THE COMPUTER ON A
CHIP
The invention of the light bulb in
1879 symbolized the beginning of electronics .Electronics then evolved into the
use of vacuum tubes , then transistors , and now integrated circuitry is
continuing to have a profound effect on the way we live and work . The
increased speed and capability of computers influence all the many services we
may take for granted . Where would telecommunications , speech recognition ,
advanced software applications , and the internet be without technology ?
Current
chip technology permits the placement of hundreds of thousands of transitors
and electronic swtches on a single chip . Chips already fit into wristwatches
and credit cards , but electrical and computer engineers want them even
smaller. In electronics , smaller is better .The ENIAC, the first full-scale digital
electronic computer , weighed 50 tons and occupied an entrie room . Today , a
computer far more powerful than the ENIAC can be fabricated within a single
piee of silicon the size of a child’s fingernail .
Chip
designers think in terms of nanoseconds (one billionth of a second) and microns
(one millionth of a meter) They want to pack as many circuit elements as they
can into the structure of a chip . This is called scaling , or making the
transistor , and the technology that connects it , smaller . High-denisty
packing reduces the time required for an electrical signal to travel from one
circuit element to the next-resulting in faster computes . Circuit lines on
early 1980s PC prosessor were 10 microns wide . Today’s circuit lines are 09
micron’s nanometers (one billionth of the meter) . The reduced size of the
circuit lines enables chips to hold over 100 million transistors and provide
thousands of times the power of earlier processor
As transitors become smaller , the
chip becomes faster , conduts more electricity , adn user less power . Also ,
it cots less to produce as more transitors are packed on a chip . The computer
revolution will continue to grow rapidly into the twenty-first century as long
as researchers find ways to make transistors faster and smaller , make wiring
that links them less resistive to electrical current , and electronics increase chip density . each year ,
researchers have developed radically new techniques for manufacturing chips .
for example , IBM recently began
developing a logic chip and processor using silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
technology , an innovative approach to the chip-making process . the process
presented here provide a general overview that is representative of the various
techniques used by chip manufacturers .
Chips are designed and manufactured
to perform a particular function . one chip might be a microprocessor , ore the
“brains” for temporary rondom-access storage (RAM) . Logic chips are used in
beverage vending machines , televisions , memory and logic chips are theree of
the most common kinds of chips .
The development of integrated
circuits starts with a project review team made up of representatives from
design , manufacturing , and marketing . this group works together to design a product the customer needs . Next , they go
through prototype wafer manufacturing to
resolve potential manufacturing problems . Once a working prototype is produced
, chips are manufactured in quality and sent to computer , peripheral ,
telecommunications and other customers.
The manufacturing of integrated
circuit involes a multistep process using various photochemical etching and
metallurgical techniques . The process is presented in five steps : design ,
fabrication , packaging , testing , and installation .
Long
computers , Information Technology in Perspective
THE COMPUTER ON A CHIP
The invention of the light bulb in
1879 symbolized the beginning of electronics . The increased speed and
capability of computers influence all the many services we may take for granted
.Current
chip technology permits the placement of hundreds of thousands of transitors
and electronic swtches on a single chip .
Chip
designers think in terms of nanoseconds (one billionth of a second) and microns
(one millionth of a meter) They want to pack as many circuit elements as they
can into the structure of a chip . Chips are
designed and manufactured to perform a particular function . one chip might be
a microprocessor , ore the “brains” for temporary rondom-access storage (RAM) .
Logic chips are used in beverage vending machines , televisions , memory and
logic chips are theree of the most common kinds of chips .
The
development of integrated circuits starts with a project review team made up of
representatives from design , manufacturing , and marketing . this group works
together to design a product the
customer needs .The
manufacturing of integrated circuit involes a multistep process using various
photochemical etching and metallurgical techniques . The process is presented
in five steps : design , fabrication , packaging , testing , and installation .
