As the size of transistors kept on reducing
researchers began to toy with the idea of having more number of transistors on
a single chip to create powerful integrated circuits. This process is exactly
what VLSI or Very-Large-Scale-Integration is all about. Today millions (nay
billions) of transistors
VLSI |
can be combined into a single chip. The cost and
performance benefits of integrated circuits is what makes computing so
ubiquitous and easily accessible. The first rudimentary idea for integrated
circuits can be traced back to German engineer Werner Jacobi in 1949 when he
filed a patent for a device that showed five transistors on a single substrate.
However the idea really took off when Jack Kelby of taxes instruments filed his
own patent about info). The first breakthroughs in VLSI can be traced back to
the ‘80s through when the number of transistors reached the thousands. Moor’s
Law anyone?