Unit 1 Writing Assignment: Integrated Circuits
Integrated circuits are a set of transistors one small plate or chip of semiconductor material. Integrated circuits were used in computers to vacuum tubes in computers. The invention of integrated circuits is credited to both Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild in 1958 and 1959Kilby created the first prototype in 19 58 and it contained only one transistor. Noyce would later create a four transistor and 5 resistor circuit in 1959.
In 1965 Gordon Moore spoke about growth trends in computer memory. He made an interesting observation that would later become known today as Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law states that each processor chip would contain twice as much capacity as its predecessor. He also noted that every 18-24 months a new chip containing twice the capacity was released and if this trend continued computing power would grow exponentially in a short time. Even today Moore’s Law continues to hold true today.
In 1971 Intel put out a processor that would contain 2,300 transistors in the Intel 4004. In 1972 Intel would follow the 4004 with a 2,500 transistor processor in the 8008. The Intel 8080 would have 4,500 transistors is known as the first microprocessor and would be contained in the first home computer. In 1982 we saw a huge jump from 29,000 in 1979 to 153,000. This was in the Intel 286.The Intel 486 would be the first processor to reach the 1,000,000 transistor range as it has 1,200,000.
The 1990’s would show an even bigger growth in transistors with the Intel Pentium series. From 1993 to 2000 we saw the transistor count rise up to 3,100,000 with the Pentium I to 42,000,000 with the Intel Pentium 4. Growth continued through the Intel Itanium 2 that contains 592,000,000 transistors which would pave the way for the Quad-Core Itanium processor in 2010 which contained 2 billion.
Integrated circuits have been an intricate part of the growth of computing powerand I would say technology itself. We have the use of transistors go from 1 to over 2 billion in just 40 years. I believe that this growth seems to be reasonable and holds true to Moore’s Law. I also seems to only be getting faster as time passes. If this holds true I believe we could see 100 billion transistors by 2022 and even 1 trillion by 2030.