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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).

chuck
03-06-2005, 03:01 PM
more...



Another great advantage of the integrated circuit is the production cost. A low cost of production meant a lower price for consumers. In an article from Mary Bellis, she quotes chip co-inventor Jack Kilby in saying "What we didn't realize then was that the integrated circuit would reduce the cost of electronic functions by a factor of a million to one, nothing had ever done that for anything before" (Bellis). The quote may seem far out but it’s actually fairly accurate. The amount of cost cutting that resulted from the chips development is almost inconceivable. The first main computer system was ENIAC, this was a pre-integrated circuit computer that was 100 ft. long and weighed nearly 30 tons. The production cost of ENIAC was around $500,000. A significant integrated circuit chip was the first microprocessor in 1971, this chip cost consumers $200 and contained 2,300 transistors. The price drop, regardless of the substantial technology differences, is thanks in part to the integrated circuit. To go another step further, the Pentium 4 which was released in 2000 contained 42 million transistors and still only cost consumers $150. While the cost of the technology may soon settle at a low point, there is no doubt that the research and development of the technology is always progressing and giving the consumer the most product for their money. The price spectrum over the years can be compared to nothing else.
As well as being smaller, faster and cheaper, the integrated circuit was more durable than the vacuum tubes. Vacuum tubes are for the most part just that, tubes containing close to a vacuumed state of pressure. Because of the vacuum inside, a vacuum tube could not function is a setting of irregular air pressure. This certainly ruled out any thoughts of vacuum tubes in airplanes, space, or the deep sea. However, with the integrated circuit taking the place of the vacuum tube, all of this was possible. The Kennedy–Nixon Presidential campaign of 1960 brought forth an unlikely issue: American science and technology. The Russians had beaten the United States to space with their Sputnik satellite, and many felt the Russians had even more guided missiles than did the U.S. (Compressing). The integrated circuit played a critical role in the Unites States’ Space Program and once again opened the door to another industry and has become fundamental in the development of space exploration ever since. Without the chip, man would not have explored space or the moon (TI). The new found durability of the circuits was also fundamental to the transportation industry of today. Integrated circuits can be found in the ECU (electronic control unit) in the fuel injected cars of today. The in car entertainment industry and features we take for granted such as heat and air conditioning also owe their thanks to the integrated circuit. These industries and features would not be practical with vacuum tube technology.
As well as industries, the chip has affected people on a personal level. The multi-trillion dollar technology industry started out just like any other industry, with an individual or group of people. Today, the technology industry has grown to one of the largest in the world; this is mainly in part to the chip. Since the chips’ early stages there was always someone who wanted to share a piece of the pie. Today, millions of people share a slice of that pie in the fastest growing industry in the world (modern marvels). Since the start of Silicon Valley in the early 1970’s the jobs offered by the technology industry have been constantly growing. The chance for financial gain didn’t stop there. In December of 1980, The Apple Corporation went public. Morgan Stanley and Co. and Hambrecht & Quist underwrote an initial public offering of 4.6 million shares of Apple common stock at a price of $22 per share. Every share was bought within minutes of the offering, which made that the largest public offering since Ford went public in 1956. Even at that time, the world was just uncovering pebbles of the mountain of economic impact that the industry would have in the future. In 1995, Netscape Communications Corporation, a 16-month-old Mountain View company was going public. Netscape issued 5 million shares to the public and kept another 33 million for executives, venture capitalists and other early backers. By August 10th, the closing price left the company with a market value of nearly two-billion dollars; it was the biggest IPO (initial public offering) in market history. Even at that point, nearly a quarter century later, the technology world with its’ new found chip was only taking baby steps. Today, about 4,000 IT-related companies located along Highway 101 from San Francisco to San Jose generate approximately $200 billion dollars in IT-related revenue annually, all of these companies thrive thanks in part to the integrated circuit (silicon to internet).
It’s easy to see that the chip is something society relies on heavily and it would be hard to imagine a world without it. For some people it may be frightening to think about the job they would have, the wars that may have been lost and even who might be in control of the United States. Texas Instruments president Thomas Engibous is quoted as saying, "It [the integrated circuit] affects you every day of your life…probably 10 times every hour" (cnn). The integrated circuit is a great invention. It simply goes about its business in a different, less visible, way. The integrated circuit is at the heart of all electronic equipment today that has revolutionized the way we live: navigational systems, computers, pocket calculators, industrial monitoring and control systems, digital watches, digital sound systems, word processors, communications networks, and innumerable others. Few of these devices would exist, or could not work as reliably, without the integrated circuit (TI II). It is clear that the integrated circuit constitutes an unprecedented revolution in today's society. But how has it changed the world and societies concepts? For the first time, scientists are evolving a technology that does not move earth, or speed through the sky, or put corks in bottles. Instead, they are developing a technology that supports and directs all other technologies, expanding exponentially the worlds’ capabilities. Through the integrated circuit, the world will have powerful, versatile, reasoning devices to guide those technologies and lives more intelligently than ever before (TI II).

Leisa
03-06-2005, 03:09 PM
what now seem out of this world


should be seems....

FrnkPwrs
03-06-2005, 03:22 PM
Yea, that shit be good shawty

Leisa
03-06-2005, 03:25 PM
yes very good indeed

quickdodge®
03-06-2005, 04:17 PM
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.

The comma behind cheaper is not required. It would actually look cleaner without it.



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).

After the word Semiconductor, you should place a period. That seems to be more of an independent sentence than an independent clause.



From this date forward computers would incorporate integrated circuits instead of individual transistors or other components such as vacuum tubes (TI).

A comma is needed after "From this date forward."



They were fragile, bulky, unreliable, power hungry, and produced considerable heat (I.C. History).

Again, no comma needed after power hungry.



The integrated circuit on the other had was smaller and more practical.

Just noticed a typo. "on the other HAND. A comma after circuit, also.



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.

I don't believe you need a comma after "five pound."


You type a very good, informative report. I think you should get a really decent grade for it. Job well done. Later, QD.

chuck
03-06-2005, 04:59 PM
The comma behind cheaper is not required. It would actually look cleaner without it.




After the word Semiconductor, you should place a period. That seems to be more of an independent sentence than an independent clause.




A comma is needed after "From this date forward."




Again, no comma needed after power hungry.




Just noticed a typo. "on the other HAND. A comma after circuit, also.


[QUOTE=chuck] 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. [QUOTE]

I don't believe you need a comma after "five pound."


You type a very good, informative report. I think you should get a really decent grade for it. Job well done. Later, QD.



hey thanks man, that alone probably saved me a letter grade! i dunno why i always put a comma in a list before the "and", but everyone always says something about that...lol

on that last bit about the five pound hearing aid do you know if i would be allowed to say "...five pound carry-along hearing aid..." i don't really know the rules on that but i had put the comma in there to try to group the words that went with one another, but i dunno

quickdodge®
03-06-2005, 05:19 PM
Hmmm. I'm not sure how that would work. May be you could say something along the lines of:

"The impracticality of a five pound handheld hearing aid may seem a bit overboard"?

Later, QD.

chuck
03-06-2005, 05:22 PM
bingo, that works...if you don't know how to write right then say something else...lol

quickdodge®
03-06-2005, 05:28 PM
Lolol, cool. Later, QD.

dereksi
04-20-2006, 06:10 PM
yea sometimes they come out blue.