The Chip And How It Changed The World

An epic account of the decades-long battle to control what has emerged as the world’s most critical resource—microchip technology—with the United States and China increasingly in conflict. You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America’s military superiority and economic prosperity. Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the U.S. became dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America's victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. But here, too, China is catching up, with its chip-building ambitions and military modernization going hand in hand. America has let key components of the chip-building process slip out of its grasp, contributing not only to a worldwide chip shortage but also a new Cold War with a superpower adversary that is desperate to bridge the gap. Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War shows that, to make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips.

Liliane Wong's latest volume on adaptive reuse in architecture presents 50 spectacular conversion and reuse projects worldwide, including buildings such as the TWA Hotel at NewYork's John F. Kennedy Airport, the CaixaForum in Madrid, and the New Museum in Berlin. The projects are presented using a new classification system that addresses practitioners as well as academics. The author's introductory essay provides a comprehensive overview and historical context for the enormous evolution and expansion of adaptive reuse over the past 50 years.

Barely fifty years ago a computer was a gargantuan, vastly expensive thing that only a handful of scientists had ever seen. The world’s brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000. In this completely revised and updated edition of The Chip, T.R. Reid tells the gripping adventure story of their invention and of its growth into a global information industry. This is the story of how the digital age began.

Safety and Reliability – Safe Societies in a Changing World collects the papers presented at the 28th European Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2018 in Trondheim, Norway, June 17-21, 2018. The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk management Safety and Reliability – Safe Societies in a Changing World will be invaluable to academics and professionals working in a wide range of industrial and governmental sectors: offshore oil and gas, nuclear engineering, aeronautics and aerospace, marine transport and engineering, railways, road transport, automotive engineering, civil engineering, critical infrastructures, electrical and electronic engineering, energy production and distribution, environmental engineering, information technology and telecommunications, insurance and finance, manufacturing, marine transport, mechanical engineering, security and protection, and policy making.

This book examines the economic environment and phenomena of multinational business with reference to case studies of major multinational companies, including IBM, Philips, Nissan and Volvo. It assesses how the major theories explaining the response of companies to changes are borne out by the experience of individual firms.

This book argues that environmental problems are, first and foremost, political and, therefore, about power. Using a framework of political economy and political ecology, the authors deconstruct current environmental problems to identify root causes and address those problems through mobilization of collective action and social power. The second edition also offers: •Updated examples and stories of political struggles and the actors involved •Explicit attention to various forms of power in environmental politics, including structural and social power •Local politics and collective action as related to global environmental politics •Discussion of emerging issues such as synthetic biology; commodification and financialization of nature, including carbon markets; and geoengineering

International Development in a Changing World introduces key issues, debates and ideas about development in the 21st century. Uniquely interweaving international relations and development studies, the authorial team examines the contested concepts of poverty, inequality and livelihood, and the emergence of 'new powers' that will affect the architecture of international development. Themes of power and agency, history and scale integrate the many stories of development covered in the book, highlighting development as a complex process of change and interaction between people as well as between people and institutions, including governments and non-governmental organizations. Interdisciplinary in character, the book incorporates theories and tools from across the social sciences to provide a more holistic understanding of the social, economic and political transformations involved than most textbooks in the field can offer. Chapters are designed to inform policy and practice, moving from the theoretical to look closely, using a series of case studies, at the deliberate actions of people to improve their livelihoods, communities and societies. International Development in a Changing World is the first of two books in The Open University's International Development series. Whether used as a stand-alone text, or alongside its companion text: New Perspectives in International Development, this is an ideal introduction to the field for students of International Development, International Relations, Global Politics and Global Social Policy.