True Fact: Until yesteday, I thought the Analog Devices logo was a "play" button - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2015, 11:57:01 pm
content: I took a look at it again and it occurred to me it is obviously an amp. Duh. How did I get that wrong?Anyone else as dumb as me? You can admit it and no one will make fun of you, I assure you...

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 01:43:45 am
content: You are obviously too young, that is your problemYour mind is brainwashed with images of Play buttons from birth.

author: crispy_tofu
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 02:07:41 am
content: It isn't a play button?!

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 02:15:43 am
content: Quote from: JoeN on December 17, 2015, 11:57:01 pmYou have to have a certain minimum degree of smarts to realise that you are dumb. People dumber than you don't actually know that they are dumb. You are in the awkward zone. You need to see a palm reader ->http://dilbert.com/strip/1991-06-07

author: DimitriP
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 03:01:19 am
content: I always saw it as an A and a D ....

author: Stupid Beard
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 03:02:35 am
content: I never twigged it was an amp either. I guess because I've always associated an amp with a line drawing of a triangle, rather then the triangle itself. Funny how the mind works.

author: DimitriP
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 03:04:39 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on December 18, 2015, 01:43:45 amI dunno...PLAY buttons have been around for while ...

author: nidlaX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 03:32:54 am
content: I always thought it's a black square with a triangle shaped cutout.

author: fivefish
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 04:50:19 am
content: I thought it was a pyramid being blown over by a desert storm.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 05:15:33 am
content: Most people have considered the symbol to be an op-amp since ADI began, but they are clearly wrong. An op-amp is drawn as an outline, not a solid triangle. Only the play button is drawn as a solid triangle, and you have shown the insight to recognise that. Don't start fooling yourself now.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 05:37:45 am
content: Oh you kids! That triangle has been the symbol for an op-amp since they were implemented with fire-bottles!That was long before Analog Devices and play buttons.

author: Joule Thief
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 05:38:15 am
content: I always figured it was a simplistic logo which consumed 30 minutes to create and netted the designer 50K$.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 06:10:16 am
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on December 18, 2015, 05:37:45 amThe first amps we would recognise as op-amps were developed in the 1950s, using vacuum tubes. Tape and wire recorders are older than that, but when was the play function first labelled with an arrow head?

author: bitseeker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 06:44:39 am
content: Quote from: coppice on December 18, 2015, 06:10:16 amSome info on the play (circa 1960's) and pause icons.http://gizmodo.com/5612630/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-computer-symbols

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 07:59:47 am
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on December 18, 2015, 05:37:45 amInteresting, I miss the + , the - inputs, and the output lines and the power lines for it to be a symbol of an op-amp. Unless AD has a new fully wireless opamp I am unaware of?I see a white triangle in a black square and all someone else sees or thinks to see in it is pure subjective mindboggling nonsense

author: GNU_Ninja
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 08:01:18 am
content: Looks like a play button to me, too, now!

author: Deathwish
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 09:18:24 am
content: I refuse to run with the crowd, it is a pizza slice, it was designed by hungry marketing staff telling the world how little they got paid and how hungry they are

author: macboy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 03:56:38 pm
content: Nonsense, if it was an amp, it would have two input lines and an output line.Also, that logo has been around a long time, and a long time ago, the amplifier symbol looked like a slice of pie like this:So, I say it's not an amplifier symbol, and not just because I won't admit that I hadn't thought of that before.

author: steve30
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 04:59:55 pm
content: I don't think it ever occurred to me what it was.

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2015, 10:44:53 pm
content: If it was a slice of pie it should have a 1K resistor on the (-) input and 3.14159265K feedback resistor.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 12:29:48 am
content: I make all of my "Play Buttons" out of Op-Amps, so you're both right!

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 12:42:31 am
content: Quote from: Joule Thief on December 18, 2015, 05:38:15 amif so, I think he deserved it, beautifully simple, easily recognizable and related to what ADI makes

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 01:12:14 am
content: Please... *My* logo is clearly the thing it claims to be! <--Tim

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 02:42:49 am
content: Quote from: macboy on December 18, 2015, 03:56:38 pmUm, wrong. This is from 1956, 9 years before Analog Devices was founded (apparently it is scanned from the 8th printing in 1961, if any changes were made):http://www.philbrickarchive.org/applications_manual_for_philbrick_octal_plug-in_computing_amplifiers_1956to1961.htmYour symbol appears nowhere in it. Only the modern symbol appears.Quote from: macboy on December 18, 2015, 03:56:38 pmYou could as easily argue it would have 5 to show rails or 7 to show rails and null offsets. But none of these arguments are good. The triangle is the amp, the lines are not the important part, especially when making a logo.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 04:20:16 am
content: A triangle is a block diagram symbol foranytype of amplifier,not just an Op Amp.The old,rounded symbol was around for many years,along with the AND & OR symbols with the concave input side,before,very slowly being supplanted by the ones we use today.If I remember correctly,the Brits were the last holdouts.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 07:29:06 am
content: A square and a triangle have been principal mathematical symbols for over 2000 years before electricity was invented.

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2015, 07:58:40 am
content: That explains why I couldn't get Youtube to ever work. I thought they were sponsored by Analog Devices. It's a play button.

author: DimitriP
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2015, 12:41:38 am
content: Quote from: Kjelt on December 19, 2015, 07:29:06 amElectricity was discovered not invented