Historical usage.

Ancient India.

In Ancient India, Sanskrit language words such as "Chakravarti", "Rajadhiraja" are among the words that were used for employing the title of the "King of Kings". These words also occur in Aitareya Aranyaka and other parts of Rigveda (1700 BCE - 1100 BCE).

Ancient Mesopotamia.

Assyria and Babylon.

The title King of Kings was first introduced by the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (who reigned between 1233 and 1197 BC) as "šar šarrāni". The title carried a literal meaning in that a "šar" was traditionally simply the ruler of a city-state. With the formation of the Middle Assyrian Empire, the Assyrian rulers installed themselves as kings over an already present system of kingship in these city-states, becoming literal "kings of kings". Following Tukulti-Ninurta's reign, the title was occasionally used by monarchs of Assyria and Babylon. Later Assyrian rulers to use "šar šarrāni" include Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BC) and Ashurbanipal (r. 669–627 BC).  "King of Kings", as "šar šarrāni", was among the many titles of the last Neo-Babylonian king, Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BC). He also used more boastful titles such as "king of the gods" ("šar ilāni") and "king of the gods of the heavens and the underworld" ("šar ilāni ša šamê u erṣetim").  Boastful titles claiming ownership of various things were common throughout ancient Mesopotamian history. For instance, Ashurbanipal's great-grandfather Sargon II used the full titulature of "Great King", "Mighty King", "King of the Universe", "King of Assyria", "King of Babylon", "King of Sumer and Akkad".

Urartu and Media.

The title of King of Kings occasionally appears in inscriptions of kings of Urartu. Although no evidence exists, it is possible that the title was also used by the rulers of the Median Empire, since its rulers borrowed much of their royal symbolism and protocol from Urartu and elsewhere in Mesopotamia. The Achaemenid Persian variant of the title, "Xšâyathiya Xšâyathiyânâm", is Median in form which suggests that the Achaemenids may have taken it from the Medes rather than from the Mesopotamians.  An Assyrian-language inscription on a fortification near the fortress of Tušpa mentions King Sarduri I of Urartu as a builder of a wall and a holder of the title "King of Kings";

Iran.

Achaemenid usage.

The Achaemenid Empire, established in 550 BC after the fall of the Median Empire, rapidly expanded over the course of the sixth century BC. Asia Minor and the Lydian kingdom was conquered in 546 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, Egypt in 525 BC and the Indus region in 513 BC. The Achaemenids employed satrapal administration, which became a guarantee of success due to its flexibility and the tolerance of the Achaemenid kings for the more-or-less autonomous vassals. The system also had its problems; though some regions became nearly completely autonomous without any fighting (such as Lycia and Cilicia), other regions saw repeated attempts at rebellion and secession. Egypt was a particularly prominent example, frequently rebelling against Achaemenid authority and attempting to crown their own Pharaohs. Though it was eventually defeated, the Great Satraps' Revolt of 366–360 BC showed the growing structural problems within the Empire.  The Achaemenid Kings used a variety of different titles, prominently Great King and King of Countries, but perhaps the most prominent title was that of King of Kings (rendered "Xšâyathiya Xšâyathiyânâm" in Old Persian), recorded for every Achaemenid king. The full titulature of the king Darius I was "great king, king of kings, king in Fārs, king of the countries, Hystaspes’ son, Arsames’ grandson, an Achaemenid". An inscription in the Armenian city of Van by Xerxes I reads;

Parthian and Sasanian usage.

The standard royal title of the Arsacid (Parthian) kings while in Babylon was "Aršaka šarru" ("Arsacid king"), "King of Kings" (recorded as "šar šarrāni" by contemporary Babylonians) was adopted first by Mithridates I (r. 171–132 BC), though he used it infrequently. The title first began being consistently used by Mithridates I's nephew, Mithridates II, who after adopting it in 111 BC used it extensively, even including it in his coinage (as the Greek BAΣIΛEΥΣ BAΣIΛEΩN) until 91 BC. It is possible that Mithridates II's, and his successors', use of the title was not a revival of the old Achaemenid imperial title (since it was not used until almost a decade after Mithridates II's own conquest of Mesopotamia) but actually stemmed from Babylonian scribes who accorded the imperial title of their own ancestors onto the Parthian kings. Regardless of how he came to acquire the title, Mithridates II did undertake conscious steps to be seen as an heir to and restorer of Achaemenid traditions, introducing a crown as the customary headgear on Parthian coins and undertaking several campaigns westwards into former Achaemenid lands.  The title was rendered as "šāhān šāh" in Middle Persian and Parthian and remained in consistent use until the ruling Arsacids were supplanted by the Sasanian dynasty of Ardashir I, creating the Sasanian Empire. Ardashir himself used a new variant of the title, introducing "Shahanshah of the Iranians" (Middle Persian: "šāhān šāh ī ērān"). Ardashir's successor Shapur I introduced another variant; "Shahanshah of the Iranians and non-Iranians" (Middle Persian: "šāhān šāh ī ērān ud anērān"), possibly only assumed after Shapur's victories against the Roman Empire (which resulted in the incorporation of new non-Iranian lands into the empire). This variant, "Shahanshah of Iranians and non-Iranians", appear on the coinage of all later Sasanian kings. The final Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire was Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651 AD). His reign ended with the defeat and conquest of Persia by the Rashidun Caliphate, ending the last pre-Islamic Iranian Empire. The defeat of Yazdegerd and the fall of the Sasanian Empire was a blow to the national sentiment of the Iranians, which was slow to recover. Although attempts were made at restoring the Sasanian Empire, even with Chinese help, these attempts failed and the descendants of Yazdegerd faded into obscurity. The title Shahanshah was criticized by later Muslims, associating it with the Zoroastrian faith and referring to it as "impious".  The female variant of the title in the Sasanian Empire, as attested for Shapur I's (r. 240–270 AD) daughter Adur-Anahid, was the matching "bānbishnān bānbishn" ("Queen of Queens"). The similar title "shahr banbishn" ("Queen of the empire") is attested for Shapur I's wife Khwarranzem.

Buyid revival.

Following the fall of the Sasanian Empire, Iran was ruled by a series of relatively short-lived Muslim Iranian dynasties; including the Samanids and Saffarids. Although Iranian resentment against the Abbasid Caliphs was common, the resentment materialized as religious and political movements combining old Iranian traditions with new Arabic ones rather than as full-scale revolts. The new dynasties do not appear to have had any interest in re-establishing the empire of the old Shahanshahs, they at no point seriously questioned the suzerainty of the Caliphs and actively promoted Arabic culture. Though the Samanids and the Saffarids also actively promoted the revival of the Persian language, the Samanids remained loyal supporters of the Abbasids and the Saffarids, despite at times being in open rebellion, did not revive any of the old Iranian political structures.  The shiite Buyid dynasty, of Iranian Daylamite origin, came to power in 934 AD through most of the old Iranian heartland. In contrast to earlier dynasties, ruled by Emirs and wanting to appease the powerful ruling Caliphs, the Buyids consciously revived old symbols and practices of the Sasanian Empire. The region of Daylam had resisted the Caliphate since the fall of the Sasanian Empire, attempts at restoring a native Iranian rule built on Iranian traditions had been many, though unsuccessful. Asfar ibn Shiruya, a Zoroastrian and Iranian nationalist, rebelled against the Samanids in 928 AD, intending to put a crown on himself, set up a throne of gold and make war on the Caliph. More prominently, Mardavij, who founded the Ziyarid Dynasty, was also Zoroastrian and actively aspired to restore the old empire. He was quoted as promising to destroy the empire of the Arabs and restore the Iranian empire and had a crown identical to the one worn by the Sasanian Khosrow I made for himself. At the time he was murdered by his own Turkic troops, Mardavij was planning a campaign towards Baghdad, the Abbasid capital. Subsequent Ziyarid rulers were Muslim and made no similar attempts. After the death of Mardavij, many of his troops entered into the service of the founder of the Buyid dynasty, Imad al-Dawla. Finally, the Buyid Emir Panāh Khusraw, better known by his laqab (honorific name) of "'Adud al-Dawla" proclaimed himself "Shahanshah" after defeating rebellious relatives and becoming the sole ruler of the Buyid dynasty in 978 AD."" Those of his successors that likewise exercised full control over all the Buyid emirates would also style themselves as "Shahanshah".  During times of Buyid infighting, the title became a matter of importance. When a significant portion of Firuz Khusrau's (laqab "Jalal al-Dawla") army rebelled in the 1040s and wished to enthrone the other Buyid Emir Abu Kalijar as ruler over the lands of the entire dynasty, they minted coins in his name with one side bearing the name of the ruling Caliph (Al-Qa'im) and the other side bearing the inscription ""al-Malik al-Adil Shahanshah"". When discussing peace terms, Abu Kalijar in turn addressed Jalal in a letter with the title "Shahanshah".  When the struggle between Abu Kalijar and Jalal al-Dawla resumed, Jalal, wanting to assert his superiority over Kalijar, made a formal application to Caliph Al-Qa'im for the usage of the title "Shahanshah", the first Buyid ruler to do so. It can be assumed that the Caliph agreed (since the title was later used), but its usage by Jalal in a mosque caused outcry at its impious character. Following this, the matter was raised to a body of jurists assembled by the Caliph. Though some dissented, the body as a whole ruled that the usage of "al-Malik al-Adil Shahanshah" was lawful.

Hellenic usage.

Alexander the Great's conquests ended the Achaemenid Empire and the subsequent division of Alexander's own empire resulted in the Seleucid dynasty inherting the lands formerly associated with the Achaemenid dynasty. Although Alexander himself did not employ any of the old Persian royal titles, instead using his own new title "King of Asia" (βασιλεὺς τῆς Ἀσίας), the monarchs of the Seleucid Empire more and more aligned themselves to the Persian political system. The official title of most of the Seleucid kings was "Great King", which like "King of Kings", a title of Assyrian origin, was frequently used by the Achaemenid rulers and was intended to demonstrate the supremacy of its holder over other rulers. "Great King" is prominently attested for both Antiochus I (r. 281–261 BC) in the Borsippa Cylinder and for Antiochus III the Great (r. 222–187 BC) throughout his rule.  In the late Seleucid Empire, "King of Kings" even saw a revival, despite the fact that the territory controlled by the Empire was significantly smaller than it had been during the reigns of the early Seleucid kings. The title was evidently quite well known to be associated with the Seleucid king, the usurper Timarchus (active 163–160 BC) called himself "King of Kings" and the title was discussed in sources from outside the empire as well. Some non-Seleucid rulers even assumed the title for themselves, notably in Pontus (especially prominently used under Mithridates VI Eupator).  It is possible that the Seleucid usage indicates that the title no longer implied complete vassalization of other kings but instead a recognition of suzerainty (since the Seleucids were rapidly losing the loyalty of their vassals at the time).

Armenia and Georgia.

After the Parthian Empire under Mithridates II defeated Armenia in 105 BC, the heir to the Armenian throne, Tigranes, was taken hostage and kept at the Parthian court until he bought his freedom in 95 BC (by handing over "seventy valleys" in Atropatene) and assumed the Armenian throne. Tigranes ruled, for a short time in the first century BC, the strongest empire in the Middle East which he had built himself. After conquering Syria in 83 BC, Tigranes assumed the title "King of Kings". The Armenian kings of the Bagratuni dynasty from the reign of Ashot III 953–977 AD to the dynasty's end in 1064 AD revived the title, rendering it as the Persian "Shahanshah".  "King of Kings" was revived in the Kingdom of Georgia by King David IV (r. 1089–1125 AD), rendered as "mepet mepe" in Georgian. All subsequent Georgian monarchs, such as Tamar the Great, used the title to describe their rule over all Georgian principalities, vassals and tributaries. Their use of the title probably derived from the ancient Persian title.

Palmyra.

After a successful campaign against the Sasanian Empire in 262 AD, which restored Roman control to territories that had been lost to the "Shahanshah" Shapur I, the ruler of the city of Palmyra, Odaenathus, founded the Palmyrene kingdom. Though a Roman vassal, Odaenathus assumed the title "Mlk Mlk dy Mdnh" (King of Kings and Corrector of the East). Odaenathus son, Herodianus (Hairan I) was acclaimed as his co-monarch, also given the title King of Kings. Usage of the title was probably justified through proclaiming the Palmyrene kingdom as the legitimate successor state of the Hellenic Seleucid empire, which had controlled roughly the same territories near its end. Herodianus was crowned at Antioch, which had been the final Seleucid capital.  Though the same title was used by Odaenathus second son and successor following the deaths of both Odaenathus and Herodianus, Vaballathus and his mother Zenobia soon relinquished it, instead opting for the Roman "Augustus" ("Emperor") and "Augusta" ("Empress") respectively.

Ethiopia.

The title King of Kings was used by the rulers of the Aksumite Kingdom since the reign Sembrouthes c. 250 AD. The rulers of the Ethiopian Empire, which existed from 1270 to 1974 AD, also used the title of "Nəgusä Nägäst", sometimes translated to "King of the Kingdom", but most often equated to "King of Kings" and officially translated to Emperor. Though the Ethiopian Emperors had been literal "Kings of Kings" for the duration of the Empire's history, with regional lords using the title of "Nəgus" ("king"), this practice was ended by Haile Selassie (r. 1930–1974 AD), who somewhat paradoxically still retained the use of "Nəgusä Nägäst". Empress Zewditu (r. 1916–1930 AD), the only female monarch of the Ethiopian Empire, assumed the variant "Queen of Kings" ("Nəgəstä Nägäst").

In religion.

Judaism and Christianity.

In Judaism, "Melech Malchei HaMelachim" ("the King of Kings of Kings") came to be used as a name of God, using the double superlative to put the title one step above the royal title of the Babylonian and Persian kings referred to in the Bible.  "King of Kings" (βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλευόντων) is used in reference to Jesus Christ several times in the Bible, notably once in the First Epistle to Timothy (6:15) and twice in the Book of Revelation (17:14, 19:11–16);Some Christian realms (Georgia, Armenia and Ethiopia) employed the title and it was part of the motto of the Byzantine Emperors of the Palaiologan period, Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλευόντων ("Basileus Basileōn, Basileuōn Basileuontōn", literally "King of Kings, ruling over those who rule"). In the Byzantine Empire the word Βασιλεὺς (Basileus), which had meant "king" in ancient times had taken up the meaning of "emperor" instead. Byzantine rulers translated "Basileus" into "Imperator" when using Latin and called other kings "rēx" or "rēgas", hellenized forms of the Latin title "rex". As such, Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων in the Byzantine Empire would have meant "Emperor of Emperors". The Byzantine rulers only accorded the title of Basileus onto two foreign rulers they considered to be their equals, the Kings of Axum and the "Shahanshahs" of the Sasanian Empire, leading to "King of Kings" being equated to the rank of "Emperor" in the view of the West.

Islam.

Following the fall of the Sasanian Empire in 651 AD, the title of "Shahanshah" was sternly criticized in the Muslim world. It was problematic enough that the adoption of "Shahanshah" by the Muslim Buyid dynasty in Persia required a body of jurists to agree on its lawfulness and the title itself (both as "king of kings" and as the Persian variant "Shahanshah") is condemned in Sunni hadith, a prominent example being Sahih al-Bukhari Book 73 Hadiths 224 and 225; The condemnation of the title within the Islamic world may stem from that the concept of God alone being king had been prominent in early Islam. Opposing worldly kingship, the use of "King of Kings" was obnoxious and blasphemous.

Modern usage.

After the end of the Buyid dynasty in 1062 AD, the title of "Shahanshah" wouldn't be adopted by another Iranian ruler until Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty. Upon his capture of Tabriz in 1501 AD, more than four hundred years after the end of the Buyid dynasty, Ismail proclaimed himself the Shāh of Azerbaijan and the Shahanshah of Iran. The term "šāhanšāh-e Irān," King of Kings of Iran, is richly attested for the Safavid period and for the preceding Timurid period (when it was not in use). Nader Shah, founder of the later Afsharid Dynasty, assumed the title "šāhanšāh" in 1739 to emphasize his superiority over Muhammad Shah of the Mughal Empire in India.  The title "Shahanshah" is also attested for Fath-Ali Shah Qajar of the Qajar dynasty (r. 1797–1834). Fath-Ali's reign was noted for its pomp and elaborate court protocol. An 1813/1814 portrait of Fath-Ali contains a poem with the title; "Is this a portrait of a shahanshah, inhabitant of the skies / Or is it the rising of the sun and the image of the moon?".  The Qajar dynasty was overthrown in 1925, replaced by the Pahlavi dynasty. Both reigning members of this dynasty, Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1925–1941) and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1941–1979), before they too were overthrown as part of the Iranian revolution in 1979, used the title of "Shahanshah". Although Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had reigned as "Shah" for twenty-six years by then, he only took the title of "Shahanshah" on 26 October 1967 in a lavish coronation ceremony held in Tehran. He said that he chose to wait until this moment to assume the title because in his own opinion he "did not deserve it" up until then; he is also recorded as saying that there was "no honour in being Emperor of a poor country" (which he viewed Iran as being until that time). The current head of the exiled house of Pahlavi, Reza Pahlavi II, symbolically declared himself "Shahanshah" at the age of 21 after the death of his father in 1980.  In 2008, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi claimed to be a "King of Kings". A gathering of more than 200 African tribal kings and chiefs endorsed his use of the title on August 28 that year, stating that "We have decided to recognise our brother leader as the 'king of kings, sultans, princes, sheikhs and mayors of Africa". At the meeting, held in the city of Benghazi, Gaddafi was given gifts including a throne, an 18th-century Qu'ran, traditional outfits and ostrich eggs. At the same meeting, Gaddafi urged his guests to put pressure on their own governments and speed the process of moving towards a unified African continent. Gaddafi told those that attended the meeting that "We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa". The meeting was later referred to as a "bizarre ceremony" in international media.

King of Kings (Akkadian: "šar šarrāni; Old Persian: "Xšâyathiya Xšâyathiyânâm; Middle Persian: "šāhān šāh; Modern Persian: شاهنشاه, "Šâhanšâh"; Greek: Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων, "Basileùs Basiléōn; Armenian: արքայից արքա, "ark'ayits ark'a"; Georgian: მეფეთ მეფე, "Mepet mepe"; Ge'ez: ንጉሠ ነገሥት, "Nəgusä Nägäst") was a ruling title employed primarily by monarchs based in the Middle East. Though most commonly associated with Iran (historically known as Persia in the West), especially the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires, the title was originally introduced during the Middle Assyrian Empire by king Tukulti-Ninurta I (reigned 1233–1197 BC) and was subsequently used in a number of different kingdoms and empires, including the aforementioned Persia, various Hellenic kingdoms, Armenia, Georgia and Ethiopia.

Ein Großkönig (gr.: "ho megas basileus" bzw. häufiger βασιλεύς, ohne Artikel; ) ist ein König, der über mehrere andere Könige gebietet.


Variations by country.

The Netherlands and Flanders.

A Dutch version of the schlager is called the "levenslied" (literally 'life song', "i.e."'song about real life'). It is a sentimental, Dutch-language subgenre of pop music. Typical "levenslied" lyrics treat subjects such as love, misery, and nostalgia, besides longing for sunny, exotic holiday places. A typical "levenslied" has catchy, simple rhythms and melodies (in common with many pop and folk tunes) and is structured in couplets and refrains. Traditional instruments in "levenslied" music are the accordion and the barrel organ: for example, Nicole and Hugo.

Finland.

The roots of Finnish schlager () date back to the interwar period and popular singers such as Georg Malmstén and Matti Jurva. A particularly notable song was opera singer Ture Ara's "Emma" in 1929. Schlager tradition has an important place in Finnish popular music, and its melodic language has also influenced Finnish rock. Schlager shares its audience with Finnish tango music; both are popular among older and middle-aged Finns. A particular feature of Finnish schlager music are "translation schlagers" (). Noteworthy Finnish schlager composers include Juha Vainio. According to polls of Finnish audiences, "Hopeinen kuu", (originally "Guarda che luna" by Walter Malgoni and Bruno Pallesi), recorded in Finnish by Olavi Virta and "Satulinna" (composed by Jukka Kuoppamäki and sung by Jari Sillanpää) are the most popular Finnish schlagers of all time.

Germany and Austria.

The roots of German schlager are old: the word refers to songs by Heinz Rühmann and other singing movie stars of the 1930s. One ancestor of schlager may be operetta, which was highly popular in the early twentieth century. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Comedian Harmonists and Rudi Schuricke laid the foundations for this new music. Well-known schlager singers of the 1950s and early 1960s include Lale Andersen, Freddy Quinn, Ivo Robić, Gerhard Wendland, Caterina Valente, Margot Eskens and Conny Froboess. Schlager reached a peak of popularity in Germany and Austria in the 1960s (featuring Peter Alexander and Roy Black) and the early 1970s. From the mid-1990s through the early 2000s, schlager also saw an extensive revival in Germany by, for example, Guildo Horn,, Michelle and. Dance clubs would play a stretch of schlager titles during the course of an evening, and numerous new bands were formed specialising in 1970s schlager cover versions and newer material.  In Hamburg in the 2010s, schlager fans still gathered annually by the hundreds of thousands, dressing in 1970s clothing for street parades called "Schlager Move". The Schlager Move designation is also used for a number of smaller schlager music parties in several major German cities throughout the year. (This revival is sometimes associated with kitsch and camp.) Germans view schlager as their country music, and American country and Tex-Mex music are both major elements in schlager culture. ("Is This the Way to Amarillo" is regularly played in schlager contexts, usually in the English-language original.)  Popular schlager singers include Michael Wendler, Roland Kaiser, Hansi Hinterseer, Jürgen Drews, Andrea Berg, Heintje Simons, Helene Fischer, Nicole, Claudia Jung, Andrea Jürgens, Michelle, Kristina Bach, Marianne Rosenberg, Simone Stelzer, Daniela Alfinito, Semino Rossi, Vicky Leandros,, DJ Ötzi, and Andreas Gabalier. Stylistically, schlager continues to influence German "party pop": that is, music most often heard in après-ski bars and Majorcan mass discos. Contemporary schlager is often mingled with Volkstümliche Musik. If it is not part of an ironic kitsch revival, a taste for both styles of music is commonly associated with folksy pubs, fun fairs, and bowling league venues.  Between 1975 and 1981 German-style schlager became disco-oriented, in many ways merging with the mainstream disco music of the time. Singers such as Marianne Rosenberg recorded both schlager and disco hits. The song "Moskau" by German band Dschinghis Khan was one of the earliest of modern, dance-based schlager, again showing how schlager of the 1970s and early 1980s merged with mainstream disco and Euro-disco. Dschinghis Khan, while primarily a disco band, also played disco-influenced schlager.

Romania.

In Romania, schlager is known as "Muzică Uşoară", which could be translated literally as "Easy Music" and, in the most common sense, this music is synonym with "Muzică de stradă" (from French "estrade", which means "podium"), defining a branch of Pop music developed in Romania after World War II, which appears generally in the form of easy danceable songs, made on arrangements, which are performed by orchestras. This music shows many similarities with Western Popular music, as most songs could be defined as a form of Schlager. It supported influences from other similar melodic styles, like Musica leggera italiana (from Italy) and Canción Melódica (from Spain). This Romanian style of music was popularized abroad through the international Golden Stag Festival, held in Brașov, since 1968. The most representative singers of that era are those from the 1980s, 1970s and rarely, 1960s: Aurelian Andreescu, Elena Cârstea, Corina Chiriac, Mirabela Dauer, Stela Enache, Luigi Ionescu, Horia Moculescu, Margareta Pâslaru, Angela Similea, Dan Spătaru and Aura Urziceanu.

Sweden.

In Sweden, schlager has waxed and waned in popularity since at least the 1930s. It still enjoys a large place in Swedish culture. Although the original schlager was heavily influenced by operetta, cabaret, variety-style music, and jazz, this started to change in the 1960s, when schlager music became more pop-oriented. Since the early 1990s, schlager songs have included elements of rock and techno. Therefore, modern Swedish schlager little resembles that of the 1940s. Despite this, many old schlager tunes are still popular; they are performed by many artists and at the Allsång på Skansen. The Melodifestival (which selects the Swedish competitor at the Eurovision Song Contest) is popularly also called "Schlagerfestivalen" ("the Schlager Festival") or Schlager-SM (Swedish schlager championship), since it has traditionally been characterised by schlager songs. The Eurovision Song Contest has also been called "Eurovisionsschlagerfestivalen" (Eurovision schlager festival) or schlager-EM ("European schlager championship"). The amount of Swedish schlager has decreased in recent years, but schlager is still the most likely genre to win the competition (""Evighet"" ( in 2006 by Carola and "Hero" by Charlotte Perrelli in 2008, for example). "Melodifestivalen" is the most popular TV program in Sweden. It is broadcast annually, and in 2006 an estimated 47 percent of the Swedish population watched the final. In Sweden "schlager" is often used to refer to Eurovision-participating songs.  Two characteristics of Swedish schlager are a pronounced key change before the final chorus and their three-minute length (the maximum song length permitted at the Eurovision Song Contest). Some Swedes dispute the meaning of "schlager" with respect to Swedish music; it may be used indiscriminately to describe popular music, "Melodifestivalen" songs, Eurovision songs, dansband music, and any song with a catchy chorus. Both Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA were influenced by schlager early in their careers.

United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, schlager is often categorized simply as pop. The style was especially popular there between the 1950s and 1980s, with singers such as Tony Christie, who enjoyed success among schlager audiences in both Germany and the UK; Engelbert Humperdinck, most notably with schlager hit "Release Me"; and Petula Clark, who gained her first number 1 in the UK Singles Chart with "Sailor", the English schlager version of "Seemann (Deine Heimat ist das Meer)", originally performed by Austrian singer Lolita.  Artists from other countries have also had schlager hits in the UK. American singers Al Martino and Roy Orbison both entered the British charts with schlager hits "Blue Spanish Eyes" and "Only the Lonely" respectively. Billy Fury's "Halfway to Paradise" reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. From the Netherlands and the UK, Dutch band Pussycat reached number 1 with the song "Mississippi". German and Austrian singers have also had hits in the UK; German singer Nicole charted in the UK with "A Little Peace," peaking at number 1. That song also won Germany the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982. The UK has itself entered many schlager artists into the Eurovision Song Contest; for example, Brotherhood of Man won for the UK in 1976 with "Save Your Kisses for Me".  Distinctively German schlager (including volksmusik and its modern version volkstümliche Musik), sung in German, has also attracted a small fan base in the United Kingdom, including BBC Radio Manchester commentator Ian Cheeseman. Germany's top-selling schlager singer Helene Fischer released the album "The English Ones" in 2010, with several English-language versions of her German hits for her Anglophone fans. British schlager singers including Ross Antony, Tony Christie and Roger Whittaker have appeared on shows such as "Musikantenstadl" and "ZDF Fernsehgarten".

Yugoslavia.

The first schlager music in Yugoslavia began to appear in the late 1940s. The first (and most influential) festival of schlager music was the Zagreb Festival of Popular Music (later known as Zagrebfest), which began in 1953 and still takes place annually in Zagreb. Many schlagers () performed at Zagrebfest over the past five decades are an integral part of the Croatian and Yugoslav pop music scene. The first schlager singers were Ivo Robić and Rajka Vali, but over time Zagreb school of schlagers came to include such singers as Vice Vukov, Arsen Dedić, Hrvoje Hegedušić, Ivica Percl, Gabi Novak, Frano Lasić, Jasna Zlokić, Zdravko Čolić, and many others. Main composers of schlagers included Fedor Kopsa, Krešimir Oblak, Ferdo Pomykalo, Miljenko Prohaska, Nikica Kalogjera, Bojan Hohnjec, Vanja Lisak, Zvonko Špišić, Ivica Stamać and Hrvoje Hegedušić.  Some Zagrebfest artists (such as Ivo Robić and Tereza Kesovija) would go on to have successful careers in Germany and France. Other pioneers include Darko Kraljić (from Zagreb), who worked in Belgrade. He is best known by his hit "Čamac na Tisi" (sung by Lola Novaković and popular in revolutionary Hungary) and his music for the film "Ljubav i moda" ("Devojko mala" and "Pod sjajem zvezda", performed by Vokalni kvartet Predraga Ivanovića).

Schlager music (, "hit(s)") is a style of European popular music that is generally a catchy instrumental accompaniment to vocal pieces of pop music with simple, happy-go-lucky, and often sentimental lyrics. It is prevalent in Central, Northern and Southeast Europe (in particular Germany, Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic States), and also (to a lesser extent) in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK. In the United States it is also known as 'entertainer music' or 'German hit mix'.

Als Schlager werden allgemein leicht eingängige instrumentalbegleitete Gesangsstücke der Popmusik mit oft deutschsprachigen, weniger anspruchsvollen, oftmals auch sentimentalen Texten bezeichnet. Ausgehend von populären Operettenmelodien machte sich seit den 1920er Jahren der Einfluss von jazzigen Rhythmen und Harmonien in der Schlagermusik bemerkbar.


Biography.

Yelü Chucai was a Confucian scholar who was born close to Beijing, during the Jin dynasty. Well versed in Buddhist scriptures and a practitioner in Taoism, Yelü Chucai has become best known for his service as the chief adviser to Genghis Khan. Yelü Chucai's father Yelü Lu, served with the Jurchen Jin dynasty, which defeated the Liao Dynasty in 1125. When the unified Mongolian army under Genghis Khan began a war of conquest against the Jin dynasty in 1211, both Jurchen and Khitan rebels joined the Mongols in the fight against the Jin dynasty. Yelü Chucai then joined Genghis Khan's administration in the year 1218 at the age of 28.  The Khitans and Mongols, as well as the Southern Song, were united by their common enemy in the Jurchen Jin dynasty. This is shown in the well-known words spoken by Genghis Khan, when at the end of July, he met Yelü Chucai for the first time at Ordos in the Sāri Steppe (west of the great bend of the Kerulen River): "Liao and Jin have been enemies for generations; I have taken revenge for you." To which Yelü Chucai replied, "My father and grandfather have both respectfully served the Jin. How can I, as a subject and a son, be so insincere in heart as to consider my sovereign and my father as enemies?" The Mongol is said to have been impressed by this frank reply, as well as by Yelü Chucai’s looks (he was a very tall man with a magnificent beard reaching to his waist) and sonorous voice. He gave him the nickname "Urtu Saqal" (Long Beard) and placed him in his retinue as an adviser. Because he was experienced in writing and knew the laws of other settled societies, Yelü Chucai was useful to the Empire.  He did his best to convince the Mongols to tax rather than slaughter conquered peoples. In Grousset's "Empire of the Steppes," it is reported that Ögedei would mock him, asking "Are you going to weep for the people again?". The wise chancellor had the great words to temper the barbaric leanings of Mongol practices, stating to Genghis Khan's son and successor to the throne, that while empires may be conquered on horseback, they could not be ruled on horseback. Yelü Chucai used his office to save other fellow Confucian scholars from punishment and mistreatment by Mongol rulers. He also helped them gain offices as bureaucrats and tutors to the Mongol princes.  While Northern China was capitulating to the Mongol onslaught, Yelü Chucai instituted several administrative reforms, like separating civil and military powers and introducing numerous taxes and levies. In response to the tough resistance the Mongol army faced while trying to conquer the Jurchen Jin's southern capital of Kaifeng, some Mongol officers in high command recommended the complete razing of Kaifeng and the deaths of all its occupants. But Yelü Chucai convinced Genghis Khan to rule and tax the people, and make use of their extraordinary talents instead of killing all of them in order to further their own riches. He was six-foot eight-inches tall and had a waist-length beard. He was buried by Kunming Lake in Beijing, and a temple constructed in his memory stood until 1966, when it was razed during the looting of the Summer Palace by communist Red Guards as part of the Cultural Revolution. Yelü Chucai was the last recorded person to be able to speak the Khitan language and read and write the Khitan scripts.

Yelü Chucai (Yeh-lu Chu-tsai; ; Mongolian: Urtu Saqal, 吾圖撒合里, "long beard"; the components of his name also variously spelt Yeh-Lu, Ye Liu, Yeliu, Chutsai, Ch'u-Ts'ai, etc.) (July 24, 1190 - June 20, 1244) was a statesman of Khitan ethnicity with royal family lineage to the Liao Dynasty, who became a vigorous adviser and administrator of the early Mongol Empire in the Confucian tradition. He was the first of Genghis Khan's retainers to formulate policy during the Mongol conquests, and he also introduced many administrative reforms in North China during the reign of Genghis Khan and his successor Ögedei.

Yelü Chucai (; mongolisch: Urtu Saqal; † Juni 1243), ein Angehöriger des Herrscherhauses der Kitan, war ein hoher Beamter des mongolischen Staates zur Zeit von Dschingis Khan und Ugedai Khan.


History.

The name Transoxiana stuck in Western consciousness because of the exploits of Alexander the Great, who extended Greek culture into the region with his invasion in the 4th century BC. Alexander's successors would go on to found the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, ushering in a distinct Greek cultural presence within Transoxiana that existed for over two hundred years. The city of Ai Khanoum, situated on the Oxus river in northern Afghanistan, remains the only Graeco Bactrian city to have been found and extensively excavated.  During the Sassanid Empire, it was often called Sogdiana, a provincial name taken from the Achaemenid Empire, and used to distinguish it from nearby Bactria.  The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian, who visited the neighbouring countries of Bactria and Parthia along with Transoxiana in 126 BC, made the first known Chinese report on this region. Zhang Qian clearly identifies Parthia as an advanced urban civilisation that farmed grain and grapes, and made silver coins and leather goods. It was ruled successively by Seleucids, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Parthian Empire and the Kushan Empire before Sassanid rule.  In Sassanid times, the region became a major cultural center due to the wealth derived from the Northern Silk Road. Sassanid rule was interrupted by the Hephthalite invasion at the end of the 5th century and didn't return to the Sassanids until 565. Many Persian nobles and landlords escaped to this region after the Muslim conquest of Persia. It was also ruled by Göktürks until the Arab conquest between 705 and 715, the area became known as "Mā warāʼ al-Nahr" (Arabic, 'what is beyond the river'), sometimes rendered as "Mavarannahr".  Transoxiana's major cities and cultural centers are Samarkand and Bukhara. Both are in the southern portion of Transoxiana (though still to the north of the Amu Darya itself, on the river Zeravshan), and the majority of the region was dry but fertile plains. Both cities remained centres of Persian culture and civilisation after the Islamic conquest of Iran, and played a crucial role in the revival of Persian culture with establishment of the Samanid dynasty.  Part of this region was conquered by Qutayba ibn Muslim between 706 and 715 and loosely held by the Umayyads from 715 to 738. The conquest was consolidated by Nasr ibn Sayyar between 738 and 740, and continued under the control of the Umayyads until 750, when it was replaced by the Abbasids. The Tang dynasty also controlled the eastern part of the region until about the same time, when a civil war known as the An Lushan Rebellion occurred.  Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, invaded Transoxiana in 1219 during his conquest of Khwarezm. Before his death in 1227, he assigned the lands of Western Central Asia to his second son Chagatai, and this region became known as the Chagatai Khanate. In 1369, Timur, of the Barlas tribe, became the effective ruler and made Samarkand the capital of his future empire. Transoxiana was known to be flourishing in the mid-14th century.

Religion.

The historian Mark Dickens notes:

Transoxiana (also spelled Transoxania), known in Arabic sources as'(, – '[what is] beyond the [Oxus] river') and in Persian as'(, —'beyond the [Amudarya] river'), is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgyzstan, and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. The area had been known to the ancient Iranians as Turan, a term used in the Persian national epic "Shahnameh", and to the Romans as Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus). The Arabic term "Mā warāʼ an-Nahr" (Land Beyond the River) passed into Persian literary usage and stayed on until post-Mongol times.

Transoxanien – das „Land jenseits des Oxus“ – ist der Name einer bedeutenden historischen Region im westlichen Zentralasien, die im Wesentlichen das Land zwischen den beiden Strömen Amudarja und Syrdarja mit den alten Metropolen Samarkand und Buchara umfasst.


Biography.

Magdalena Schneider was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, the daughter of an installer. She attended a Catholic girls' school and a commercial college; thereafter she worked as a stenographer in a grain store. At the same time, Schneider studied singing at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg and ballet at the municipal theater. She made her stage debut at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich. Schneider drew the attention of the Austrian director Ernst Marischka who called her to the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and in 1930 gave Schneider her first film role.  While filming in 1933, Schneider met her future husband, the Austrian actor Wolf Albach-Retty. The couple married in 1937 and had two children: Rosemarie Magdalena, called Romy, and Wolf-Dieter, later a surgeon, born in 1941. During World War II, Schneider lived in the Bavarian Alps near Hitler's retreat in the Obersalzberg above Berchtesgaden. Schneider was a guest of Hitler's, who declared that she was his favorite actress. Later she and Albach-Retty separated and the marriage ended in divorce in 1945.  After the war, offers for movies initially were few. Schneider again began filming in 1948 and promoted her daughter's career with the joint appearance in the film "When the White Lilacs Bloom Again" (1953) directed by Hans Deppe, a typical 1950s "Heimatfilm" which was the film debut of her daughter, 14-year-old Romy Schneider. In the same year Magda Schneider married the Cologne restaurant owner.  Magda Schneider arranged further appearances with her daughter in several movies such as "Mädchenjahre einer Königin" ("Victoria in Dover", 1954), the films of the "Sissi" trilogy based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, with Romy Schneider starring in the title role and Magda Schneider playing the role of her mother Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, and in "Die Halbzarte" ("Eva", 1958). Magda Schneider's role in the 1933 film "Liebelei" (1933) was also played by her daughter, Romy Schneider, in the remake "Christine" (1958).  Schneider died in 1996 at her house in Schönau near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria.

Magdalena Schneider (17 May 1909 – 30 July 1996) was a German actress and singer. She was the mother of the actress Romy Schneider.

Magdalena Maria „Magda“ Schneider (* 17. Mai 1909 in Augsburg; † 30. Juli 1996 in Schönau am Königssee) war eine deutsche Schauspielerin und die Mutter der Schauspielerin Romy Schneider.


History.

The melody of the Brazilian national anthem was composed by Francisco Manuel da Silva, and was presented to the public for the first time in April 1831. On 7 April 1831, the first Brazilian Emperor, Pedro I, abdicated the Crown and days later left for Europe, leaving behind the then-five-year-old Emperor Pedro II.  From the proclamation of the independence of Brazil in 1822 until the 1831 abdication, an anthem that had been composed by Pedro I himself, celebrating the country's independence (and that now continues to be an official patriotic song, the "Independence Anthem"), was used as the national anthem. In the immediate aftermath of the abdication of Pedro I, the anthem composed by him fell in popularity.  Francisco Manuel da Silva then seized this opportunity to present his composition, and the anthem written by him was played in public for the first time on April 13, 1831. On that same day, the ship carrying the former Emperor left the port of Rio de Janeiro. The date of April 13 now appears in official calendars as the "Day of the Brazilian National Anthem".  As to the actual date of composition of the music presented in April 1831, there is controversy among historians. Some hold that Francisco Manuel da Silva composed the music in the last four months of 1822 to commemorate Brazil's independence (declared on 7 September 1822), others hold that the hymn was written in early 1823 and others consider the evidence of composition dating back to 1822 or 1823 unreliable, and hold that the Anthem presented on 13 April 1831 was written in 1831, and not before. In any event, the Anthem remained in obscurity until it was played in public on 13 April 1831. In style, the music resembles early Romantic Italian music such as that of Gioachino Rossini.  Initially, the music composed by Francisco Manuel da Silva was given lyrics by Appeals Judge Ovídio Saraiva de Carvalho e Silva not as a national anthem, but as a hymn commemorating the abdication of Pedro I and the accession of Pedro II to the Throne. It was known during this early period as "April 7 Hymn". The lyrics by Ovídio Saraiva soon fell out of use, given that they were considered poor, and even offensive towards the Portuguese. The music, however, continued enjoying sustained popularity, and by 1837 it was played, without lyrics, in all public ceremonies.  Although no statute was passed during the imperial period to declare Francisco Manuel da Silva's musical composition as the national anthem, no formal enactment was considered necessary for the adoption of a national anthem. A national anthem was seen as resulting from praxis or tradition. Thus, by 1837, when it was played in all official solemnities, Francisco Manuel da Silva's composition was already the Brazilian National Anthem.  A new set of lyrics was proposed in 1841, to commemorate the coming of age and Coronation of Emperor Pedro II; those lyrics, popular but also considered poor, were soon abandoned too, this time by order of Emperor Pedro II, who specified that in public ceremonies the anthem should be played with no lyrics. Emperor Pedro II directed that Francisco Manuel da Silva's composition, as the national anthem of the Empire of Brazil, should be played, without lyrics, on all occasions when the monarch presented himself in public, and in solemnities of military or civilian nature; the composition was also played abroad in diplomatic events relating to Brazil or when the Brazilian Emperor was present.  During the Empire of Brazil era, the U.S. composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, then residing in Rio de Janeiro, composed two nationalistic works of classical music based on the Brazilian National Anthem that achieved great popularity during the imperial period: the "Brazilian Solemn March" ("Marcha Solene Brasileira", in the modern Portuguese spelling or "Marcha Solemne Brazileira", in the original spelling in force at the time of composition) and the "Great Triumphal Fantasy on the Brazilian National Anthem" ("Grande Fantasia Triunfal sobre o Hino Nacional Brasileiro"). The former was dedicated to Emperor Pedro II, and the latter was dedicated to his heiress presumptive, the Princess Imperial Isabel, comtesse d'Eu. Those works are in the vein of similar compositions written at the time in other Nations, such as Charles Gounod's "Fantasy on the Russian National Anthem". The "Grand Triumphal Fantasy", long forgotten, resurfaced in popularity in 1985, at the dawn of Brazil's "New Republic", during the country's re-democratization process, when it was played to accompany the funeral cortège of President Tancredo Neves.  After the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889, the new rulers made a competition in order to choose a new anthem, and the competition was won by a music composed by Leopoldo Miguez, with lyrics by Medeiros e Albuquerque. After protests against the adoption of the proposed new anthem, however, the Head of the Provisional Government, Deodoro da Fonseca, formalized Francisco Manuel da Silva's composition as the national anthem, while the composition by Miguez and Medeiros e Albuquerque was declared the Anthem of the Proclamation of the Republic. Deodoro himself was said to prefer the old anthem to the new composition. The Decree of the Provisional Government (Decree 171 of 1890) confirming Francisco Manuel da Silva's music, that had served as the National Anthem of the Empire of Brazil, as the National Anthem of the new Republic, was issued on 20 January 1890.  In the early days of the new Federal Republic, the National Anthem continued without official lyrics, but several lyrics were proposed, and some were even adopted by different states of Brazil. The lack of uniform, official lyrics would only be terminated in 1922, during the celebrations of the first centennial of the Proclamation of Independence, when an adapted version of Joaquim Osório Duque Estrada's lyrics, first proposed in 1909, were deemed official.  The official lyrics of the Brazilian National Anthem were proclaimed by decree of President Epitácio Pessoa (Decree 15.761 of 1922), issued on 6 September 1922, at the height of the celebrations of the Independence Centennial. This presidential decree was issued in accordance with authorization contained in a legislative decree adopted by Congress on 21 August 1922. Furthermore, as allowed by the said legislative decree, and before the President of the Republic issued his decree proclaiming the official adoption of Joaquim Osório Duque Estrada's lyrics as the official lyrics of the National anthem, the Federal Government finalized the purchase of the lyrics written by Duque Estrada, signing with the composer the contract that transferred all the rights of authorship over the said lyrics to the Federal Union, and paying the agreed price of 5:000$ (five "contos" of réis).  On 7 September 1922, on the exact day of the Independence Centennial, radio broadcasts began in Brazil, and the first broadcast was the performance of the National Anthem with the new lyrics, followed by the speech by President Epitácio Pessoa, the first radio address by a Brazilian President.  The national anthem is considered by the current Constitution of Brazil, adopted in 1988, to be one of the four national symbols of the country, along with the Flag, the Coat of Arms and the National Seal. The legal norms currently in force concerning the national anthem are contained in a statute passed in 1971 (Law 5.700 of 1 September 1971), regulating the national symbols. This law regulates in great detail the form of the national anthem and how and when it is to be played.  The music of the national anthem was originally intended to be played by symphonic orchestras; for the playing of the anthem by bands, the march composed by Antão Fernandes is included in the instrumentation. This adaptation, long in use, was made official by the 1971 statute regulating national symbols. This same statute also confirmed as official the traditional vocal adaptation of the lyrics of the national anthem, in F major, composed by Alberto Nepomuceno.  Due to the fact that the traditional vocal adaptation composed by Alberto Nepomuceno for Joaquim Osorio Duque Estrada's lyrics of the national anthem was made official in 1971, other vocal arrangements (as well as other instrumental arrangements departing from the one recognized in law) are unofficial. Because of that, for the remainder of the Military Regime era (that lasted until 1985), the playing of the anthem with any artistic arrangement that departed from the official orchestration and vocal adaptation was prohibited, and there was strict vigilance regarding the use of the National Symbols and the enforcement of this norm. Since the redemocratization of the country, far greater artistic liberty has been allowed regarding renderings of the national anthem. Singer Fafá de Belém's interpretation of the national anthem (initially criticized during the final days of the Military Regime, but now widely accepted), is an example of that. In any event, although the use of different artistic arrangements for the anthem is now permitted (and although the statutory norms that prohibited such arrangements are no longer enforced, on the grounds of constitutional freedom of expression), a rendering of the national anthem is only considered fully official when the statutory norms regarding the vocal adaptation and orchestration are followed. However, the traditional vocal adaptation composed by Alberto Nepomuceno was so well established by the time it became official that the interpretations of the national anthem that depart from the official orchestration or from the official vocal adaptation are few. Indeed, although other arrangements are now allowed, the traditional form tends to prevail, so that, with few exceptions, even celebrity singers tend to only lend their voices to the singing of the official vocal adaptation by Alberto Nepomuceno.  The anthem is sung in Brazil's official national language, the Portuguese language.

Lyrics.

The song consists of two consecutive stanzas. The adoption in 1922 of lyrics containing two stanzas thus created the present situation of the music of the anthem being played twice so as to allow for the singing of both stanzas.  Brazilian law stipulates that the music needs to be played only once in instrumental renditions of the anthem without vocal accompaniment (thus, in instrumental renditions without vocal accompaniment, the playing of the music twice is optional), but both stanzas must be sung in vocal performances.  The second stanza is often dropped when played at sporting events, as most renditions of the Brazilian National Anthem for sporting events are instrumental and not vocal.  In the lyrics, the opening line's mention of the Ipiranga river refers to the stream near (and now part of) the city of São Paulo where Prince Dom Pedro, the future Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil, declared Brazilian independence from Portugal.  (*) The passages in quotation marks were extracted from Gonçalves Dias' poem "Canção do exílio".

Glossary.

This is the meaning of the terms used in the lyrics of the hymn:

The "Brazilian National Anthem" () was composed by Francisco Manuel da Silva in 1831 and had been given at least two sets of unofficial lyrics before a 1922 decree by President Epitácio Pessoa gave the anthem its definitive, official lyrics, by Joaquim Osório Duque-Estrada, after several changes were made to his proposal, written in 1909.

Die Musik der brasilianischen Nationalhymne Hino Nacional Brasileiro wurde 1822 von Francisco Manuel da Silva (1795–1865) anlässlich der Unabhängigkeit Brasiliens von Portugal komponiert. Obwohl das Stück während des Brasilianischen Kaiserreichs (1822–1889) niemals den Status einer offiziellen Nationalhymne hatte, wurde es sehr populär und meist ohne Text gespielt. Nach der Ausrufung der Republik 1889 gewann 1909 der noch heute gültige Text von Joaquim Osório Duque Estrada (1870–1927) in einem nationalen Wettbewerb und wurde 1922 zur offiziellen Hymne des Landes erklärt.


Microarchitecture.

The lead architect of Pentium Pro was Fred Pollack who was specialized in superscalarity and had also worked as the lead engineer of the Intel iAPX 432.

Summary.

The Pentium Pro incorporated a new microarchitecture, different from the Pentium's P5 microarchitecture. It has a decoupled, 14-stage superpipelined architecture which used an instruction pool. The Pentium Pro (P6) featured many advanced concepts not found in the Pentium, although it wasn't the first or only x86 processor to implement them (see NexGen Nx586 or Cyrix 6x86). The Pentium Pro pipeline had extra decode stages to dynamically translate IA-32 instructions into buffered micro-operation sequences which could then be analysed, reordered, and renamed in order to detect parallelizable operations that may be issued to more than one execution unit at once. The Pentium Pro thus featured out of order execution, including speculative execution via register renaming. It also had a wider 36-bit address bus (usable by PAE), allowing it to access up to 64 GB of memory.  The Pentium Pro has an 8 KB instruction cache, from which up to 16 bytes are fetched on each cycle and sent to the instruction decoders. There are three instruction decoders. The decoders are not equal in capability: only one can decode any x86 instruction, while the other two can only decode simple x86 instructions. This restricts the Pentium Pro's ability to decode multiple instructions simultaneously, limiting superscalar execution. x86 instructions are decoded into 118-bit micro-operations (micro-ops). The micro-ops are RISC-like; that is, they encode an operation, two sources, and a destination. The general decoder can generate up to four micro-ops per cycle, whereas the simple decoders can generate one micro-op each per cycle. Thus, x86 instructions that operate on the memory (e.g., add this register to this location in the memory) can only be processed by the general decoder, as this operation requires a minimum of three micro-ops. Likewise, the simple decoders are limited to instructions that can be translated into one micro-op. Instructions that require more micro-ops than four are translated with the assistance of a sequencer, which generates the required micro-ops over multiple clock cycles. The Pentium Pro was the first processor in the x86-family to support upgradeable microcode under BIOS and/or operating system control.  Micro-ops exit the re-order buffer (ROB) and enter a reserve station (RS), where they await dispatch to the execution units. In each clock cycle, up to five micro-ops can be dispatched to five execution units. The Pentium Pro has a total of six execution units: two integer units, one floating-point unit (FPU), a load unit, store address unit, and a store data unit. One of the integer units shares the same ports as the FPU, and therefore the Pentium Pro can only dispatch one integer micro-op and one floating-point micro-op, or two integer micro-ops per a cycle, in addition to micro-ops for the other three execution units. Of the two integer units, only the one that shares the path with the FPU on port 0 has the full complement of functions such as a barrel shifter, multiplier, divider, and support for LEA instructions. The second integer unit, which is connected to port 1, does not have these facilities and is limited to simple operations such as add, subtract, and the calculation of branch target addresses.  The FPU executes floating-point operations. Addition and multiplication are pipelined and have a latency of three and five cycles, respectively. Division and square-root are not pipelined and are executed in separate units that share the FPU's ports. Division and square root have a latency of 18-36 and 29-69 cycles, respectively. The smallest number is for single precision (32-bit) floating-point numbers and the largest for extended precision (80-bit) numbers. Division and square root can operate simultaneously with adds and multiplies, preventing them from executing only when the result has to be stored in the ROB.  After the microprocessor was released, a bug was discovered in the floating point unit, commonly called the "Pentium Pro and Pentium II FPU bug" and by Intel as the "flag erratum". The bug occurs under some circumstances during floating point-to-integer conversion when the floating point number won't fit into the smaller integer format, causing the FPU to deviate from its documented behaviour. The bug is considered to be minor and occurs under such special circumstances that very few, if any, software programs are affected.  The Pentium Pro P6 microarchitecture was used in one form or another by Intel for more than a decade. The pipeline would scale from its initial 150 MHz start, all the way up to 1.4 GHz with the "Tualatin" Pentium III. The design's various traits would continue after that in the derivative core called "Banias" in Pentium M and Intel Core (Yonah), which itself would evolve into the Core microarchitecture (Core 2 processor) in 2006 and onward.

Performance.

Despite being advanced for the time, the Pentium Pro's out-of-order register renaming architecture had trouble with running 16-bit code and mixed code (8/16-bit or 16/32-bit), as using partial registers cause frequent pipeline flushing. Specific use of partial registers was a common performance optimization in the day, as it incurred no performance penalty on pre-P6 Intel processors; also, the dominant operating systems at the time of the Pentium Pro's release were 16-bit DOS and the mixed 16/32-bit Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 (although the latter requires a 32-bit 80386 CPU, much of its code is still 16-bit for performance reasons, such as USER.exe). This, together with the high cost of Pentium Pro systems, caused rather lackluster reception among PC enthusiasts at the time. To take full advantage of the Pentium Pro's P6 microarchitecture, a fully 32-bit OS is needed, such as Windows NT, Linux, Unix, or OS/2. The performance issues on legacy code were later partially mitigated by Intel with the Pentium II.  Compared to RISC microprocessors, the Pentium Pro, when introduced, slightly outperformed the fastest RISC microprocessors on integer performance when running the SPECint95 benchmark, but floating-point performance was significantly lower, half of some RISC microprocessors. The Pentium Pro's integer performance lead disappeared rapidly, first overtaken by the MIPS Technologies R10000 in January 1996, and then by Digital Equipment Corporation's EV56 variant of the Alpha 21164.  Reviewers quickly noted the very slow writes to video memory as the weak spot of the P6 platform, with performance here being as low as 10% of an identically clocked Pentium system in benchmarks such as VIDSPEED. Methods to circumvent this included setting VESA drawing to system memory instead of video memory in games such as "Quake", and later on utilities such as FASTVID emerged, which could double performance in certain games by enabling the write combining features of the CPU. MTRRs are set automatically by Windows video drivers starting from ~1997, and there the improved cache/memory subsystem and FPU performance caused it to outclass the Pentium clock-for-clock in the emerging 3D games of the mid–to–late 1990s, particularly when using NT4. However, its lack of MMX implementation reduces performance in multimedia applications that made use of those instructions.

Caching.

Likely Pentium Pro's most noticeable addition was its on-package L2 cache, which ranged from 256 KB at introduction to 1 MB in 1997. At the time, manufacturing technology did not feasibly allow a large L2 cache to be integrated into the processor core. Intel instead placed the L2 die(s) separately in the package which still allowed it to run at the same clock speed as the CPU core. Additionally, unlike most motherboard-based cache schemes that shared the main system bus with the CPU, the Pentium Pro's cache had its own back-side bus (called "dual independent bus" by Intel). Because of this, the CPU could read main memory and cache concurrently, greatly reducing a traditional bottleneck. The cache was also "non-blocking", meaning that the processor could issue more than one cache request at a time (up to 4), reducing cache-miss penalties. (This is an example of MLP, Memory Level Parallelism.) These properties combined to produce an L2 cache that was immensely faster than the motherboard-based caches of older processors. This cache alone gave the CPU an advantage in input/output performance over older x86 CPUs. In multiprocessor configurations, Pentium Pro's integrated cache skyrocketed performance in comparison to architectures which had each CPU sharing a central cache.  However, this far faster L2 cache did come with some complications. The Pentium Pro's "on-package cache" arrangement was unique. The processor and the cache were on separate dies in the same package and connected closely by a full-speed bus. The two or three dies had to be bonded together early in the production process, before testing was possible. This meant that a single, tiny flaw in either die made it necessary to discard the entire assembly, which was one of the reasons for the Pentium Pro's relatively low production yield and high cost. All versions of the chip were expensive, those with 1024 KB being particularly so, since it required two 512 KB cache dies as well as the processor die.

Available models.

Pentium Pro clock speeds were 150, 166, 180 or 200 MHz with a 60 or 66 MHz external bus clock. Some users chose to overclock their Pentium Pro chips, with the 200 MHz version often being run at 233 MHz, the 180 MHz version often being run at 200 MHz, and the 150 MHz version often being run at 166 MHz. The chip was popular in symmetric multiprocessing configurations, with dual and quad SMP server and workstation setups being commonplace.  In Intel's "Family/Model/Stepping" scheme, the Pentium Pro is family 6, model 1, and its Intel Product code is 80521.

Fabrication.

The process used to fabricate the Pentium Pro processor die and its separate cache memory die changed, leading to a combination of processes used in the same package:

Packaging.

The Pentium Pro (up to 512 KB cache) is packaged in a ceramic multi-chip module (MCM). The MCM contains two underside cavities in which the microprocessor die and its companion cache die reside. The dies are bonded to a heat slug, whose exposed top helps the heat from the dies to be transferred more directly to cooling apparatus such as a heat sink. The dies are connected to the package using conventional wire bonding. The cavities are capped with a ceramic plate.  The Pentium Pro with 1 MB of cache uses a plastic MCM. Instead of two cavities, there is only one, in which the three dies reside, bonded to the package instead of a heat slug. The cavities are filled in with epoxy.  The MCM has 387 pins, of which approximately half are arranged in a pin grid array (PGA) and half in an interstitial pin grid array (IPGA). The packaging was designed for Socket 8.

Upgrade paths.

In 1998, the 300/333 MHz Pentium II Overdrive processor for Socket 8 was released. Featuring 512 KB of full-speed cache, it was produced by Intel as a drop-in upgrade option for owners of Pentium Pro systems. However, it only supported two-way glueless multiprocessing, not four-way or higher, which did not make it a usable upgrade for quad-processor systems. These specially packaged Pentium II Xeon processors were used to upgrade ASCI Red, which became the first computer to reach the teraFLOPS performance mark with the Pentium Pro processor and then the first to exceed 2 teraFLOPS after the upgrade to Pentium II Xeon processors.  As Slot 1 motherboards became prevalent, several manufacturers released slocket adapters, such as the Tyan M2020, Asus C-P6S1, Tekram P6SL1, and the Abit KP6. The slockets allowed Pentium Pro processors to be used with Slot 1 motherboards. The Intel 440FX chipset explicitly supported both Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors, but the Intel 440BX and later Slot 1 chipsets did not explicitly support the Pentium Pro, so the Socket 8 slockets did not see wide use. Slockets—in the form of Socket 370 to Slot 1 adapters—saw renewed popularity when Intel introduced Socket 370 Celeron and Pentium III processors.

Bus and multiprocessor capabilities.

The Pentium Pro used GTL+ signaling in its front-side bus. The Pentium Pro could be used by itself on up to four-way designs. Eight-way Pentium Pro computers were also built, but these used multiple buses.

The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel and introduced on November 1, 1995. It introduced the P6 microarchitecture (sometimes referred to as i686) and was originally intended to replace the original Pentium in a full range of applications. While the Pentium and Pentium MMX had 3.1 and 4.5 million transistors, respectively, the Pentium Pro contained 5.5 million transistors. Later, it was reduced to a more narrow role as a server and high-end desktop processor and was used in supercomputers like ASCI Red, the first computer to reach the teraFLOPS performance mark. The Pentium Pro was capable of both dual- and quad-processor configurations. It only came in one form factor, the relatively large rectangular Socket 8. The Pentium Pro was succeeded by the Pentium II Xeon in 1998.

Der Pentium Pro ist ein Mikroprozessor des Unternehmens Intel. Er stammt aus der x86-/IA-32-Architektur und ist für 32-Bit-Programmcode optimiert. Da er teuer war und bei den damals verbreiteten 16-Bit-Programmen und -Betriebssystemen (z. B. Windows 3.1x) keine gute Leistung bot, verkaufte er sich deutlich schlechter als von Intel erhofft. Er wurde vorwiegend in teuren Server- und Workstation-Systemen verbaut. Unter den auf diesen Systemen verwendeten 32-Bit-Betriebssystemen (z. B. Windows NT oder OS/2) erreichte der Pentium Pro eine deutlich höhere Leistung als ein gleichgetakteter Pentium-Prozessor. Hierfür war auch der mit internem Prozessortakt betriebene L2-Cache verantwortlich. In der Rolle des High-End-Prozessors wurde er später durch die Xeon-Prozessorlinie abgelöst.


Volume.

Blood plasma volume may be expanded by or drained to extravascular fluid when there are changes in Starling forces across capillary walls. For example, when blood pressure drops in circulatory shock, Starling forces drive fluid into the interstitium, causing third spacing.  Standing still for a prolonged period will cause an increase in transcapillary hydrostatic pressure. As a result, approximately 12% of blood plasma volume will cross into the extravascular compartment. This causes an increase in hematocrit, serum total protein, blood viscosity and, as a result of increased concentration of coagulation factors, it causes orthostatic hypercoagulability.

Plasma proteins.

Albumins are the most common plasma proteins and they are responsible for maintaining the osmotic pressure of blood. Without albumins, the consistency of blood would be closer to that of water. The increased viscosity of blood prevents fluid from entering the bloodstream from outside the capillaries.  The second most common type of protein in the blood plasma are globulins. Important globulins include immunoglobins which are important for the immune system and transport hormones and other compounds around the body.  Fibrinogen proteins make up most of the remaining proteins in the blood. Fibrinogens are responsible for clotting blood to help prevent blood loss.

Color.

Plasma is normally yellow due to bilirubin, carotenoids, hemoglobin and transferrin. In abnormal cases, plasma can have varying shades of orange, green or brown. Green color can be due to ceruloplasmin or sulfhemoglobin. Latter may form due to medicines that are able to form sulfonamides once ingested (see sulfhemoglobinemia). Dark brown or reddish color can appear due to hemolysis, in which methemoglobin is released from broken blood cells (see methemoglobinemia). Plasma is normally relatively transparent, but sometimes it can be opaque. Opaqueness is typically due to elevated content of lipids like cholesterol and triglycerides (see hyperlipidemia).

Plasma vs serum in medical diagnostics.

Blood plasma and blood serum are often used in blood tests. Some tests can be done only on plasma and some only on serum. Some can be done on both, but depending on the test, use of either plasma or serum can be more practical. In addition, some tests have to be done with whole blood, such as the determination of the amount of blood cells in blood via flow cytometry.

History.

Plasma was already well known when described by William Harvey in "de Mortu Cordis" in 1628, but knowledge of it probably extends as far back as Vesalius (1514–1564). The discovery of fibrinogen by William Henson in circa 1770 (ibid.) made it easier to study plasma, as ordinarily, upon coming in contact with a foreign surface – something other than vascular endothelium – clotting factors become activated and clotting proceeds rapidly, trapping RBCs etc. in the plasma and preventing separation of plasma from the blood. Adding citrate and other anticoagulants is a relatively recent advance. Note that, upon formation of a clot, the remaining clear fluid (if any) is Serum (blood), which is essentially plasma without the clotting factors.  The use of blood plasma as a substitute for whole blood and for transfusion purposes was proposed in March 1918, in the correspondence columns of the British Medical Journal, by Gordon R. Ward. "Dried plasmas" in powder or strips of material format were developed and first used in World War II. Prior to the United States' involvement in the war, liquid plasma and whole blood were used.

The Origin of Plasmapheresis.

Dr. José Antonio Grifols Lucas, a scientist from Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, founded Laboratorios Grifols in 1940. Dr. Grifols pioneered a first-of-its-kind technique called "plasmapheresis", where a donor's red blood cells would be returned to the donor's body almost immediately after the separation of the blood plasma. This technique is still in practice today, almost 80 years later. In 1945, Dr. Grifols opened the world's first plasma donation center. Thirteen years after the center's opening, Dr. Grifols unexpectedly died at the young age of 41 due to leukemia.

Blood for Britain.

The "Blood for Britain" program during the early 1940s was quite successful (and popular in the United States) based on Charles Drew's contribution. A large project began in August 1940 to collect blood in New York City hospitals for the export of plasma to Britain. Drew was appointed medical supervisor of the "Plasma for Britain" project. His notable contribution at this time was to transform the test tube methods of many blood researchers into the first successful mass production techniques.  Nevertheless, the decision was made to develop a dried plasma package for the armed forces as it would reduce breakage and make the transportation, packaging, and storage much simpler. The resulting dried plasma package came in two tin cans containing 400 cc bottles. One bottle contained enough distilled water to reconstitute the dried plasma contained within the other bottle. In about three minutes, the plasma would be ready to use and could stay fresh for around four hours. The Blood for Britain program operated successfully for five months, with total collections of almost 15,000 people donating blood, and with over 5,500 vials of blood plasma.  Following the "Plasma for Britain" invention, Drew was named director of the Red Cross blood bank and assistant director of the National Research Council, in charge of blood collection for the United States Army and Navy. Drew argued against the armed forces directive that blood/plasma was to be separated by the race of the donor. Drew insisted that there was no racial difference in human blood and that the policy would lead to needless deaths as soldiers and sailors were required to wait for "same race" blood.  By the end of the war the American Red Cross had provided enough blood for over six million plasma packages. Most of the surplus plasma was returned to the United States for civilian use. Serum albumin replaced dried plasma for combat use during the Korean War.

Plasma donation.

Plasma as a blood product prepared from blood donations is used in blood transfusions, typically as fresh frozen plasma (FFP) or Plasma Frozen within 24 hours after phlebotomy (PF24). When donating whole blood or packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusions, O- is the most desirable and is considered a "universal donor," since it has neither A nor B antigens and can be safely transfused to most recipients. Type AB+ is the "universal recipient" type for PRBC donations. However, for plasma the situation is somewhat reversed. Blood donation centers will sometimes collect only plasma from AB donors through apheresis, as their plasma does not contain the antibodies that may cross react with recipient antigens. As such, AB is often considered the "universal donor" for plasma. Special programs exist just to cater to the male AB plasma donor, because of concerns about transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) and female donors who may have higher leukocyte antibodies. However, some studies show an increased risk of TRALI despite increased leukocyte antibodies in women who have been pregnant.

United Kingdom.

Following fears of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) being spread through the blood supply, the British government began to import plasma (to meet the need for commercially manufactured fractionated plasma medicines) and (through devolved Blood Services) imported plasma from Europe (to meet the needs for plasma blood components for certain patient groups). In 2002, the British government purchased Life Resources Incorporated to import plasma for medicines made from fractionated plasma. The company became Plasma Resources UK (PRUK) which owned Bio Products Laboratory. In 2013, the British government sold an 80% stake in PRUK to American hedge fund Bain Capital, in a deal estimated to be worth £230 million. The sale was met with criticism in the UK.  Currently, blood donated in the United Kingdom is used by UK Blood Services for the manufacture of plasma blood components (Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) and cryoprecipitate). However, plasma from UK donors is still not used for the commercial manufacture of fractionated plasma medicines.

Synthetic blood plasma.

Simulated body fluid (SBF) is a solution having a similar ion concentration to that of human blood plasma. SBF is normally used for the surface modification of metallic implants, and more recently in gene delivery application.

Blood plasma is a 'yellowish liquid' component of blood that holds the blood cells of whole blood in suspension. It is the liquid part of the blood that carries cells and proteins throughout the body. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid (all body fluid outside cells). It is mostly water (up to 95% by volume), and contains important dissolved proteins (6–8%) (e.g., serum albumins, globulins, and fibrinogen), glucose, clotting factors, electrolytes (Na, Ca, Mg, HCO, Cl, etc.), hormones, carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation), and oxygen. It plays a vital role in an intravascular osmotic effect that keeps electrolyte concentration balanced and protects the body from infection and other blood disorders.

Blutplasma ( "plásma" ‚Gebilde‘) oder kurz Plasma genannt, ist der flüssige und zellfreie Anteil des Blutes, den man erhält, wenn man eine ungerinnbar gemachte Blutprobe zentrifugiert. Diese Flüssigkeit enthält durch die Zentrifugation keine Blutzellen (Erythrozyten, Thrombozyten und Leukozyten) mehr. Im Gegensatz zum Blutserum enthält Blutplasma aber noch alle Gerinnungsfaktoren und ist das Ausgangsmaterial für die Plasmafraktionierung. Blutplasma hat einen Anteil von etwa 50–59 % bei Männern und 54–73 % bei Frauen am Blutvolumen. Blutplasma dient als Transportmedium für Glukose, Lipide, Hormone, Stoffwechselprodukte, Kohlenstoffdioxid und Sauerstoff. Die Sauerstofftransportkapazität liegt allerdings wesentlich unter der von Hämoglobin in den roten Blutkörperchen; unter hyperbaren (erhöhter Druck) Bedingungen kann sie sich erhöhen. Außerdem ist es das Speicher- und Transportmedium von Gerinnungsfaktoren, und sein Proteingehalt ist notwendig zur Aufrechterhaltung des kolloidosmotischen Drucks des Blutes.


Details.

Collision avoidance is used to improve the performance of the CSMA method by attempting to divide the channel somewhat equally among all transmitting nodes within the collision domain.  Although CSMA/CA has been used in a variety of wired communication systems, it is particularly beneficial in a wireless LAN due to a common problem of multiple stations being able to see the Access Point, but not each other. This is due to differences in transmit power, and receive sensitivity, as well as distance, and location with respect to the AP. This will cause a station to not be able to 'hear' another station's broadcast. This is the so-called 'hidden node', or 'hidden station' problem. Devices utilizing 802.11 based standards can enjoy the benefits of collision avoidance (RTS / CTS handshake, also Point coordination function), although they do not do so by default. By default they use a Carrier sensing mechanism called 'exponential backoff', or (Distributed coordination function) that relies upon a station attempting to 'listen' for another station's broadcast before sending. CA, or PCF relies upon the AP (or the'receiver' for Ad hoc networks) granting a station the exclusive right to transmit for a given period of time after requesting it (Request to Send / Clear to Send).

IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS Exchange.

CSMA/CA can optionally be supplemented by the exchange of a Request to Send (RTS) packet sent by the sender S, and a Clear to Send (CTS) packet sent by the intended receiver R. Thus alerting all nodes within range of the sender, receiver or both, to not transmit for the duration of the main transmission. This is known as the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS exchange. Implementation of RTS/CTS helps to partially solve the hidden node problem that is often found in wireless networking.

Performance.

CSMA/CA performance is based largely upon the modulation technique used to transmit the data between nodes. Studies show that under ideal propagation conditions (simulations), direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) provides the highest throughput for all nodes on a network when used in conjunction with CSMA/CA and the IEEE 802.11 RTS/CTS exchange under light network load conditions. Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) follows distantly behind DSSS with regard to throughput with a greater throughput once network load becomes substantially heavy. However, the throughput is generally the same under real world conditions due to radio propagation factors.

Carrier-sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) in computer networking, is a network multiple access method in which carrier sensing is used, but nodes attempt to avoid collisions by beginning transmission only after the channel is sensed to be "idle". When they do transmit, nodes transmit their packet data in its entirety.

Der englische Begriff Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) (Mehrfachzugriff mit Trägerprüfung und Kollisionsvermeidung) bezeichnet ein Prinzip für die Kollisionsvermeidung bei Zugriff mehrerer Netzwerkstationen auf denselben Übertragungskanal. Es wird häufig unter anderem bei drahtlosen Netzwerken (Wireless LANs) eingesetzt, findet aber abgewandelt auch bei Kommunikationsverfahren wie ISDN Anwendung, oder in vielen Kommunikationsnetzen, bei denen mehrere Clients Daten auf einen Bus legen und es nicht zu Kollisionen kommen darf. In zentral koordinierten Kommunikationsnetzen tritt das Problem nicht auf.


Symbols.

There are three symbols for NOR gates: the American (ANSI or'military') symbol and the IEC ('European' or'rectangular') symbol, as well as the deprecated DIN symbol. For more information see Logic Gate Symbols. The ANSI symbol for the NOR gate is a standard OR gate with an inversion bubble connected. The bubble indicates that the function of the or gate has been inverted.

Hardware description and pinout.

NOR Gates are basic logic gates, and as such they are recognised in TTL and CMOS ICs. The standard, 4000 series, CMOS IC is the 4001, which includes four independent, two-input, NOR gates. The pinout diagram is as follows:

Availability.

These devices are available from most semiconductor manufacturers such as Fairchild Semiconductor, Philips or Texas Instruments. These are usually available in both through-hole DIP and SOIC format. Datasheets are readily available in most datasheet databases.  In the popular CMOS and TTL logic families, NOR gates with up to 8 inputs are available:  In the older RTL and ECL families, NOR gates were efficient and most commonly used.

Implementations.

The diagrams above show the construction of a 2-input NOR gate using NMOS logic circuitry. If either of the inputs is high, the corresponding N-channel MOSFET is turned on and the output is pulled low; otherwise the output is pulled high through the pull-up resistor.  The diagram below shows a 2-input NOR gate using CMOS technology. The diodes and resistors on the inputs are to protect the CMOS components from damage due to electrostatic discharge (ESD) and play no part in the logical function of the circuit.

Functional completeness.

The NOR gate has the property of functional completeness, which it shares with the NAND gate. That is, any other logic function (AND, OR, etc.) can be implemented using only NOR gates. An entire processor can be created using NOR gates alone.  As NAND gates are also functionally complete, if no specific NOR gates are available, one can be made from NAND gates.  Note that the above figure depicts a NAND construction of a NOR gate, which only implies the functional completeness of NOR under the correct assumption that NAND is functionally complete. However, a figure representing the decomposition of all the other logical functions into compositions of NORs would show this directly, without the assumption that NAND is functionally complete.

The NOR gate is a digital logic gate that implements logical NOR - it behaves according to the truth table to the right. A HIGH output (1) results if both the inputs to the gate are LOW (0); if one or both input is HIGH (1), a LOW output (0) results. NOR is the result of the negation of the OR operator. It can also in some senses be seen as the inverse of an AND gate. NOR is a functionally complete operation—NOR gates can be combined to generate any other logical function. It shares this property with the NAND gate. By contrast, the OR operator is "monotonic" as it can only change LOW to HIGH but not vice versa.

Ein NOR-Gatter (von englisch: not or – "nicht oder", oder von englisch nor – noch; auch Peirce-Funktion nach Charles S. Peirce genannt) ist ein Logikgatter mit zwei oder mehr Eingängen A, B,... und einem Ausgang Y, zwischen denen die logische Verknüpfung NICHT ODER besteht. Ein NOR-Gatter gibt am Ausgang 1 (w) aus, wenn alle Eingänge 0 (f) sind. In allen anderen Fällen, d. h. wenn mindestens ein Eingang 1 ist, wird eine 0 ausgegeben.