(electronics) an nonlinear electronic circuit whose output is limited in amplitude; used to limit the instantaneous amplitude of a waveform (to clip off the peaks of a waveform); "a limiter introduces amplitude distortion"
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing: (http://www.foldoc.org/, Editor Denis Howe)
1. An integrated circuit which implements the SkipJackalgorithm. The Clipper is manufactured by the US government to encrypt telephone data. It has the added feature that it can be decrypted by the US government, which has tried to make the chip compulsory in the United States. Phil Zimmerman (inventor of PGP) remarked, "This doesn't even pass the sniff test" (i.e. it stinks).
