| Moore's Law was first coined by Intel's co-founder | | | | contained hard-disk memory with a large lead-acid |
| Gordon E. Moore. He first described this trend in a | | | | backup battery in the bottom in case of power failure. |
| paper written in 1965. The paper claimed the number | | | | They were so expensive that it took a large |
| of components in integrated circuits had doubled every | | | | investment to prepare for pressing the CDs in volume. |
| year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 | | | | A pre-mastering studio would cost in the range of $1 |
| until 1965. He went on to predict the trend would | | | | to $2 million. This job can now be done on a desktop |
| continue "for at least ten years". Most observers and | | | | or portable PC that costs under $2,000. All because of |
| technology experts expound that the doubling is taking | | | | Moore's Law; or should I say in gratitude and |
| only about 18 months! | | | | consequence of Moore's Law. |
| Much has been written about its trend since that time. | | | | The early CD players were so complex we had no |
| Much more has been written about how it has applied | | | | way of testing and observing much of what went on |
| not only to the number of components inside | | | | inside the logic circuits. The interleaving of the data, |
| integrated circuits but to memory systems, processing | | | | applying Reed Solomon coding, error detection |
| speeds, complexity of software executions and so on. | | | | correction and drop out protection was grotesquely |
| There are few students, scientists, engineers and | | | | complex. The designers of CD equipment had to leap |
| workers in technology industries who have not | | | | beyond what the conventional computer analysts |
| become aware of its influence on product design | | | | were doing at the time and find more powerful ways |
| cycles, competitive analysis, future cost of technology | | | | of keeping the date good enough for music |
| and multitudes of other business aspects. | | | | reproduction when the surface of the disc became |
| The question often asked when will it end? Or, rather, | | | | corrupted. |
| will it end? And if so, when? Predictions have been | | | | Along came the same technology that benefited the |
| made that it cannot go on forever and that "next year" | | | | perfection of digital audio to the instruments that could |
| or in the "next decade" it will surely come to it end. Or, | | | | now sample and store data and compare the |
| some will say it may not end but will diminish gradually | | | | processing events that took place in the CD recording, |
| until the doubling rate will take longer and longer times. | | | | mastering and replication equipments. While the earliest |
| Truth of the matter is that the doubling is currently | | | | CDs were fraught with drop outs due to errors in the |
| taking less time! | | | | recordings it is now very rare to experience such |
| Well, enough of that. One interested in this grand | | | | failures. |
| assault on nature need only to search the Internet | | | | These great improvements came in the form on digital |
| (Google or Bing or search engine of your choice) to | | | | oscilloscopes that allowed the circuit designers to |
| find a great deal of commentary on the subject. | | | | monitor and observe the digital channels, timing and |
| My purpose in bringing this to your attention is to | | | | processing throughout the complex circuits. Analog to |
| highlight how it has effected the design engineer in | | | | digital converters, digital to analog converters, jitter, low |
| producing hardware systems and equipment for the | | | | level linearity and noise control were greatly improved |
| markets. We contrast the days of vacuum tube | | | | due to better understanding of the many processes |
| circuitry to systems of today that contain GigaBytes | | | | that were part of the Compact Disc standards. |
| of data with built-in software that guides the device to | | | | Now, we have highly automated test systems at the |
| productivity levels unheard of just a decade ago. | | | | factory level, in the repair shops and among high end |
| My experience in consumer electronic products such | | | | users that keep the technology error free and strong. |
| as the Compact Disc are of interest. The first CD | | | | Next time you listen to a CD playing your favorite |
| players shown to the world pre-1982 were about the | | | | music think of the million transistors buried inside the |
| size of a desk and contained multiple printed circuit | | | | one or two integrated circuits of the player all handling |
| boards powered by multiple power supplies. Early | | | | their individual parts in reading the high speed data |
| demonstrations were made with a ton of discrete | | | | coming off the surface of the disc into a chain of |
| electronic circuits hidden under the table behind a black | | | | digital flip flops that rearrange the bits of information, |
| curtain so as not to reveal how complex the playback | | | | strip out the control and header formatting and finally |
| systems were. When integrated to the level of | | | | put the digital bits in the right order to feed a digital to |
| technology available in 1982 the first players were the | | | | analog converter that sends the final audio to the |
| size of a very large shoebox or hat box. They | | | | amplifier and speaker system. It really is a miracle of |
| contained over 100 integrated circuits of one kind or | | | | no small wonder. |
| another. As time went by the integrated circuits | | | | We could not have accomplished this digital feat |
| become more able to contain the functions on fewer | | | | without a similar revolution in the testing, measuring and |
| and fewer ICs. In fact, by 1990 there were ICs capable | | | | monitoring systems used in the design and production |
| of doing the entire digital processing on one chip. Now | | | | of the discs, the recording systems and the players. All |
| days you can purchase a simple CD player for under | | | | done in just a few years time. How many years did it |
| $10! | | | | take to "perfect" the vinyl audio disc playback |
| When the CD was standardized it seemed impossible | | | | systems? From 1877 to 1977 was what it took! And |
| to be able to fit almost 1 GB of data on the little 12cm | | | | the Compact Disc did not enter the market until 1982. |
| disc. At the time the main media that was being used | | | | So, the analog music recording which existed for over |
| in the PC was either an 8" floppy or the new 3.5" | | | | 100 years was replaced with a digital audio system |
| diskettes capable of 1.2 MB. Now days we can | | | | that is now only a little over 20 years of age and is |
| purchase a USB flash memory jump drive to plug into | | | | being threatened with complete obsolescence in the |
| the PC for under $10 which will hold 4 GB! | | | | near future by newer digital systems for downloading |
| The first CD pre-mastering work station used a high | | | | directly without the use of a packaged media at all! |
| power PC of the day and an 8 foot rack that | | | | What's next? |