Synthesis

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This is an article about the philosophical concept. See also Synthesis (Magazine) and Synthesizer

Synthesis (from the ancient Greek σύνθεσις σύν (with) and θεσις (placing), is commonly understood to be an integration of two or more pre-existing elements which results in a new creation.

[edit] Philosophical synthesis

The term is broad in meaning and can apply to physical, ideological, and/or phenomenological entities. In dialectics, synthesis is the final result of attempts to reconcile the inherent contradiction between thesis and antithesis. Along with the similar concept of integration, synthesis is generally considered to be an important element of modern philosophy, particularly in the various emerging ideas often considered to be holistic (as opposed to reductionistic).

[edit] Chemical synthesis

Main article: Chemical synthesis

In chemistry, chemical synthesis is the process of forming a particular molecule from chemical precursors.

[edit] Synthesis in electronics and acoustics

In electronic musical instruments, sound synthesis is the method of sound generation and is a piece of hardware or software may employ, e.g. the "Access Virus B" synthesizer mainly uses subtractive synthesis, but can use FM synthesis too. Modern electronic keyboard instruments are based around digital sound synthesizers that create audio waveforms that sound like they came from a violin or koto, without an actual violin or koto, because the sound is synthesized.

A video synthesizer electronically creates TV signals without necessarily requiring the use of a TV camera. Moving abstract patterns, text subtitles, colorized or processed camera images can all be in the output of a video synthesizer. Analog video synthesizers included the Sandin Image Processor, the Rutt-Etra, Steve Beck's "Beck Direct" Synthesizer, Bill Hearn's colorizer, and the seminal work of Nam Jun Paik. Early digital synthesizers included Stephen Beck's Video Weavings, the 2901 bit slice processor from Steina and Woody Vasulka with Schier and Dosch, Sandin's Digital Image Colorizer, Etra's "Kangaroo Giant Box" , and the Fluidigeo Synthesizer. Documentation on the history of video synthesizers can also be found at [1].

In the world of electronic design automation, (logic) synthesis is the process of converting a digital design written in a hardware description language (HDL) into a low-level implementation consisting of primitive logic gates. Most large integrated circuits designed today are written in an HDL and "compiled" using a (logic) synthesis product.