From (2, Ch 6)

Before IC's

Logic gates are composed of electrical components (transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, wire)

Connect those parts together on some kind of base
- Similar to stereo component kits

WWII - Printed circuits

creating circuits within a process similar to photographic printing

Centrallab Division of Globe-Union (Milwaukee, WI), Jack Kilby

1958 - Integrated circuits

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments

Robert Noyce, Jean Hoerni of Fairchild Semiconductor (2, 186)

Allows multiple electrical components to be connected together on a single piece of material (germanium, silicon)

(TI leads the change from germanium to silicon)

Increased reliability - Minuteman ICBM

Reliability requirement leads to "clean room"
- Invented at Sandia Nat. Labs. for atomic weapons

Allows miniaturization

Material is cheap and can be mass produced

mid 1960's - 4000 ICs/week are produced for Minuteman II (TI, Westinghouse, RCA)

Guidance computers for NASA's Apollo program was another early driver of IC technology with Fairchild a leading supplier
- first prototypes running in Feb 65

And then into the commercial market

Memory Chips

Chip making at Intel [From Hugo Garcia 2003-11-04].

1. Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray. Computer: A History of the Information Machine (Basic Books, 1996).

2. Paul E. Ceruzzi. A History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 2000).