Miniaturization
It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
Samuel Johnson1763
TODAY, nearly 200 years later, U.S. industry has coined a clumsy but descriptive 20th century word for Essayist Johnson's 18th century goal: miniaturization. As never before, businessmen are "studying little things," and through them, learning to accomplish more and more with ever-smaller, but enormously more efficient, machines.
Nowhere has the miniaturization trend brought greater rewards than in electronics. In place of old-style vacuum tubes, science has developed miniature...