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Developing Perspectives

Good Things Come With Small Packages

by Bryan Bergeron, Editor
February 2010

A good friend drops by your place and, knowing that you’re an electronics enthusiast, asks for help with a new handheld gadget that suddenly stopped working. Eager to lend a hand, you check the batteries and try the reset button, but the device fails to respond. Next, you expertly pop the case and find a tiny circuit board populated with a dozen solid-state components. However, most of these components are unmarked. Moreover, a thorough search on the web fails to reveal a schematic. With your friend looking on, you suddenly feel dread and powerless to help. Sound familiar? It shouldn’t and needn’t be.


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