“What is the difference between a soup and a chowder?
The soup is quieter while the chowder makes a clamor.”
Integrated circuitIn 1964, a U.S. patent was issued to Jack S. Kilby for his invention of “Miniaturized Electronic Circuits” now known as integrated circuits (No. 3,138,743, filed 6 Feb 1959), which he assigned to his employer, Texas Instruments, where he worked. With it, he created a new way of reducing the space taken up by an electronic circuit by which “all components of an entire electronic circuit are integrated into the body of semiconductor material,” for which he used germanium. Geoffrey W.A. Dummer also had the concept years earlier, but never completed a working device. A few months after Kilby's demonstration in 1964, an IC device in an improved form was independently invented by Robert Noyce at another company. Eventually, the two companies agreed to cross-license their patents.« |
