chuck
03-06-2005, 03:00 PM
proof read my paper and point out all of my mistakes...i gotta turn this in monday and i have to pass this class:
just ignore the stuff in ()'s, its just the documentation that i half-ass started for later.
The integrated circuit (IC) has become the most advantageous invention of today’s society by constantly providing an ever-progressing technology at a smaller, faster, cheaper, and more durable rate than ever before as well as flooding the technology industry with millions of new jobs. An integrated circuit is a small electronic device made out of a semiconductor material. The first integrated circuit was developed in the 1950s by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, the two men independently developed nearly identical chips at the same time, all while being hundreds of miles apart (what is). It was a relatively simple device that Jack Kilby showed to a handful of co-workers gathered in Texas Instruments' semiconductor lab more than 40 years ago. Little did this group of onlookers know, but Kilby's invention, 7/16-by-1/16-inches in size and called an integrated circuit, was about to revolutionize the electronics industry and take distant science fiction and bring it to a reality. The work on integrated circuits by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce came to its’ first major peak in 1961 when the first commercially available integrated circuits became available to the general public from the Fairchild Corporation for whom Robert Noyce worked. From this date forward computers would incorporate integrated circuits instead of individual transistors or other components such as vacuum tubes (TI). The history of western technology can be broken down into six main eras: The Foundation Years, The Era of Giants, The Communications Era, The Vacuum Tube Era, The Transistor Era and The Integrated Circuit Era. While no one era alone would be possible without the eras that came before it, the era of the integrated circuit built the structure upon which today’s technology revolves (Cichanowski). Gordon Moore, one of the early integrated circuit pioneers and founders of Intel once said, "If the auto industry had advanced as rapidly as the semiconductor industry, a Rolls Royce would get a half a million miles per gallon, and it would be cheaper to throw it away than to park it." (Consumer Superbrands). Kilby's integrated circuit became to the information age what the internal combustion engine was to the automobile. Almost no aspect of modern life has been untouched by the integrated circuit. It runs everything from fax machines and computers to telephones and televisions (cnn). The essentiality of the integrated circuit is growing higher and higher with each new generation. The integrated circuit, or chip, can be found in almost everything that either plugs in or requires batteries – that’s a lot of things to live without!
One of the biggest, or could one say smallest, benefits of the integrated circuit would be the drastic change in size. Before the development of the chip, the biggest problem for the technology industry was the large size of the, what now seem out of this world, devices. The predecessor to the chip was the vacuum tube. For almost 50 years after the turn of the 20th century, the electronics industry had been dominated by vacuum tube technology. But vacuum tubes had natural limitations. They were fragile, bulky, unreliable, power hungry, and produced considerable heat (I.C. History). This meant that a vacuum tube was nearly obsolete in a rough or small space and that the efficiency of the tubes simply made them impractical for domestic use. The integrated circuit on the other had was smaller and more practical. The chip seemed to come about at just the right time. In a sense, the chip was the key that opened the door to the micro-technology world as it is known today. With the development of the chip came the development of many items considered essential by modern standards. The micro sizing of the circuit nearly single-handedly enabled the development of devices that by nature could only be small in design. The impracticality of a five pound, carry along hearing aid may seem a bit overboard, but in reality it was once the direction of the industry to develop such a groundbreaking gadget. The development of the integrated circuit also meant that devices that needed to be small, fast and reliable could now be available. This opened the gates to many life altering devices such as pacemakers. Integrated circuits are used for a variety of devices, including microprocessors, audio and video equipment, and automobiles. The most popular integrated circuit of the modern day can be found in the computer in the form of a microprocessor (what is). The ultimate multitasker, the microprocessor stands on the front line of technology serving as the epitome of the potential of the integrated circuit. In 1961 the first commercially available integrated circuits came from the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. All computers then started to be made using chips instead of the individual transistors and their accompanying parts. Texas Instruments first used the chips in Air Force computers and the Minuteman Missile in 1962. They later used the chips to produce the first electronic portable calculators. The original integrated circuit had only one transistor, three resistors and one capacitor and was the size of an adult's pinkie finger. Today, an integrated circuit smaller than a penny can hold 125 million transistors (Bellis).
Another common benefit of making things smaller is that it often led to faster operating speeds in the devices. A complex circuit, like a computer, was dependent on speed. If the components of the circuit were too large or the wires interconnecting them too long, the electric signals couldn't travel fast enough through the circuit, this would make the circuit too slow to be effective (Nobel). The integrated circuit was and is the first and current solution to the problem of slow circuits. By eliminating the problem of a slow circuit, technicians opened a gateway to use devices containing circuits in time constricted scenarios. This meant that doctors, scientists, astronauts, and soldiers could use, and rely on, many fundamental devices in their hospitals, laboratories, shuttles and battle fields. Without the speed of the modern chip, the use of a slower complex circuit would simply be unpractical for everyday use and would more than likely be set aside. The older electronic counting machines used a series of slides, gears, and buttons to select numbers and functions. The faster speeds of the integrated circuit also proved beneficial for real time devices that worked hands on with users. The slower predecessors were simply too slow to achieve any coherent interaction. The development meant that the reaction time of a circuit could now be up to par with the device operators enabling a wide variety of interface ranging from keyboard typing to real time missile launches (Nobel).
just ignore the stuff in ()'s, its just the documentation that i half-ass started for later.
The integrated circuit (IC) has become the most advantageous invention of today’s society by constantly providing an ever-progressing technology at a smaller, faster, cheaper, and more durable rate than ever before as well as flooding the technology industry with millions of new jobs. An integrated circuit is a small electronic device made out of a semiconductor material. The first integrated circuit was developed in the 1950s by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor, the two men independently developed nearly identical chips at the same time, all while being hundreds of miles apart (what is). It was a relatively simple device that Jack Kilby showed to a handful of co-workers gathered in Texas Instruments' semiconductor lab more than 40 years ago. Little did this group of onlookers know, but Kilby's invention, 7/16-by-1/16-inches in size and called an integrated circuit, was about to revolutionize the electronics industry and take distant science fiction and bring it to a reality. The work on integrated circuits by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce came to its’ first major peak in 1961 when the first commercially available integrated circuits became available to the general public from the Fairchild Corporation for whom Robert Noyce worked. From this date forward computers would incorporate integrated circuits instead of individual transistors or other components such as vacuum tubes (TI). The history of western technology can be broken down into six main eras: The Foundation Years, The Era of Giants, The Communications Era, The Vacuum Tube Era, The Transistor Era and The Integrated Circuit Era. While no one era alone would be possible without the eras that came before it, the era of the integrated circuit built the structure upon which today’s technology revolves (Cichanowski). Gordon Moore, one of the early integrated circuit pioneers and founders of Intel once said, "If the auto industry had advanced as rapidly as the semiconductor industry, a Rolls Royce would get a half a million miles per gallon, and it would be cheaper to throw it away than to park it." (Consumer Superbrands). Kilby's integrated circuit became to the information age what the internal combustion engine was to the automobile. Almost no aspect of modern life has been untouched by the integrated circuit. It runs everything from fax machines and computers to telephones and televisions (cnn). The essentiality of the integrated circuit is growing higher and higher with each new generation. The integrated circuit, or chip, can be found in almost everything that either plugs in or requires batteries – that’s a lot of things to live without!
One of the biggest, or could one say smallest, benefits of the integrated circuit would be the drastic change in size. Before the development of the chip, the biggest problem for the technology industry was the large size of the, what now seem out of this world, devices. The predecessor to the chip was the vacuum tube. For almost 50 years after the turn of the 20th century, the electronics industry had been dominated by vacuum tube technology. But vacuum tubes had natural limitations. They were fragile, bulky, unreliable, power hungry, and produced considerable heat (I.C. History). This meant that a vacuum tube was nearly obsolete in a rough or small space and that the efficiency of the tubes simply made them impractical for domestic use. The integrated circuit on the other had was smaller and more practical. The chip seemed to come about at just the right time. In a sense, the chip was the key that opened the door to the micro-technology world as it is known today. With the development of the chip came the development of many items considered essential by modern standards. The micro sizing of the circuit nearly single-handedly enabled the development of devices that by nature could only be small in design. The impracticality of a five pound, carry along hearing aid may seem a bit overboard, but in reality it was once the direction of the industry to develop such a groundbreaking gadget. The development of the integrated circuit also meant that devices that needed to be small, fast and reliable could now be available. This opened the gates to many life altering devices such as pacemakers. Integrated circuits are used for a variety of devices, including microprocessors, audio and video equipment, and automobiles. The most popular integrated circuit of the modern day can be found in the computer in the form of a microprocessor (what is). The ultimate multitasker, the microprocessor stands on the front line of technology serving as the epitome of the potential of the integrated circuit. In 1961 the first commercially available integrated circuits came from the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation. All computers then started to be made using chips instead of the individual transistors and their accompanying parts. Texas Instruments first used the chips in Air Force computers and the Minuteman Missile in 1962. They later used the chips to produce the first electronic portable calculators. The original integrated circuit had only one transistor, three resistors and one capacitor and was the size of an adult's pinkie finger. Today, an integrated circuit smaller than a penny can hold 125 million transistors (Bellis).
Another common benefit of making things smaller is that it often led to faster operating speeds in the devices. A complex circuit, like a computer, was dependent on speed. If the components of the circuit were too large or the wires interconnecting them too long, the electric signals couldn't travel fast enough through the circuit, this would make the circuit too slow to be effective (Nobel). The integrated circuit was and is the first and current solution to the problem of slow circuits. By eliminating the problem of a slow circuit, technicians opened a gateway to use devices containing circuits in time constricted scenarios. This meant that doctors, scientists, astronauts, and soldiers could use, and rely on, many fundamental devices in their hospitals, laboratories, shuttles and battle fields. Without the speed of the modern chip, the use of a slower complex circuit would simply be unpractical for everyday use and would more than likely be set aside. The older electronic counting machines used a series of slides, gears, and buttons to select numbers and functions. The faster speeds of the integrated circuit also proved beneficial for real time devices that worked hands on with users. The slower predecessors were simply too slow to achieve any coherent interaction. The development meant that the reaction time of a circuit could now be up to par with the device operators enabling a wide variety of interface ranging from keyboard typing to real time missile launches (Nobel).