Mektron

Hall effect measurements of pyrolytic Langmuir-Blodgett films based on a biphenyl-type polyimide have been done using a double frequency method. The Hall coefficient had a negative sign over the measuring temperature range; an electron density of 1021 cm-3 and a Hall mobility of around 0.5 cm2(Vs)-1 could be estimated on the assumption of a one-carrier conduction. The Hall mobility is characterized by a single activated process with 5.4 meV.

One of the fashionable talking points of the moment is the electronic microprocessor. It has suddenly become news. The government is to spend an initial £50 million of taxpayers' money on establishing a Microelectronics Unit; domestic appliances are now advertised as ‘containing MPUs — an electronic marvel with many thousands of transistors in a minute space’. Already, in the United States, a huge complex of companies who design and manufacture MPUs and similar devices has assembled in what is known as Silicon Valley (actually the Santa Clara Valley) in the same way that cars gravitated to Detroit and music to Memphis. Machines are in operation, and many more are being designed, which can simulate the thinking process and make decisions on the basis of data fed to them or which they can call for. Machines that think can be seen as a potential threat to some workers and fears are already being expressed about the effect of the MPU revolution on the work situation and on unemployment in particular. There can be no doubt that most jobs as we know them today will be changed, some of them out of all recognition, by this latest innovation — the MPU Revolution.