Applications review: Technology ´76

Just as the vacuum tube was at the heart of nearly all electrotechnology through the forties, as were the transistor and integrated circuit through the sixties, the core technology of the seventies, and perhaps beyond, seems certain to be the microprocessor. It is entrenched in applications that were merely hinted at a year or two ago, and is now insinuating itself into many unlikely corners of industry. In the report that follows, scores of experts including numerous members of IEEE Groups and Societies, aided Spectrum´s editors in uncovering not only new applications of microprocessors, but new development s in a broad spectrum of electrotechnological applications that ranges across commercial, industrial, and Government areas. In this special issue, we attempt to emphasize present and near-term developments as opposed to long-term projections. Thus, existing hardware and software are referred to, and are further identified by manufacturer when to do so is significant.