Spectral lines: More power to you and more computer power, too

A careful study of the technical-interest profiles of IEEE´s 180 000 members suggests that not quite 30 000 of them are linked directly and principally to the electric power industry ¿ yet all members have a vested interest in energy matters simply by being consumers of power. Thus, it is not surprising to find, over the past few years, that articles published in Spectrum on the topics of power and energy have regularly garnered an impressive share of reader votes. Moreover, those areas of electrotechnology representing an overlap between the electrical and electronics arts ¿ and, indeed, representing an overlap among the electrical, electronics, and computer arts and sciences ¿ are consistently growing. Computers, in particular, are being exploited more and more by the utilities.