On Tue, 8 Jan 2002, BK wrote:
>
> Cellular telephony has been invented and patented by AT&T in the early
> 1950s. CDMA has been invented in the early 1940s and used by allied
> forces in WWII as a secure means of radio communications. CDMA was
> hi-tech in the 1940s. Cellular telephony in the 1950s.
Strictly speaking, it was not CDMA that was "invented" by more correctly
the discovery in the use of frequency-hopping techniques for transmission.
>
> Yet, half a century later we are being told by the cellular industry
> that this is the latest breakthrough, and they call it 3G, for third
> generation mobile. So, what's the novelty then ? The packaging ! The
> advance has been in micro electronics to make it all fit into a tiny
> consumer device that can be mass produced.
CDMA is a lot more than frequency-hopping and includes discoveries and
methodologies not available in the '40s and '50s. What gets implemented in
handhelds today accomplishes FAR more than simple frequency hopping. If
you look at all the subsections inside a cell phone and all the logic
needed for it to function, it's actually quite amazing how small they are
being made.
I don't work for any cell phone companies so don't get the idea that I'm
plugging them, but keep in mind just in the last *10-20 years* there have
been significant discoveries in the field of digital communications that
enables us to have what we do.
If you want to talk about lack of innovation, look at modern processors.
They only work "faster" because of improvements in semiconductor
processes(allowing us to stuff more cache for instance), not "amazing new
design". RISC technqiues were discussed before MIPS came out for instance.
Frankly there haven't been significant break throughs in the area of
computer architecture and processor design in a long time.
Thanks,
Speedy2.
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