Description

Anyone today who would want to imagine the consequences of the failure of all electronics-based systems would have to conclude to a total disruption of society. Yet this field is only just one century old. It is more or less customary to pick the year 1906 as the birth year of the field. The concept of 'electron' made its appearance in physics in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The first essential step towards making use of the properties of this smallest electrically charged particle was taken in 1906 with the invention of the so-called vacuum triode. The field of electronics is the realisation of systems for manipulating information-bearing signals in the widest sense. The possibilities for this are almost limitless, thanks to the special properties of the electron.

The development of the material substrate (mechanics) triggered a flood of new applications. In the first decades, (wireless) communication was the main field of activity. Later, electronics conquered areas, which traditionally relied on mechanical and electromechanical means, such as measurement and control technology and navigation technology. Helped in part by the increase in knowledge and skill in the field in the war years, a long-held idea came to fruition in the postwar period: public television.
In the late 1940s, the vulnerability and moderate energy efficiency of the electron tube threatened to halt the ever-increasing complexity of electronic systems. Just in time, salvation came, in the form of realisation of the long-sought possibility of manipulating electrons in the solid state: the transistor was born.

Soon the complexity frontier moved up an order of magnitude. One area that benefited from this par excellence was the emerging field of computer technology. The desire to implement ever larger systems soon ran into a new complexity frontier. But again, just in time, a new technology presented itself in the form of IC or chip technology.
The possibilities for realising information processing systems are almost limitless, yet development does not stop. Stimulated by the expansion of technology (the 'hardware'), the necessary software (the 'software') is developing just as rapidly. Where are the boundaries, if any?

ROUTE DESCRIPTION
From motorway A13 Rotterdam or The Hague, exit Delft Zuid/TU Delft. Follow TU Delft. At the end of the exit TU Delft turn right onto Schoemakerstraat. Then take the first turn left and immediately left again across the bridge. You are now in the car park of the demolished Bouwkunde (Van den Broekweg). The Cultural Centre is at the end of this road, across the Mekelweg. Due to work on the newly constructed ' Mekelpark', the Mekelweg is closed. Public transport via

10.30 a.m. Reception with coffee
11.00 a.m. Lecture by prof.dr.ir. Jan Davidse
11.45 Pause
12.15 Continuation of lecture with concluding discussion
12.45 End of meeting

Location

Culture Centre (theatre hall, 232)

Mekelweg 10, 2628 CD Delft

Organiser

History of Technology

Histechnica

Route description

Register via

Interested parties are requested to register by 5 January (due to catering arrangements) via the e-mail address below.

RenM-Schipholt@planet.nl