The Magnetic Microscopy Center is a physics research lab at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The lab is run by Dr. E. Dan Dahlberg and is composed of a few others, sometimes including myself. Most projects in the lab focus on magnetics. The MMC is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

MMC is, as xdc briely mentioned above is the Microsoft Management Console. It was a part of Windows NT 4.0 as well. It is now the standardized interface for all of the administrative utilities in Windows. The idea is that you use this harness and create snap-ins that easily fit the form and and feel of other administrative widgets, and it makes everything easier to use.

MMC is a lot more transparent and easier to use than it was in NT 4.0. Commonly used MMC snap-ins are Internet Services Manager, or ISM, and the ubiquitous Computer Management snap in, which lets you perform most utilities from one window. It is an effort by MS to make the whole system easier to use, and I know that I for one am grateful for the common interface. MMC is similar to what Control Panels would be under Win9x, but with a focus on more administrative tasks. Certain items are still in control panel format, such as the ODBC / DSN interface.

MMC snap-ins are easily customizable. They allow administrators to easily publish snap-ins for common tasks through the Administrative Tasks menu off of the Programs Menu (if it is enabled, or always from Control Panels).

The Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

A former UK governmental organization which investigated uncompetitive trading practices, and potential violations of the 1973 Fair Trading Act and 1990 Competition Act.

The MMC started life as the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission in 1948, and was replaced by the Competition Commission on 1st April 1999.

Sources: http://www.xrefer.com and http://www.competition-commission.gov.uk

Memory management controller. These were co-processors built into NES/Famicom cartriges to do things that the NES could not normally do, such as hold up to a megabyte of ROM, hold battery-backed RAM, hold additional work RAM, produce 360-degree scrolling (not rotating) planes, and cram more colors into smaller areas. There was the MMC1, MMC2, MMC3, MMC4, MMC5 and MMC6. They were built into the game cartrige rather than into a separate hardware upgrade so as to not confuse consumers with multiple formats. Nintendo didn't even mention the MMCs in their marketing. They simply showed the games getting better and better.

The downside of MMCs was that they, and the extra RAM that came with them, kept NES games expensive. Even as ROM prices fell and NES games were more mass produced, NES games continued to sell for $40 to $50 new. Camerica tried to solve this problem with the Aladdin Deck Enhancer, which had an MMC-like chip, extra RAM and battery built in, so that the NES owner would only have to buy them once, and then could buy top-quality NES games that cost only $15 to $30. Unfortunately, since the Aladdin was an unlicensed and undermarketed product that came out when the NES was already going out of style, few people used it .

Nintendo revisited integrated enhancer chips in 1993 with the Super FX, a polygon processor for the Super NES that premiered in Starfox. This time, Nintendo made a big deal of it in their advertizing, helped by the fact that Starfox was strikingly different from un-enhanced Super NES games, compared to MMC NES games which were only subtly different from eachother. But, just like the MMCs, the Super FX raised the price of whatever game it accompanied.

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