ABSTRACT
Most journal papers begin with an abstract. Very often limitations of length will be placed upon you by the editor and you will be asked to submit an abstract of a certain length. Naturally, the length is determined to some extent by the length of the paper itself.
The form of the abstract is largely determined by the use to which it will be put. If it is a descriptive abstract, it may do little more than tell what the unifying idea is, and in the most general terms. This kind of abstract is useful only for indexing purposes and for retrieval purposes. Here is an example of a descriptive abstract:
This paper describes integrated-circuit content-addressable memory designs employing simple memory cells that are compatible with peripheral circuits designed for existing I C random-access memories. Operating algorithms of the proposed content-addressable memory are also discussed.
This type of abstract tells the busy reader that he will have to read the paper clear through if he is to get the information.
For most purposes, the informative abstract is much more useful. Not only does it describe the project in general terms, it also describes the project in specific terms. How much more useful is the abstract illustrated here:
Collector—diffusion—isolated (CDI) device structures offer simplified processing and increased circuit packing density, and result in competitive electrical performance characteristics. The direct application of CDI to transistor-transistor logic (TTL) circuits designed for conventional integrated bipolar devices, however, results in degradation of certain circuit performance characteristics. It is demonstrated here that optimization of the TTL circuit configuration and CDI component design results in circuit performance levels that at least equal those achieved with conventional bipolar structures, while maintaining the packing density and simpler processing advantages of CDI.
A family of beam-lead sealed-junction CDI-TTL circuits has been designed and fabricated. The CDI-TTL gates comprising these circuits have a typical propagation delay of 4.0 ns at fan-out of 1, average power dissipation of 6 m W, and a worst case noise margin in excess of 200 m V over the temperature range 0-90°C and fan-out 1–8.
