On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:37:06 +0100, Eeyore
m wrote:

John Larkin wrote:

Americans invented electronics, invented modern electronics, invented
the vacuum triode, the opamp, the transistor, the IC, semiconductor
RAM, uPs, LEDs, lasers, programmable logic, all sorts of stuff. We
picked the reference designators, because we needed them first.

So how do you distinguish opamps from ICs, RAM, uPs and programmable
logic ? They are all 'U'. VERY clever.

---
Indeed, since "U" is the reference designator for an inseparable
assembly, which all of those devices happen to be, U1 could be right
next to U2, and anyone with any sense would differentiate their
functions by referring to the device's part number.
---

You're certainly wrong about RAM btw and the op-amp is merely a circuit
configuration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube

The Williams tube or the Williams-Kilburn tube (after inventors Freddie
Williams and Tom Kilburn), developed in about 1946 or 1947, was a
cathode ray tube used to electronically store binary data.

It was the first random-access digital storage device,[1] and was used
successfully in several early computers.

---
_Semiconductor_ RAM was what Larkin wrote about, so your comments, as
usual, are irrelevant.

---
JF