Daan van der Walt, a Latin-quoting, God-fearing former Kalahari farmer, visits his estranged son in China for the first time.

When he has a vertigo attack soon after his arrival, his son drops him off at a Buddhist monastery. Under the guidance of Master Yang, an obstreperous Daan is made to practice Tai Chi to recover his balance, both physically and spiritually. He soon finds himself on a difficult path (the Dao of the title) to come to terms with his feelings of remorse and guilt. He sets out to write his Historia, or confessions, in the form of letters to his deceased wife and imaginary observations to his beloved dog.

An unusual, often very funny, novel whose fields of reference include Roman and Greek mythology, Christian theology, Chinese history and Daoism.

An astounding debut by an octogenarian author; translated by Michiel Heyns.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

This book takes the reader through the actual manufacturing process of making a typical chip, from start to finish, including a detailed discussion of each step, in plain language. The evolution of today's technology is added to the story, as seen through the eyes of the engineers who solved some of the problems. The authors are well suited to that discussion since they are three of those same engineers. They have a broad exposure to the industry and its technology that extends all the way back to Shockley Laboratories, the first semiconductor manufacturer in Silicon Valley.
The CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) process flow is the focus of the discussion and is covered in ten chapters. The vast majority of chips made today are fabricated using this general method. In order to ensure that all readers are comfortable with the vocabulary, the first chapter carefully and clearly introduces the science concepts found in later chapters. A chapter is devoted to pointing out the differences in other manufacturing methods, such as the gallium arsenide technology that produces chips for cell phones. In addition, a chapter describing the nature of the semiconductor industry from a business perspective is included.
"The entire process of making a chip is surprisingly easy to understand. The part of the story that defies belief is the tiny dimensions: the conducting wires and other structures on a chip are more than a hundred times thinner than a hair - and getting thinner with every new chip design."
* Included CD gives the reader a much greater comprehension of the process than a strictly print book with static illustrations provides
* Authors are actual engineers who have a broad range of exposure and experience with chip technology
* Contains a unique chapter describing the nature of the semiconductor industry from a business perspective

This book provides a comprehensive monograph on gate stacks in semiconductor technology. It covers the major latest developments and basics and will be useful as a reference work for researchers, engineers and graduate students alike. The reader will get a clear view of what has been done so far, what is the state-of-the-art and which are the main challenges ahead before we come any closer to a viable Ge and III-V MOS technology.

This book identifies chances and barriers women face in their transition to adulthood in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Syria. Adopting a life course perspective, it provides a new integrative micro-macro-theoretical framework and innovative analyses of individual life courses based on longitudinal data.