User:BenCaseyKSU/Hot swapping

Radio transmitters
Modern day radio transmitters (and some TV transmitters as well) use high power RF transistor power modules instead of vacuum tubes. Hot swapping power modules is not a new technology, as many of the radio transmitters manufactured in the 1930s were capable of having power tubes swapped out while the transmitter was running—but this feature was not universally adopted due to the introduction of more reliable high power tubes.

In the mid-1990s, several radio transmitter manufactures in the US started offering swappable high power RF transistor modules.


 * There was no industry standard for the design of the swappable power modules at the time.
 * Early module designs had only limited patent protection.
 * By the early 2000s, many transmitter models were available that used many different kinds of power modules.

The reintroduction of power modules has been good for the radio transmitter industry, as it has fostered innovation. Modular transmitters have proven to be more reliable than tube transmitters, when the transmitter is properly chosen for the conditions at the transmitting site.

Power limitations:


 * Lowest power modular transmitter: generally 1.0 kW, using 600 W modules.
 * Highest power modular transmitter: 1.0 MW (for LW, MW).
 * Highest power modular transmitter: 45 kW (FM, TV).

Gaming
Although most contemporary video game systems can interchange games and multimedia (e.g. Blu-rays) without powering down the system, older generations of systems varied in their support of hot-swapping capabilities. For example, whereas the Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2 could eject a game disc with the system powered on, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo 64 would freeze up and could potentially become corrupt if the game cartridge was removed with the power on. Manufacturers specifically warned against such practices in the owner's manual or on the game cartridge. It was supposedly for this reason that Stop 'N' Swop was taken out of the Banjo-Kazooie series. With the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive system, it was sometimes possible to apply cheats (such as a player having infinite lives) and other temporary software alterations to games by hot swapping cartridges, even though the cartridges were not designed to be hot swappable.

Keyboards
Hot-swappable keyboards enable changing the switches without having to disassemble the keyboard. On standard mechanical-switch keyboards, the switch is directly soldered to the PCB. Hot-swappable keyboards instead have a socket in its place that allows the switch to be freely replaced without re-soldering.

Due to hot-swappable keyboards being less common, they often require being custom built or bought from custom keyboard manufacturers. They can be found in a variety of sizes and layouts, including more specialized ergonomic layouts.