True Fact: Until yesteday, I thought the Analog Devices logo was a "play" button

[JoeN]

I took a look at it again and it occurred to me it is obviously an amp.  Duh.  How did I get that wrong?

Anyone else as dumb as me?  You can admit it and no one will make fun of you, I assure you... 

[EEVblog]

You are obviously too young, that is your problem
Your mind is brainwashed with images of Play buttons from birth.

[crispy_tofu]

It isn't a play button?! 

[Circlotron]

Anyone else as dumb as me?  You can admit it and no one will make fun of you, I assure you... 

You have to have a certain minimum degree of smarts to realise that you are dumb. People dumber than you don't actually know that they are dumb. You are in the awkward zone. You need to see a palm reader -> http://dilbert.com/strip/1991-06-07

[DimitriP]

I always saw it as an A and a D   .... 

[Stupid Beard]

I never twigged it was an amp either. I guess because I've always associated an amp with a line drawing of a triangle, rather then the triangle itself. Funny how the mind works.

[DimitriP]

You are obviously too young, that is your problem
Your mind is brainwashed with images of Play buttons from birth.

I dunno...PLAY buttons have been around for while ...

[nidlaX]

I always thought it's a black square with a triangle shaped cutout.

[fivefish]

I thought it was a pyramid being blown over by a desert storm.

[coppice]

Most people have considered the symbol to be an op-amp since ADI began, but they are clearly wrong. An op-amp is drawn as an outline, not a solid triangle. Only the play button is drawn as a solid triangle, and you have shown the insight to recognise that. Don't start fooling yourself now.

[Richard Crowley]

Oh you kids!  That triangle has been the symbol for an op-amp since they were implemented with fire-bottles!
That was long before Analog Devices and play buttons.

[Joule Thief]

I always figured it was a simplistic logo which consumed 30 minutes to create and netted the designer 50K$.

[coppice]

Oh you kids!  That triangle has been the symbol for an op-amp since they were implemented with fire-bottles!
That was long before Analog Devices and play buttons.

The first amps we would recognise as op-amps were developed in the 1950s, using vacuum tubes. Tape and wire recorders are older than that, but when was the play function first labelled with an arrow head?

[bitseeker]

The first amps we would recognise as op-amps were developed in the 1950s, using vacuum tubes. Tape and wire recorders are older than that, but when was the play function first labelled with an arrow head?

Some info on the play (circa 1960's) and pause icons.

http://gizmodo.com/5612630/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-computer-symbols

[Kjelt]

Oh you kids!  That triangle has been the symbol for an op-amp since they were implemented with fire-bottles!
That was long before Analog Devices and play buttons.

Interesting, I miss the + , the - inputs, and the output lines and the power lines for it to be a symbol of an op-amp. Unless AD has a new fully wireless opamp I am unaware of?

I see a white triangle in a black square and all someone else sees or thinks to see in it is pure subjective mindboggling nonsense 

[GNU_Ninja]

Looks like a play button to me, too, now! 

[Deathwish]

I refuse to run with the crowd, it is a pizza slice, it was designed by hungry marketing staff telling the world how little they got paid and how hungry they are 

[macboy]

Nonsense, if it was an amp, it would have two input lines and an output line.

Also, that logo has been around a long time, and a long time ago, the amplifier symbol looked like a slice of pie like this:


So, I say it's not an amplifier symbol, and not just because I won't admit that I hadn't thought of that before.

[steve30]

I don't think it ever occurred to me what it was.

[Circlotron]

If it was a slice of pie it should have a 1K resistor on the (-) input and 3.14159265K feedback resistor.

[Smokey]

I make all of my "Play Buttons" out of Op-Amps, so you're both right!

[langwadt]

I always figured it was a simplistic logo which consumed 30 minutes to create and netted the designer 50K$.

if so, I think he deserved it, beautifully simple, easily recognizable and related to what ADI makes

[T3sl4co1l]

Please... *My* logo is clearly the thing it claims to be! <--

Tim

[JoeN]

Also, that logo has been around a long time, and a long time ago, the amplifier symbol looked like a slice of pie like this:

Um, wrong.  This is from 1956, 9 years before Analog Devices was founded (apparently it is scanned from the 8th printing in 1961, if any changes were made):

http://www.philbrickarchive.org/applications_manual_for_philbrick_octal_plug-in_computing_amplifiers_1956to1961.htm

Your symbol appears nowhere in it.  Only the modern symbol appears.

Nonsense, if it was an amp, it would have two input lines and an output line.

You could as easily argue it would have 5 to show rails or 7 to show rails and null offsets.  But none of these arguments are good.  The triangle is the amp, the lines are not the important part, especially when making a logo.

[vk6zgo]

A triangle is a block diagram symbol for any type of amplifier,not just an Op Amp.

The old,rounded symbol was around for many years,along with the AND & OR symbols with the concave input side,before,very slowly being supplanted by the ones we use today.

If I remember correctly,the Brits were the last holdouts.