Jack Kilby, pioneer in solid state electronics (aka integrated circuits) died on Monday at the age of 81 after a brief struggle with cancer. He won a 2000 Nobel Prize for Physics. I learned something else about him I did not know. Most digital designers at some stage of their training learn about the J-K flip flop. This particular circuit has nothing to do with a John Kerry flip flop, as those came much later. It was named after Jack Kilby.
I was lucky to have met (however briefly) the man at a luncheon I attended while working in the USAF at the Solid State Electronics Lab. He ushered in the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors and chips. Without the results of his work, I'd likely be doing something else for a living. And I certainly wouldn't be typing this on a battery powered laptop communicating wirelessly to the internet via a broadband modem. TJ, Claire, and I wouldn't be tinkering around on Yamaha digital pianos. DVDs - gone. MP3 players - gone. Digital TVs - gone. Cell phones - gone. Nowadays we lay down chips with millions of tiny electronic switches thanks to the revolution brought about by solid state microelectronics. Thank you, Jack.
I always wondered why the letters J and K were chosen for a J-K Flip Flop.
Posted by: nikkiana at June 22, 2005 08:46 AMAnd I always wondered whether you actually read my website... *grin*
Yes, I often wondered why it was called a J-K flip flop. The S-R flip flop made sense (Set/Reset). The D flip flop made sense (Data input). I just thought that they were random letters, J and K, like the way algebra seems to like X, Y, and Z in its equations.
Posted by: Scott at June 22, 2005 09:50 AM