Automatic Gain Control

Automatic gain control (AGC) is an adaptive system found in many electronic devices. The average output signal level is fed back to adjust the gain to an appropriate level for a range of input signal levels. For example, without AGC the sound emitted from an AM radio receiver would vary to an extreme extent from a weak to a strong signal; the AGC effectively reduces the volume if the signal is strong and raises it when it is weaker.

Famous quotes containing the words automatic, gain and/or control:

    Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation for the existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind’s eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.
    Richard Dawkins (b. 1941)

    And who, in time, knows whither we may vent
    The treasure of our tongue, to what strange shores
    This gain of our best glory shall be sent,
    T’enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
    What worlds in th’yet unformed Occident
    May come refined with th’accents that are ours?
    Samuel Daniel (c.1562–1619)

    Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?
    Jane Alpert (b. 1947)