«8M» Κ0Ϊ ■- ■ ■:,i^ .

,, in mfö-1877-, wnen the project that . ' culminated ln?|his special issue first really.

cJbegan, skeptics found ltdlfficultto believe 3^^r$si^ andi ^^iö^tion# involving ^: electrotechnölogy could be unearthed. Yet by the time Spectrum editors had pored through the contributions of scores of industry consultants and numerous members of IEEE's Groups and Societies, it was clear that this skepticism was unfounded

The editors themselves found it difficult to cull out some of the many developments they found worthy of recognition but that space limitations precluded. And, they found even more difficult the selection of the single most important event or development in their own areas of coverage. Nevertheless, after due consideration, they selected, the following: •Advances in diagnostic imaging techniques feature faster scanning speeds that now permit dynamic scanning of the head or body organ in a matter of two or three seconds, leading to the projection by some researchers that heart disease may be diagnosable at a much earlier stage. •Safety-oriented tests of the Dounreay (Scotland) fast rector (DFftysuggest that the tests' optimistic results may be extrapolatable to other modem liquid-metal fast breeder reactors. Among the tests were those involving fuel performance under prolonged exposure to boiling and near-boiling of the sodium coolant, the response of monitoring systems to the boiling, and the time available for remedial action in the event of such boiling. *ln the computer area, higher-level languages, such as Basic, are embodied

Donald Christiansen Editor

24 IEEE spectrum JANUARY 1978

in a single read-only memory chip. The result is that the intelligent layman can instruct a computer to control, for example, appliances in the home, using perhaps fewer than 20 high-level language statements. •More sophisticated and complicated data processing/digital systems have spawned the need to build in fault monitors to aid in quick and easy servicing; the test equipment manufacturers have responded to ihio challenge with ingenious schemes such as one in use by Hewlett-Packard that exploits signature analysis to pinpoint faults. •The microprocessor ras proven a boon to the manufacturing engineer and process designer Nwho, through its wide application, hope to close the gap in productivity between those processes that employ high-priced labor in an inefficient manner and those that are highly automated. The microprocessor enables low-cost distributed signal processing linked to a display and control center by means of a data highway. •At Chicago's O'Hare airport, demonstrations of its vortex advisory system are scheduled. This system is designed to increase the air traffic handling capacity, which suffered with the advent of heavy jet aircraft whose wake vortices necessitated an increase in the aircraft separation during landing. The new system is expected to monitor those meteorological conditions that are believed to alleviate the vortex problem and, thus, to permit a decrease in the average separation between aircraft. •Sociotechnically speaking, the most important "event of the year" for 1977, in the U.S. at least, was seen to be the organization of a new Cabinet-level office, the U.S. Department of Energy. In reality an amalgamation of three existing agencies—the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and

Development Agency, and the Federal Power Commission—the new department is expected to provide prestige and a unified thrust that was not previously possible. •Fiber optics have taken another significant step toward widespread application as laboratories in the U.S., Europe, and Japan have devised ways to, reduce costs and increase data rates, too. Highest reported data rate is 800 Mb/s. On the other hand, further cost reductions are both necessary and predicted. •A pair of competing video cassette systems have breached the market threshold, and despite their mutual incompatibility, promise to open wide the market that VCR enthusiasts long predicted was just beneath the surface.

These developments and numerous others are covered in the reports that follow. The emphasis is placed on present-day applications and those seen as likely in the near future. Existing hardware and software are specifically identified, along with the names of suppliers when such are considered significant. ♦

Computers 26 Communications 31 Devices and components 36 Instrumentation 41 industrial electronics 45 Power/energy 49 Consumer electronics 54 Transportation 59 Aerospace and military 63 Electronics in medicine 68 Technology and society 73

Christiansen—Technology '78