Clipper

clipper

1. any fast sailing ship

2. Electronics another word for limiter

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

clipper

[′klip·ər]

(electronics)

limiter

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Clipper

(hardware, cryptography)

An integrated circuit which implements the SkipJack algorithm. The Clipper is manufactured by the US government to encrypt telephone data. It has the added feature that it can be decrypted by the US government, which has tried to make the chip compulsory in the United States. Phil Zimmerman (inventor of PGP) remarked, "This doesn't even pass the sniff test" (i.e. it stinks).

http://wired.com/clipper/.

news:alt.privacy.clipper

Clipper

(2)

A compiled dBASE dialect from Nantucket Corp, LA. Versions: Winter 85, Spring 86, Autumn 86, Summer 87, 4.5 (Japanese Kanji), 5.0. It uses the Xbase programming language.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

Clipper

(1) See CA-Clipper and CLIPPER chip.

(2) A family of 32-bit RISC microprocessors from Intergraph that were used in earlier graphics workstations.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Clipper

 

a two-electrode hydrogen-filled ionic device with an indirectly heated oxide cathode.

Clippers have the properties of high-current pulse-mode operated devices and rectifiers. They are used primarily to remove excessive voltages and to protect against unwanted signals, and they participate in charging the accumulators of radar-transmitter pulse modulators. They are also used as valves in current rectifiers.

The electrodes of the clipper are made of copper. The electrodes, together with ceramic walls, constitute the casing of the device. If a positive voltage is applied to the anode, a current pulse passes from the cathode to the anode, thereby removing any overvoltage. The advantages of the clipper include its low dynamic resistance (fractions of an ohm), its high electric strength, its low pick-up time (nanoseconds), its high stability under pulse-current overloads, and its greater protection effectiveness in comparison to other devices designed for similar purposes.

A. A. POLIAKOVA

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.