Anyone help me with component ID for X5DIJ-SX039C laptop (k501j mobo)?

An active device provides signal amplification, or it uses amplification as the basis of its operation. That has always been the definition.

Is digital circuitry active? I'd say yes. The ability to switch a tube or transistor "on" depends on the device's ability to amplify its input to the point it's driven into saturation. The amplification mechanism is exactly the same as when the device amplifies a continuously varying signal.

How about controlled rectifiers? These are four-layer (sometimes more) devices sometimes modeled as two transistors in a sort of "soixante neuf" arrangement, a kind of flip-flop. Again, the same transistor amplification mechanism makes them work.

Magnetic amplifiers use a small current to control a larger one. They're (as the British would say) "valves", just as tubes and transistors are.

Switching diode which switches an AC signal with a DC signal. It's been done for years.

PIN diode which can switch or attenuate an RF signal with a DC current.

--snip--

I'd say amplification is a *sufficient* condition but not a necessary one. A diode can be used as a switch, without amplifying, which I would argue makes it an active device.

That is fine, but you have to remember that amplification includes unity gain (and below).

I would say that, as a category, no.

Counterexample:

Pin diodes don't attenuate. They connect resistors.

So then a light switch is an active device? Hello?

The remarks made here are classic examples of opening one's mouth and stating whatever pops into one's head, without giving it the least bit of thought.

There's no point in discussing it further. If a device cannot amplify (in the ordinary, common-sense meaning of the word), it is not an active device. Otherwise, you could twist the definition so that any and every electronic component was an active device.

Case closed.

We used them as band switches in a low noise synthesizer. A DC voltage would turn the diode on to short out part of the inductor, raising the center frequency of the VCO. Breaking the 360-510 MHz into four overlapping segments allowed for more linear and reduced the effects of noise on the tuning voltage that controlled the tuning.

Welcome to Usenet. :-)

Let's look at this (non-)issue in a broader sense. What was the point of applying the adjective "active" to particular devices?

"Obviously", it was to distinguish them from non-active devices. And prior to the Audion, there /were/ no active devices -- devices that /amplified/.

Several years ago we had an insane argument, in which a significant number of posters claimed that transducers were amplifiers, twisting the definitions of these terms into perverse forms.

We are now told that a PIN diode -- which is no more than a switch -- is an active device, apparently because it's made of semiconductor material, which /just happens/ to be used in active devices. So -- duh -- they must both be active devices.

What does the material have to do with it? A switch is a switch. Switches are not, and have never been, considered active devices. Do PIN diodes get a special break, just because they're semiconductors? Are we now supposed to classify the power switch on a table radio as an active device?

Calling an electrical generator an active device is meaningless, because it doesn't draw any useful distinction with "inactive" devices (such as a rake or a step ladder). An if an electrical generator is an "active" device, why isn't a log? A log can be burned to produce energy.

Human beings are incredibly stupid. They believe what their parents tell them, and almost always stick ferociously to their childhood beliefs throughout life. They believe that whatever pops into their heads is true, and these beliefs can only rarely be shaken. Worst of all, humans hardly ever ask "How do I know whether something is true or not?" Of course, in a democracy it doesn't matter. One person's point of view is as good as any other person's.

Whatever it is, I believe that quite possibly by now the OP has been committed to a sanitarium.

Big device between an active device and active components!...

I think this all started with the intention of talking about active components. But I see it has spread out of control like syphilis.

Jamie

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And just to trip you up,what about USB to TIA 232 converters?

?-)