Sara S
08-10-2009, 10:19 AM
from delancyplace.com:
In today's excerpt - the microchip was invented and
then first manufactured in 1959, but it required the
high demand of the missile and space programs to
make it economical enough to usher in the era of
mass computing:
"The microchip was invented not by a vast team of
physicists but by one man working alone, a self-
described tinkerer - not even a physicist, but an
engineer - named John St. Clair (Jack)
Kilby. ...
"In 1947, he got a job at the Centralab division of
Globe Union in Milwaukee, working on miniaturizing
circuits. That year, William Shockley invented the
transistor at Bell Laboratories, revolutionizing the
world of electronics.
"Before transistors, electrical devices were powered
by vacuum tubes, which were big, heavy, fragile, and
very hot. By contrast, transistors were compact and
light; they had no moving parts, they ran cool, and the
switching and amplifying were handled by a
semiconductor, not a glass bulb. ... By Christmas
1954, the first transistor radio, small enough to fit in a
pocket, hit the market at a retail price of $49.95 and
quickly became the biggest-selling consumer product
the country had ever seen. ...
"[But progress beyond things like the transistor radio
was difficult.] The problem was this. If you wanted a
computer or some other electronic device to perform
more complex operations more quickly, you would
need an extra set of components - transistors,
resistors, capacitors, diodes, rectifiers, and the wires
to connect them all into a circuit - for each increment in
speed, memory, or storage space. The futuristic
miracle machines of science fiction would require so
many extra components - and so much wiring, all
connected precisely by hand - that, as a practical
matter, they could not be built. ... The barrier was
called 'the tyranny of numbers.'
"Miniaturization became every electronics firm's
mantra. ... Still, miniaturization alone wouldn't topple
the tyranny of numbers. In some ways, because
smaller components were more difficult to wire, it only
intensified the problem. To break through the barrier
would require a whole new approach. But what was
it?
"In May 1958, Kilby moved from Milwaukee to Dallas to
take a job with Texas Instruments, which had just
opened a new building devoted to semiconductor
research. In July, most employees took their two-week
summer vacation, but Kilby hadn't been with the
company long enough to earn the time off. So he
stayed at the new lab and thought about the problem,
all alone.
"Texas Instruments had made a big investment in
silicon, so he focused on that as his basic material.
Typically, silicon would be purified for the manufacture
of transistors. But if it were treated with certain
impurities, it could be used as a conductor. Treated
and molded in another way, it could serve as a
resistor. It could be the material for any component in
a circuit - not the ideal material, but good enough.
"This was Kilby's initial insight, ... but this realization
sparked a much larger conceptual breakthrough, the
basis for a solution to the fundamental problem, the
tyranny of numbers: If all the parts of a circuit could be
made from the same material, maybe they could all
be manufactured on a single monolithic slab. If you
wanted more complexity, you wouldn't need more
components or more wiring and soldering to connect
them.
"On July 24, Kilby drew a rough sketch of the idea in
his lab notebook and wrote, 'The following circuit
elements could be made on a single slice: resistors,
capacitor, distributed capacitor, transistor.' Thus was
born the integrated circuit. ...
"There was no guarantee that the integrated circuits
would get off the ground. ... In the beginning, they were
very expensive. To make a dent in the marketplace,
they'd have to be much cheaper; but to be cheaper,
they would have to have made a big dent in the
marketplace - there would have to be high demand,
so that they could be produced in mass quantity. That
wouldn't happen until the beginning of the sixties,
when President John Kennedy ordered production of
the Minuteman II missile - which required tiny, reliable
circuits for its guidance system - and, especially,
when he set the goal of putting a man on the moon by
the end of the decade. Missiles and space created the
large demand. In 1961, a single chip cost $32. By
1971, thanks to the economies of large-scale
production, the cost would plunge to $1.25. (By 2000,
after the consumer market had vastly expanded, the
price of a much more powerful chip would be less
than a nickel.)
"As with many of the breakthroughs converging on the
eve of the sixties, the space race and the arms
race - the twin prospects of infinite expansion and
instant annihilation - spurred America and the world
into a lightning-flash new era."
Fred Kaplan, 1959: The Year Everything
Changed, Wiley, Copyright 2009 by Fred Kaplan,
pp. 76-81.
In today's excerpt - the microchip was invented and
then first manufactured in 1959, but it required the
high demand of the missile and space programs to
make it economical enough to usher in the era of
mass computing:
"The microchip was invented not by a vast team of
physicists but by one man working alone, a self-
described tinkerer - not even a physicist, but an
engineer - named John St. Clair (Jack)
Kilby. ...
"In 1947, he got a job at the Centralab division of
Globe Union in Milwaukee, working on miniaturizing
circuits. That year, William Shockley invented the
transistor at Bell Laboratories, revolutionizing the
world of electronics.
"Before transistors, electrical devices were powered
by vacuum tubes, which were big, heavy, fragile, and
very hot. By contrast, transistors were compact and
light; they had no moving parts, they ran cool, and the
switching and amplifying were handled by a
semiconductor, not a glass bulb. ... By Christmas
1954, the first transistor radio, small enough to fit in a
pocket, hit the market at a retail price of $49.95 and
quickly became the biggest-selling consumer product
the country had ever seen. ...
"[But progress beyond things like the transistor radio
was difficult.] The problem was this. If you wanted a
computer or some other electronic device to perform
more complex operations more quickly, you would
need an extra set of components - transistors,
resistors, capacitors, diodes, rectifiers, and the wires
to connect them all into a circuit - for each increment in
speed, memory, or storage space. The futuristic
miracle machines of science fiction would require so
many extra components - and so much wiring, all
connected precisely by hand - that, as a practical
matter, they could not be built. ... The barrier was
called 'the tyranny of numbers.'
"Miniaturization became every electronics firm's
mantra. ... Still, miniaturization alone wouldn't topple
the tyranny of numbers. In some ways, because
smaller components were more difficult to wire, it only
intensified the problem. To break through the barrier
would require a whole new approach. But what was
it?
"In May 1958, Kilby moved from Milwaukee to Dallas to
take a job with Texas Instruments, which had just
opened a new building devoted to semiconductor
research. In July, most employees took their two-week
summer vacation, but Kilby hadn't been with the
company long enough to earn the time off. So he
stayed at the new lab and thought about the problem,
all alone.
"Texas Instruments had made a big investment in
silicon, so he focused on that as his basic material.
Typically, silicon would be purified for the manufacture
of transistors. But if it were treated with certain
impurities, it could be used as a conductor. Treated
and molded in another way, it could serve as a
resistor. It could be the material for any component in
a circuit - not the ideal material, but good enough.
"This was Kilby's initial insight, ... but this realization
sparked a much larger conceptual breakthrough, the
basis for a solution to the fundamental problem, the
tyranny of numbers: If all the parts of a circuit could be
made from the same material, maybe they could all
be manufactured on a single monolithic slab. If you
wanted more complexity, you wouldn't need more
components or more wiring and soldering to connect
them.
"On July 24, Kilby drew a rough sketch of the idea in
his lab notebook and wrote, 'The following circuit
elements could be made on a single slice: resistors,
capacitor, distributed capacitor, transistor.' Thus was
born the integrated circuit. ...
"There was no guarantee that the integrated circuits
would get off the ground. ... In the beginning, they were
very expensive. To make a dent in the marketplace,
they'd have to be much cheaper; but to be cheaper,
they would have to have made a big dent in the
marketplace - there would have to be high demand,
so that they could be produced in mass quantity. That
wouldn't happen until the beginning of the sixties,
when President John Kennedy ordered production of
the Minuteman II missile - which required tiny, reliable
circuits for its guidance system - and, especially,
when he set the goal of putting a man on the moon by
the end of the decade. Missiles and space created the
large demand. In 1961, a single chip cost $32. By
1971, thanks to the economies of large-scale
production, the cost would plunge to $1.25. (By 2000,
after the consumer market had vastly expanded, the
price of a much more powerful chip would be less
than a nickel.)
"As with many of the breakthroughs converging on the
eve of the sixties, the space race and the arms
race - the twin prospects of infinite expansion and
instant annihilation - spurred America and the world
into a lightning-flash new era."
Fred Kaplan, 1959: The Year Everything
Changed, Wiley, Copyright 2009 by Fred Kaplan,
pp. 76-81.