Tech Smorgasbord Archives - 3

RF Cafe University"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

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Revenue Generated by University Patents

EE Times Research

Purdue University
Source $Million
Federal 67.98
State 57.81
Industry 49.23
Other 5.83
Massachusetts Inst. Tech.
Source $Million
Federal 155.12
State 81.00
Industry 42.34
Other 18.92
Univ. of IL Urbana-Champ.
Source $Million
Federal 149.41
State 5.63
Industry 22.67
Other 0
Georgia Inst. of Tech.
Source $Million
Federal 89.85
State 60.30
Industry 31.16
Other 24.03
University of S. California
Source $Million
Federal 107.71
State 8.15
Industry 20.30
Other 11.26
Pennsylvania State
Source $Million
Federal 77.80
State 14.06
Industry 16.75
Other 8.82
Univ. of TX at Austin
Source $Million
Federal 54.84
State 13.76
Industry 16.49
Other 13.74
Univ. of WI Madison
Source $Million
Federal 70.27
State 10.90
Industry 18.90
Other 4.38

 

Company-Paid Perks Earned in 2005

Electronic Design Research

Type Users
Health Benefits 66%
401(k) Match 61%
Stock Options 22%
Stock Purchase 20%
Continuing Education 26%
Tuition Reimbursement 20%
Cellphone / Internet 13%
Car / Allowance 7%
Health Club 7%
Certification 5%
Sabbatical 4%
Day Care 2%
Other 6%

Patent Applications

EE Times Research

Year # of Patents
2005 409,532
2004 378,984
2003 355,418
2002 353,394
2001 344,717
2000 311,807
1999 278,268
1998 256,666
1997 237,045
1996 206,276
1995 236,679

Melting Points of Semiconductor Elements & Compounds

Elements
Name °C °F
Arsenic 817 1503
Gallium* 29.8 85.6
Germanium 938 1721
Silicon 1414 2577
Carbon 3527 6381
Pure Compounds**
Name °C °F
GaAs 1238 2260
SiGe 1176 2149
SiC 2830 5126
   * Ga is liquid at RT
** At typical mixtures

 

U.S. R&D Budget ($B)

Science News Research

Agency FY06 FY07
DoD 71.9 74.2
NIH 28.4 28.4
NASA 11.4 12.2
DoE 8.6 9.2
NSF 4.2 4.5
USDA 2.4 2.0
Commerce 1.1 1.1
DHS 1.5 1.5
Interior 0.64 0.60
EPA 0.60 0.56
Other 3.1 2.8
Total 133.7 137.2

A Powerful Candy Bar

Popular Science Excerpt

"A king-size Snickers has 541 Calories. That's Calories with a capital 'C,' or 1,000 lowercase calories. A small-'c' calorie represents the energy required to heat one gram of water by one degree Celsius. So that Snickers could theoretically heat a gram of water 541,000 degrees or, more realistically, bring a gallon and a half of water from nearly freezing to nearly boiling."

 

PC Shipments (millions)

Desktop vs. Mobile

EE Times Research

Year Desktops Mobiles
2004 132.2 178.6
2005 144.0 208.1
2006 146.1 230.4
2007 149.0 256.5
2008 152.8 281.4
2009 153.8 302.1
2010 159.0 332.6

Not sure how projections (aka WAGs) can be accurate to 4 places, but that is what was presented.

 

Gross Domestic Product & Grain Consumed* Per Person - 2005

Scientific American Research

Country GDP $US Grain kg
China 4,600 292
India 2,500 173
Europe 26,900 561
Japan 29,400 354
U.S. 40,100 918
* Many countries consume

   much more non-grain

   and fish than others

Cybercrime in the U.S.

IEEE Research

Statistic Qty
Estimated financial losses from attacks $67B
Actual reported financial losses $32B
Losses from viruses & worms $12B
Portion of organizations attacked 90%
Portion with virus problems 84%
Portion with spyware attacks 79%

 

Motorola = Motor+Victrola

In 1928, Paul Galvin and his brother, Joseph Galvin, formed the Galvin Manufacturing Corp. to produce battery eliminators. It employed five people and had net sales for the year totaling $63,000. Eventually, the company became known as Motorola, a concatenation of the word motor and the suffix "ola", as in Victrola, to signify sound in motion for their automobile radio products. The name is validated still today in their cellphone and mobile radio lines.