What are Microchips Used In?
The microchip might be the single most important invention of the twentieth century. Ironically, it took a relatively young scientist who could not take time off work to perfect the microchip in his downtime. The applications of the microchip are almost too many to name, and suffice it to say, the current world cannot function without it.
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History
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The microchip is a descendant of the vacuum tubes used in the earliest electronic computers created in the 1940s, according to the Nobel Prize Institute. The first computers used about 18,000 tubes, making them bulky, slow and unreliable. Computer researchers in the 1950s experimented with miniaturizing electrical circuits, especially transistors, which are much smaller than vacuum tubes. In 1958, Jack Kilby made printing microchips easier by using a single material to make all the components of the microchip, instead of putting them on one by one. The first practical use of the microchip was in the Minuteman rockets during the late 1950s and early 1960s, according to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission.
Types
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Although most people associate the microchip with computers, hundreds of types of products use computer chips, according to the Nobel Prize Institute. The majority of electronic devices today use some attribute of the microchip. Common uses other than computing are audio equipment, cell phones, automobiles, television sets and digital cameras.
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Misconceptions
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The modern microchip is not a single entity, but an integration of several different components, each with their own function. The transistor--like the early vacuum tubes--turns the electrical current on or off, or amplifies it. Transistors are most often used to store information in hard drives. The resistor controls the current and is used to raise/lower volume in audio equipment. The capacitor can store and then release large amounts of energy; cameras use this for the "flash."
Significance
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Over 5 billion microchips are produced each year, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. About 2 percent of these chips go to computers, but the rest are put in home appliances such as smoke detectors and microwave ovens.
Potential
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According to ASME, microchips will only get smaller and powerful. In addition to increased processing power for software applications, computer chips will eventually also have "artificial intelligence," responding to touch and even holding conversations. The National Academy of Engineering believes that microchips will be small enough to install in humans to monitor health.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Andrew Magill
