-bit-per-baud phase-shift keying. The 201A operated half-duplex at 2,000 bit/s over normal phone lines, while the 201B provided full duplex 2,400 bit/s service on four-wire leased lines, the send and receive channels each running on their own set of two wires; the famous Bell 103A dataset standard was introduced by AT&T in 1962. It provided full-duplex service at 300 bit/s over normal phone lines. Frequency-shift keying was used, with the call originator transmitting at 1,070 or 1,270 Hz and the answering modem transmitting at 2,025 or 2,225 Hz; the available 103A2 gave an important boost to the use of remote low-speed terminals such as the Teletype Model 33 ASR and KSR, the IBM 2741.
AT&T reduced modem costs by introducing the answer-only 113B/C modems. For many years, the Bell System maintained a monopoly on the use of its phone lines and what devices could be connected to them. However, the FCC's seminal Carterfone Decision of 1968, the FCC concluded that electronic devices could be connected to the telephone system as long as they used an acoustic coupler. Since most handsets were supplied by Western Electric and thus of a standard design, acoustic couplers were easy to build. Acoustically coupled Bell 103A-compatible 300 bit/s modems were common during the 1970s. Well-known models included the Novation CAT and the Anderson-Jacobson, the latter spun off from an in-house project at Stanford Research Institute. An lower-cost option was the Pennywhistle modem, designed to be built using parts from electronics scrap and surplus stores. In December 1972, Vadic introduced the VA3400, notable for full-duplex operation at 1,200 bit/s over the phone network. Like the 103A, it used different frequency bands for receive.
In November 1976, AT&T introduced the 212A modem to compete with Vadic. It used the lower frequency set for transmission. One could use the 212A with a 103A modem at 300 bit/s. According to Vadic, the change in frequency assignments made the 212 intentionally incompatible with acoustic coupling, thereby locking out many potential modem manufacturers. In 1977, Vadic responded with the VA3467 triple modem, an answer-only modem sold to computer center operators that supported Vadic's 1,200-bit/s mode, AT&T's 212A mode, 103A operation; the Hush-a-Phone decision applied only to mechanical connections, but the Carterfone decision of 1968, led to the FCC introducing a rule setting stringent AT&T-designed tests for electronically coupling a device to the phone lines. This opened the door to direct-connect modems that plugged directly into the phone line rather than via a handset. However, the cost of passing the tests was considerable, acoustically coupled modems remained common into the early 1980s.
The falling prices of electronics in the late 1970s led to an increasing number of direct-connect models around 1980. In spite of being directly connected, these modems were operated like their earlier acoustic versions – dialing and other phone-control operations were completed by hand, using an attached handset
Video game console
A video game console is a computer device that outputs a video signal or visual image to display a video game that one or more people can play. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a console machine designed for consumers to use for playing video games, in contrast to arcade machines or home computers. An arcade machine consists of a video game computer, game controller and speakers housed in large chassis. A home computer is a personal computer designed for home use for a variety of purposes, such as bookkeeping, accessing the Internet and playing video games. While arcades and computers are expensive or “technical” devices, video game consoles were designed with affordability and accessibility to the general public in mind. Unlike similar consumer electronics such as music players and movie players, which use industry-wide standard formats, video game consoles use proprietary formats which compete with each other for market share. There are various types of video game consoles, including home video game consoles, handheld game consoles and dedicated consoles.
Although Ralph Baer had built working game consoles by 1966, it was nearly a decade before the Pong game made them commonplace in regular people's living rooms. Through evolution over the 1990s and 2000s, game consoles have expanded to offer additional functions such as CD players, DVD players, Blu-ray disc players, web browsers, set-top boxes and more; the first video games appeared in the 1960s. They were played on massive computers connected to vector displays, not analog televisions. Ralph H. Baer conceived the idea of a home video game in 1951. In the late 1960s, while working for Sanders Associates, Baer created a series of video game console designs. One of these designs, which gained the nickname of the 1966 "Brown Box", featured changeable game modes and was demonstrated to several TV manufacturers leading to an agreement between Sanders Associates and Magnavox. In 1972, Magnavox released the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console which could be connected to a TV set. Ralph Baer's initial design had called for a huge row of switches that would allow players to turn on and off certain components of the console to create different games like tennis, volleyball and chase.
Magnavox replaced the switch design with separate cartridges for each game. Although Baer had sketched up ideas for cartridges that could include new components for new games, the carts released by Magnavox all served the same function as the switches and allowed players to choose from the Odyssey's built-in games; the Odyssey sold about 100,000 units, making it moderately successful, it was not until Atari's arcade game Pong popularized video games that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By autumn 1975, bowing to the popularity of Pong, canceled the Odyssey and released a scaled-down version that played only Pong and hockey, the Odyssey 100. A second, "higher end" console, the Odyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added on-screen scoring, up to four players, a third game—Smash. Released with Atari's own home Pong console through Sears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. All three of the new consoles used simpler designs than the original Odyssey did with no board game pieces or extra cartridges.
In the years that followed, the market saw many companies rushing similar consoles to market. After General Instrument released their inexpensive microchips, each containing a complete console on a single chip, many small developers began releasing consoles that looked different externally, but internally were playing the same games. Most of the consoles from this era were dedicated consoles playing only the games that came with the console; these video game consoles were just called video games because there was little reason to distinguish the two yet. While a few companies like Atari and newcomer Coleco pushed the envelope, the market became flooded with simple, similar video games. Fairchild released the Fairchild Video Entertainment System in 1976. While there had been previous game consoles that used cartridges, either the cartridges had no information and served the same function as flipping switches or the console itself was empty and the cartridge contained all of the game components.
The VES, contained a programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to store microprocessor instructions. RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles, the RCA Studio II and the Atari 2600, respectively; the first handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges was the Microvision designed by Smith Engineering, distributed and sold by Milton-Bradley in 1979. Crippled by a small, fragile LCD display and a narrow selection of games, it was discontinued two years later; the Epoch Game Pocket Computer was released in Japan in 1984. The Game Pocket Computer featured an LCD screen with 75 X 64 resolution and could produce graphics at about the same level as early Atari 2600 games; the system sold poorly, as a result, only five games were made for it. Nintendo's Game & Watch series of dedicated game systems proved more successful, it helped to establish handheld gaming as popular and lasted until 1991. Many Game & Watch games were re-released on Nintendo's subsequent handheld systems.
The VES continued to be sold at a profit after 1977, both Bally and Magnavox brought their own programmable cartridge-based consoles to the market. However, i
Grundig
Grundig is a German manufacturer of consumer electronics, domestic appliances and personal care products. Established in 1945 by Max Grundig in Nuremberg. Since 2007, the Grundig brand has become part of Turkey's Arçelik A. S. the third largest company in the white goods industry in Europe and part of the Stock Exchange-listed Koç Holding, a global conglomerate with more than 80,000 employees. Grundig began in 1930 with the establishment of a store named Fürth, Grundig & Wurzer, which sold radios and was headquartered in Fürth, northern Bavaria. After the Second World War, Max Grundig recognized the need for radios in Germany, in 1947 produced a kit, while a factory and administration centre were built at Fürth. In 1951, the first television sets were manufactured at the new facility. At the time Grundig was the largest radio manufacturer in Europe. Divisions in Nuremberg and Karlsruhe were established. In 2013, after launching its white goods product range, Grundig became one of the mainstream home electronics manufacturers in Europe.
Arcelik A.Ş. with more than 27,000 employees worldwide, is Grundig's main shareholder. Grundig has manufacturing plants in several European cities, that deliver Grundig products to more than 65 countries around the world. Grundig's parent company started as a typical German company in 1945, its early notability was due to Grundig radio. Max Grundig, a radio dealer, built "Heinzelmann", a radio that did not use thermionic valves; the first of the same was named the'Weltklang'. Based on Heinzelmann success, Grundig started a factory; this allowed the company to start Grundig TV. This was created for the first German television channel which started in 1952; the company developed a portable tape recorder and The Grundig Television Receiver 210. A plant was opened in 1960 to manufacture tape recorders in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the first production by Grundig outside Germany; the managing director of the plant Thomas Niedermayer, was kidnapped and killed by the Provisional IRA in December 1973. The factory was closed with the loss of around 1000 jobs in 1980.
In 1972, Grundig GmbH became Grundig AG. After this Philips began to accumulate shares in the company over the years, assumed complete economic control in 1993. Grundig pulled out of this partnership in 1998 owing to unsatisfactory performance and the decline in Philips consumer electronics presence around the world. Germany's first colour television projector was started by Grundig in 1981; the next year, the second generation electronic notepad was marketed. Philips increased its stake in the company and Max Grundig no longer controlled business management in 1984. In 1991, Grundig entered the telephony equipment market starting with its cordless telephone. In 1993, the Grundig TV was based on a 16:9 picture format for signal transmission. In 1995 and 1996, the company included 3-D sound systems, TVs, satellite receivers and other initiatives that included interactive user guidance. However, Philips ended its stake in the company by 1997-8. At the end of June 2000 the company relocated its headquarters in Fürth to Nuremberg-Langwasser.
Grundig had a turnover of €1.281 billion the following year. In autumn 2002, Grundig's banks did not extend the company's lines of credit, leaving the company with an April 2003 deadline to announce insolvency. Grundig AG declared bankruptcy in 2003. In 2004 Britain's Alba plc and the Turkish Koç's Beko jointly took over Grundig Home InterMedia System, Grundig's consumer electronics division. In 2007 Alba sold its half of the business to Koç for US$50.3 million, although it retained the license to use the Grundig brand in the UK until 2010, in Australasia until 2012. In 2007 Grundig Mobile announced the U900 Linux-based mobile phone. At the end of 2007 Turkey's Koç Holding, took full ownership of Grundig Multimedia, the parent company of Grundig Intermedia GmbH in Nuremberg; the company continued on to entertainment electronics and home appliances. Company entered the goods sector in 2013 becoming EU's only consumer electronics company covering the full range. Grundig's headquarters are in Germany.
Worldwide, the Grundig company employs an additional 1,600 people in R&D and sales. Grundig designs products aiming for the highest energy conservation; the company is organized into three product groups – consumer electronics, small domestic appliances and large household appliances. Grundig has been the first, official technology partner of the German Bundesliga since 2011. In addition to that the Nuremberg football Stadium is called Grundig Stadium until the end of 2015. Grundig continued its German "Bundesliga Official Technology Partnership" in 2014; the Grundig logo has been a permanent display item during all Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 broadcasts since 2012/13 until 2014/15. Grundig is the name sponsor of Norwegian Women's and Men's Handball Leagues. Furthermore, Grundig continued its sponsorship with Fenerbahce Women's and Men's Volleyball Teams and sponsored many international golf tournaments in 2014. Grundig launched the "Respect Food" initiative with the goal of underlining the seriousness of the food waste problem to reduce global food waste, the 2nd topic of the UN’s 2030 sustainable development goals.
Grundig offers electronic goods. Television: Grundig offers a wide range of LED televisions. Radio: Grundig produced several ranges of transistor radios; these included the small portable "Yacht Boy" radios for mariners, with FM, LW, MW, up to 12 SW bands for worldwide coverage. Audio: Grundig audiovisual product range offers HIFI Systems and Bluetooth speakers. Home Appliances: manufactured by Grundig include fridges, ovens, hobs
Membrane keyboard
A membrane keyboard is a computer keyboard whose "keys" are not separate, moving parts, as with the majority of other keyboards, but rather are pressure pads that have only outlines and symbols printed on a flat, flexible surface. Little, if any, tactile feedback is felt when using such a keyboard, error-free blind typing is difficult. Membrane keyboards work by electrical contact between the keyboard surface and the underlying circuits when keytop areas are pressed; these models were used with some early 1980s home computers, enjoying wide adoption in consumer electronics devices. The keyboards are quite inexpensive to mass-produce, are more resistant against dirt and liquids than most other keyboards. However, due to a low or non-existent tactile feedback, most people have difficulty typing with them when larger numbers of characters are being typed. Chiclet keyboards were a slight improvement, at least allowing individual keys to be felt to some extent. Aside from early hobbyist/kit/home computers and some video game consoles, membrane-based QWERTY keyboards are used in some industrial computer systems, are found as portable "rollable-collapsible" designs for PDAs and other pocket computing devices.
Smaller, specialised membrane keyboards numeric-and-a-few-control-keys only, have been used in access control systems, simple handheld calculators, domestic remote control keypads, microwave ovens, other similar devices where the amount of typing is small or infrequent, such as cell phones. Modern PC keyboards are a membrane keyboard mechanism covered with an array of dome switches which give positive tactile feedback; as can be seen from the diagram below, the membrane keyboard consists of three layers. The center layer is a "spacer" containing holes, it keeps the other two layers apart. Under normal conditions, the switch is open, because current cannot cross the non-conductive gap between the traces on the bottom layer. However, when the top layer is pressed down, it makes contact with the bottom layer; the conductive traces on the underside of the top layer can bridge the gap, allowing current to flow. The switch is now "closed", the parent device registers a keypress. Typical applications include.
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM can only be modified with difficulty, or not at all, so it is used to store firmware or application software in plug-in cartridges. Read-only memory refers to memory, hard-wired, such as diode matrix and the mask ROM, which cannot be changed after manufacture. Although discrete circuits can be altered in principle, integrated circuits cannot, are useless if the data is bad or requires an update; that such memory can never be changed is a disadvantage in many applications, as bugs and security issues cannot be fixed, new features cannot be added. More ROM has come to include memory, read-only in normal operation, but can still be reprogrammed in some way. Erasable programmable read-only memory and electrically erasable programmable read-only memory can be erased and re-programmed, but this can only be done at slow speeds, may require special equipment to achieve, is only possible a certain number of times.
IBM used Capacitor Read Only Storage and Transformer Read Only Storage to store microcode for the smaller System/360 models, the 360/85 and the initial two models of the S/370. On some models there was a Writeable Control Store for additional diagnostics and emulation support; the simplest type of solid-state ROM is as old as the semiconductor technology itself. Combinational logic gates can be joined manually to map n-bit address input onto arbitrary values of m-bit data output. With the invention of the integrated circuit came mask ROM. Mask ROM consists of a grid of word lines and bit lines, selectively joined together with transistor switches, can represent an arbitrary look-up table with a regular physical layout and predictable propagation delay. In mask ROM, the data is physically encoded in the circuit, so it can only be programmed during fabrication; this leads to a number of serious disadvantages: It is only economical to buy mask ROM in large quantities, since users must contract with a foundry to produce a custom design.
The turnaround time between completing the design for a mask ROM and receiving the finished product is long, for the same reason. Mask ROM is impractical for R&D work since designers need to modify the contents of memory as they refine a design. If a product is shipped with faulty mask ROM, the only way to fix it is to recall the product and physically replace the ROM in every unit shipped. Subsequent developments have addressed these shortcomings. PROM, invented in 1956, allowed users to program its contents once by physically altering its structure with the application of high-voltage pulses; this addressed problems 1 and 2 above, since a company can order a large batch of fresh PROM chips and program them with the desired contents at its designers' convenience. The 1971 invention of EPROM solved problem 3, since EPROM can be reset to its unprogrammed state by exposure to strong ultraviolet light. EEPROM, invented in 1983, went a long way to solving problem 4, since an EEPROM can be programmed in-place if the containing device provides a means to receive the program contents from an external source.
Flash memory, invented at Toshiba in the mid-1980s, commercialized in the early 1990s, is a form of EEPROM that makes efficient use of chip area and can be erased and reprogrammed thousands of times without damage. All of these technologies improved the flexibility of ROM, but at a significant cost-per-chip, so that in large quantities mask ROM would remain an economical choice for many years. Rewriteable technologies were envisioned as replacements for mask ROM; the most recent development is NAND flash invented at Toshiba. Its designers explicitly broke from past practice, stating plainly that "the aim of NAND Flash is to replace hard disks," rather than the traditional use of ROM as a form of non-volatile primary storage; as of 2007, NAND has achieved this goal by offering throughput comparable to hard disks, higher tolerance of physical shock, extreme miniaturization, much lower power consumption. Every stored-program computer may use a form of non-volatile storage to store the initial program that runs when the computer is powered on or otherwise begins execution.
Every non-trivial computer needs some form of mutable memory to record changes in its state as it executes. Forms of read-only memory were employed as non-volatile storage for programs in most early stored-program computers, such as ENIAC after 1948. Read-only memory was simpler to implement since it needed only a mechanism to read stored values, not to change them in-place, thus could be implemented with crude electromechanical devices. With the advent of integrated circuits in the 1960s, both ROM and its mutable counterpart static RAM were implemented as arrays of transistors in silicon chips.
Central processing unit
A central processing unit called a central processor or main processor, is the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic, logic and input/output operations specified by the instructions. The computer industry has used the term "central processing unit" at least since the early 1960s. Traditionally, the term "CPU" refers to a processor, more to its processing unit and control unit, distinguishing these core elements of a computer from external components such as main memory and I/O circuitry; the form and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but their fundamental operation remains unchanged. Principal components of a CPU include the arithmetic logic unit that performs arithmetic and logic operations, processor registers that supply operands to the ALU and store the results of ALU operations and a control unit that orchestrates the fetching and execution of instructions by directing the coordinated operations of the ALU, registers and other components.
Most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are contained on a single integrated circuit chip. An IC that contains a CPU may contain memory, peripheral interfaces, other components of a computer; some computers employ a multi-core processor, a single chip containing two or more CPUs called "cores". Array processors or vector processors have multiple processors that operate in parallel, with no unit considered central. There exists the concept of virtual CPUs which are an abstraction of dynamical aggregated computational resources. Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers". Since the term "CPU" is defined as a device for software execution, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer; the idea of a stored-program computer had been present in the design of J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly's ENIAC, but was omitted so that it could be finished sooner.
On June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. It was the outline of a stored-program computer that would be completed in August 1949. EDVAC was designed to perform a certain number of instructions of various types; the programs written for EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the physical wiring of the computer. This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, the considerable time and effort required to reconfigure the computer to perform a new task. With von Neumann's design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed by changing the contents of the memory. EDVAC, was not the first stored-program computer. Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a sometimes distinctive computer. However, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities; this standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit.
The IC has allowed complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers. Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles to cellphones, sometimes in toys. While von Neumann is most credited with the design of the stored-program computer because of his design of EDVAC, the design became known as the von Neumann architecture, others before him, such as Konrad Zuse, had suggested and implemented similar ideas; the so-called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, completed before EDVAC used a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory. The key difference between the von Neumann and Harvard architectures is that the latter separates the storage and treatment of CPU instructions and data, while the former uses the same memory space for both.
Most modern CPUs are von Neumann in design, but CPUs with the Harvard architecture are seen as well in embedded applications. Relays and vacuum tubes were used as switching elements; the overall speed of a system is dependent on the speed of the switches. Tube computers like EDVAC tended to average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the Harvard Mark I failed rarely. In the end, tube-based CPUs became dominant because the significant speed advantages afforded outweighed the reliability problems. Most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs. Clock signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were common at this time, limited by the speed of the switching de
ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge referred to as a cartridge or cart, is a removable memory card containing ROM designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console and to a lesser extent, electronic musical instruments. ROM cartridges can be used to load software such as other application programs; the cartridge slot could be used for hardware additions, for example speech synthesis. Some cartridges had battery-backed static random-access memory, allowing a user to save data such as game progress or scores between uses. ROM cartridges allowed the user to load and access programs and data without the expense of a floppy drive, an expensive peripheral during the home computer era, without using slow and unreliable Compact Cassette tape. An advantage for the manufacturer was the relative security of the software in cartridge form, difficult for end users to replicate. However, cartridges were expensive to manufacture compared to making a floppy disk or CD-ROM; as disk drives became more common and software expanded beyond the practical limits of ROM size, cartridge slots disappeared from game consoles and personal computers.
Cartridges are still used today with handheld gaming consoles such as the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, the tablet-like hybrid console Nintendo Switch. Due to its widespread usage for video gaming, ROM cartridges were colloquially referred to as a game cartridge. ROM cartridges were popularized by early home computers which featured a special bus port for the insertion of cartridges containing software in ROM. In most cases the designs were crude, with the entire address and data buses exposed by the port and attached via an edge connector; the Texas Instruments TI 59 family of programmable scientific calculators used interchangeable ROM cartridges that could be installed in a slot at the back of the calculator. The calculator came with a module that provides several standard mathematical functions including solution of simultaneous equations. Other modules were specialized for financial calculations, or other subject areas, a "games" module. Modules were not user-programmable.
The Hewlett-Packard HP-41C had expansion slots which could hold ROM memory as well as I/O expansion ports. Notable computers using cartridges in addition to magnetic media were the Commodore VIC-20 and 64, MSX standard, the Atari 8-bit family, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A and the IBM PCjr; some arcade system boards, such as Capcom's CP System and SNK's Neo Geo used ROM cartridges. The modern take on game cartridges was invented by Jerry Lawson as part of the Fairchild Channel F home console in 1976; the cartridge approach gained more popularity with the Atari 2600 released the following year. From the late 1970s to mid-1990s, the majority of home video game systems were cartridge-based; as compact disc technology came to be used for data storage, most hardware companies moved from cartridges to CD-based game systems. Nintendo remained the lone hold-out. SNK still released games on the cartridge-based Neo Geo until 2004, with the final official release being Samurai Shodown V Special. Nintendo's handheld consoles, continued to use cartridges due to their faster loading times and minimal equipment for data reading being beneficial for playing video games in short, several-minute intervals.
ROM cartridges can not only additional hardware expansion as well. Examples include the Super FX coprocessor chip in some Super NES game paks, The SVP chip in the Sega Genesis Version Of Virtua Racing, voice and chess modules in the Magnavox Odyssey². Micro Machines 2 on the Genesis/Mega Drive used a custom "J-Cart" cartridge design by Codemasters which incorporated two additional gamepad ports; this allowed players to have up to four gamepads connected to the console without the need for an additional multi-controller adapter. The ROM cartridge slot principle continues in various mobile devices, thanks to the development of high density low-cost flash memory. For example, a GPS navigation device might allow user updates of maps by inserting a flash memory chip into an expansion slot. An E-book reader can store the text of several thousand books on a flash chip. Personal computers may allow the user to boot and install an operating system off a USB flash drive instead of CD ROM or floppy disks.
Digital cameras with flash drive slots allow users to exchange cards when full, allow rapid transfer of pictures to a computer or printer. Storing software on ROM cartridges has a number of advantages over other methods of storage like floppy disks and optical media; as the ROM cartridge is memory mapped into the system's normal address space, software stored in the ROM can be read like normal memory. Software run directly from ROM uses less RAM, leaving memory free for other processes. While the standard size of optical media dictates a minimum size for devices which can read disks, ROM cartridges can be manufactured in different sizes, allowing for smaller devices like handheld game systems. ROM cartridges can be damaged, but they are more robust and resistant to damage than optical media.
