Semiconductor History

In the photo is an M-Systems demonstration Disk-On-Chip from the 1990s, the forerunner of memory sticks and cards. The normally all black plastic package is top-filled with clear epoxy. The company was founded by Dov Moran and was based in Israel. The architecture remains the same for flash cards, SD etc. A high density standard memory chip and a separate controller chip (larger chip on the left above). IBM were the first company in the US to market flash drives, buying M-Systems' products and re-branding them. M-Systems were acquired by SanDisk.

Inside the Philips FC920 cassette deck from 1993. Recent purchase for a very small amount of money, to explore analog cassette tapes with better sounding equipment. This machine was equipped with Dolby HX-Pro which improved the overall sound of pre-recorded cassette tapes. It wasn't a noise reduction system like Dolby B or C, but was a dynamic signal bias system, implemented during the tape transfer process. Standard biasing mixed a high frequency fixed signal  to the source, to make the signal more linear (and better sounding).    HX-Pro (invented by Bang and Olufsen), made the bias dynamic, by reacting to the high frequency components of the music,  inside a feedback loop. The NEC chip implemented the HX-Pro function in the cassette deck. The cassette decks also had to be biased for different tape types, Ferric, Chrome or Metal, during production. You can see the adjustment components next to their text.

The image shows a 'Top Hat' germanium transistor from the early 1960s. The Soviet semiconductor industry started in 1947 with point contact germanium diodes for detectors in radar systems. These were based on German devices. The USSR further developed its industry through a combination of internal innovation and development, and reverse engineering of Western products. The transistor, a P422 was part of a series of high frequency devices. The manufacturer is unknown. It is sitting on a photo of the internals of a SELGA 7 transistor radio which was made in the Riga Radio Rupnica Factory in Latvia in the early 1960s. A similar transistor can be seen with an orange mark to the left, (artistic blurring to the photo :-). This works - germanium PNP, hfe (gain) = 51, Vf=298mV.