Integrated Circuits
Integrated circuits (ICs) are the power
source of the information revolution
When computers were made of discrete parts,
wires of every transistor (3), capacitor (2),
resistor (2), etc. had to be hand-connected
Labor intensive, expensive, error prone,
unreliable, cumbersome, … even with robots!
Integrated circuits solved that by 2 ideas
Integration -- circuits built as a unit from like parts
Photolithography -- printing process to make chips