Summary: This paper deals with systems that are obtained from linear time- invariant continuous- or discrete-time devices followed by a function that just provides the sign of each output. Such systems appear naturally in the study of quantized observations as well as in signal processing and neural network theory. Results are given on observability, minimal realizations, and other system-theoretic concepts. Certain major differences exist with the linear case, and other results generalize in a surprisingly straightforward manner.