Pub. 4 2014 Issue 2

22 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY ENERGY NEEDS BEHIND BEING WIRED THE Y ou probably consider your smart phone or your tablet to be essential equipment in today’s business world. They also are highly entertaining, especially when you have to wait. They provide you (and probably your children) with items such as games, music, books, pictures, and shows. No matter how useful these devices are, there’s really no question that these sleek, easy-to-use little electronic toys are also fun. And they use a great deal of electrical power, most of it hidden from your view. How can that be? Start with some background on tablets and smart phones, and then consider what it takes to make them work so well. An Abbreviated History of Tablets It feels as though tablets are the new kid on the block. Apple got the collective attention of theU.S. in January 2010when it launched the first iPad. Now, of course, tablets have become so popular that it’s hard to know how anyone ever got along without them. But Apple wasn’t the first company to sell a tablet-type device. Other companies had been trying to come up with tablet- type devices as early as 1989, when the GRiDPADwas introduced. TheGRiDPAD designer was a man named Jeff Hawkins, an electrical engineer who got his training at Cornell University. GRiDPAD was originally priced at $3000, got good reviews, and sold well. The company that made it was acquired first by Tandy, then by a company called AST, and died in the mid-1990swhenASTwent out of business. Youmay not have ever heard Jeff Hawkin’s name, but you might know about his professional work. He came up with the Palm Pilot, among other things, and he has enjoyed a particularly successful engineering career.