Integrated circuit (IC)
Summary
An integrated circuit (IC) is an electronic circuit on a millimetre plate made of semiconductor material. The components of an IC are transistors and other electronic semiconductor devices.
In 1958, Texas Instruments engineer Jack Kilby presented the first integrated circuit, which was registered a year later as a US patent. However, its solution is not yet really integrated — small wires connect the components. Robert Noyce from Fairchild Semiconductor succeeds in 1959 in an integrated circuit with wiring on a single silicon substrate. A plastic case protects the chip.
Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his pioneering invention, but Noyce has been dead for 10 years. Today’s ICs are so far ahead of their predecessors that they contain transistors in billions.
Modern integrated circuits
Modern graphics processors, for example, can integrate over 8 billion transistors. In the course of the development, the distances between the gates have become smaller and smaller and are below 100 nanometers. Remember: one nanometer is the millionth of a millimeter.
Connections in the collection
In the exhibition concept
- Generations of computers · Area A, Section 1