Concept
Integrated circuit
Overview
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a compact assembly of electronic circuits formed from various electronic components, such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors, and their interconnections. These components are fabricated onto a thin, flat piece ("chip") of semiconductor material, most commonly silicon. Integrated circuits are integral to a wide variety of electronic devices (including computers, smartphones, and televisions) performing functions such as data processing, control, and storage. They have transformed the field of electronics by enabling device miniaturization, improving performance, and reducing cost.
Compared to assemblies built from discrete components, integrated circuits are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, more energy-efficient, and less expensive, allowing for a very high transistor count. Its capability for mass production, its high reliability, and the standardized, modular approach of integrated circuit design facilitated rapid replacement of designs using discrete transistors. Today, ICs are present in virtually all electronic devices and have revolutionized modern technology. Products such as computer processors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, and embedded processing chips in home appliances are foundational to contemporary society due to their small size, low cost, and versatility.
Very-large-scale integration was made practical by technological advancements in semiconductor device fabrication. Since their origins in the 1960s, the size, speed, and capacity of chips have progressed enormously, driven by technical advances that fit more and more transistors on chips of the same size – a modern chip may have many billions of transistors in an area the size of a human fingernail. These advances, roughly following Moore's law, make the computer chips of today possess millions of times the capacity and thousands of times the speed of the computer chips of the early 1970s.
ICs have three main advantages over circuits constructed out of discrete components: size, cost and performance. The size and cost are low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time. Furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete circuits. Performance is high because the IC's components switch quickly and consume comparatively little power because of their small size and proximity. The main disadvantage of ICs is the high initial cost of designing them and the enormous capital cost of factory construction. This high initial cost means ICs are only commercially viable when high production volumes are anticipated.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Integrated circuit is discussed.
2. The conditions set out in sub-paragraphs (a)-(k) of Article 31 above shall apply *mutatis mutandis* in the event of any non-voluntary licensing of a layout-design or of its use by or for the government without the authorization of the right holder.
United States, Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, Circular 92
names the idea; opens on it
A distinct idea is defined as one which contains nothing which is not clear. This is technical language; by the _contents_ of an idea logicians understand whatever is contained in its definition. So that an idea is _distinctly_ apprehended, according to them, when we can give a precise definition of it, in abstract terms. Here the professional logicians leave the subject; and I would not have troubled the reader…
Charles S. Peirce, Chance, Love, and Logic
states what it is
These are called Fluid, in contradistinction to those of which the parts not being so easily separable, are upon that account peculiarly called Solid Bodies; as if they possessed, in a more distinct and perceptible manner, the characteristical quality of solidity or the power of resistance. Water, however (one of the fluids with which we are most familiar), when confined on all sides (as in a hollow globe of metal…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
states what it is
Technical affairs give evidence that the work of inquiry, reporting and analysis is not always ineffectual. The development of a chain of "nation-wide" tobacco shops, of a well managed national telephone system, of the extension of the service of an electric-light plant testify to the fact that study, reflection and the formation of plans do in some instances determine a course of events. The effect is seen in both…
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
states what it is
in it, is composed of very small parts [atoms] which are indivisible on account of their smallness; such an atom has no magnitude; but when several atoms combine, the sum has a magnitude, and thus forms a body.” If, therefore, two atoms were joined together, each atom would become a body, and they would thus form two bodies, a theory which in fact has been proposed by some Mutakallemim. All these atoms are perfectly…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
states what it is
Philosophers who discussed Integrated circuit
Related ideas
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Place in the tradition
Part of Functionalism (philosophy of mind).