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Information obtained from the internet on variable-gain circuits is presented, with focus on companders, Dolby B circuits and automatic gain and level controllers.

Electronics designers can avail of design data, data sheets, application notes and design guides which are available on the Internet. Designers who want more information on a component can visit the manufacturer's website and generate a data sheet by entering a part number. Specialist library search sites can be used when beginning a new design wherein the specifications of the parts to be used and the names of the manufacturers are unknown. Questlink.com, Info-quick.com and Icesoft are three library search sites which provide free information.

A cursory visit to the Internet by a writer has revealed several interesting developments in the computer and software industries. For example, Intel Corp is expected to launch its 'Katmai' processor for desktop systems early in 1999. The processor is expected to initially run at 500 MHz using a 100 MHz system bus. Microsoft Corp's Windows NT5 is expected to draw the scrutiny of the US Justice Dept, which is investigating the software company's allegedly anti-trust activities. Several firms and universities can give users tips on how to handle the year 2000 date transition problem.

Four programs downloaded from the Internet were used to evaluate year 2000 compatibility of a computer hardware. YMARK2000 from NSTLonline is a 35-kilobyte test program that assesses the performance of the basic input output system and the real time clock of computers when set to year 2000. One demonstration program from Computer Experts, namely 'setupmbt.exe' implements eight out of ten tests provided in the Millennium Bug Toolkit. The other programs evaluated were 'Test2000.exe' from The RighTime Co and 'killer.exe' from Computer Experts.

Search engines can be used to find data on the Internet. The software package PartMiner is designed to find engineering parts on the worldwide communications network. It, and other tools like it, are used on the network Electronic Design Technology and News. Analogue circuit designs to achieve high-frequency performance are described and illustrated.

The growth and spread of Internet use among individual users has increased online search and download times. This happens because of the increased sizes of the database used to store Internet addresses and routings, the number of hops data has to traverse in order to get to the user, and the longer packet queuing resulting from increased use. These problems can be minimized by the use of diagnostic software tools such as Ponger, Traceroute, IPtrace and TCPDump.

Various circuit design simulators may be evaluated via the Internet. Spice-based systems generally working in 'Time Domain' are the leading software for circuit simulation involving low frequencies. TurboSim is available in a 1.1 Mbyte demonstration version. Other downloadable software include Max Froding's TuneKit, a $99 demonstration version of Academic Technologies NSW Australia's RF system, and the newest version of Circuit Envelope.