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The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution Hardcover – January 1, 1985

by T. R. Reid (Author)

61 customer reviews

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Traces the innovative development of the monolithic integrated circuit, or silicon chip, discussing the scientists who created it, its structure and functions, the evolution of the semiconductor industry, and the vast implications of the silicon chip

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Product details

Hardcover: 243 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition (January 1, 1985)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0671453939
ISBN-13: 978-0671453930
Package Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 61 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #127 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Electrical & Electronics > Circuits > Integrated
- #2050 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Electrical & Electronics > Electronics
- #2258 in Books > Science & Math > Technology > History of Technology

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Amazon Customer

Book both for laypersons and specialists in the field

February 28, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

From my point of view, the book is worth reading both for laypersons interested in technique and specialists in the field. It is nice combination of technical subject and history (both business one and technical one). In the first chapter, the author brings short introduction to the chips and their importance for electronics as we know it today. Then brief history of electronic parts, going from discovery that current can go through vaccum to termionic valves to transistors and finally to integrated circuits is provided. Next two chapters are dedicated to Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce CVs and their ideas how to build chips . Then legal battle between Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductors for patent of integrated circuit is described. After it, the author is telling story about integrated circuits using in many fields. The author included two purely technical chapters as well. First one is on binary logic and computer science development. and second one is concerning calculator (or primitive computer) and how it works. Last chapter is decicated to last years of both inventors of chip.

Overall, the book is very nice and very readable. I understand that the book is aimed at as much as possible wide spectrum of readers, however, sometimes it suffers from technical inaccuracy.
Firstly, the author claimed that loudspeaker in radio works with direct current because the rectifier is used in the radio. It is wrong since speaker operates with AC but with relatively low frequency in comparison with radio signal. The reason for using rectifier is to get modulation envelope (what is more, this is true only for AM radios). Then high frequency part of signal is filtered by capacitor and AC low frequency current for loudspeak is gained.
Second issue is concerning Boolean logic. The author says that equation x^2 = x is valid in Boolean logic since it has solution 0 and 1. That is true, however, it is not reason why this equation is important for Boolean algebra. The true reason is that the equation says: "Power of logical variable is always variable itself". Similar law is valid for logical addition, namely x + x = x.

Finally, I would like to note that the autor consider Mr. Deming (founder of quality management noted in conjuction with Japanese chip manufactures) as somebody who firstly used statistics to imporove manufacturing processes. Personally, I think it is not true since first man who used scientific approach of this kind was Taylor in the beginning of 20th century.

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Paul Eckler

A great introduction to technology

April 6, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

"The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution," by TR Reid, Random House, NY, 2001. This 309 page paperback provides a highly readable account of the invention of the integrated circuit. It begins with the discovery of the Edison effect and carefully explains the various technologies in a non-technical way as it goes along. The heros of the story are Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Camera and later Intel. Both invented integrated circuits and received patents for them. Interferences were filed to resolve the issue resulting ultimately in a cross licensing arrangement. Kilby also invented the pocket calculator.

Along the way the book describes the work of Edison, Fleming and DeForest in invention of the vacuum tube, and later the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs. Other technologies are also mentioned including development of radar and television, the first Altair computer, and the Intel microprocessors. The transition from magnetic core memory to semiconductor RAM is described. The story of the pocket calculator, digital watches, and some early computers are mentioned. Apple is mentioned but not Motorola. And little is said of Microsoft. Strangely absent are Radio Shack and their TRS-80, Commodore, Atari, Sinclair, TI-99-4a, and CP/M.

The book was originally written in 1985, and then revised and update in 2001. Not surprisingly it devotes considerable space to the Japanese conquest of digital memory chips. It notes that when shortages forced domestic customers to use Japanese chips, they found those made in Japan were of higher quality. This discovery was a major factor is the quality programs initiated soon after. The books stops before the emergence of China as a major producer of electronics.

The detailed non-technical explanations of numerous related topics (thermionic emission, discovery of the electron, conductivity theory, doping, Boolean algebra, digital arithmetic, Deming quality programs, patent law, operation of a digital calculator, etc) make this an excellent introduction to the field. In addition to those interested in the history of technology, those considering careers in engineering, electronics, or information technology will find the book especially useful. Extensive references. Indexed.

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March 22, 2004

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An excellent account of the two Americans who ushered in the Intergrated Circuit (IC) age. It is said that the average American on a typical day encounters more than fifty microprocessors before lunch , from the alarm clock, to the microwave, to the daily commute in the automobile. The transistor was a temporary godsend that made the vacuum tube obsolete. The limitation of transistor circuits was the soldering time and accuracy. As circuit complexity exploded the number of soldered connections had to be increased accordingly. If a modern Pentium IC chip has over 60-million transistors, one can see that it would have been unattainable to obtain the required accuracy, time, and area need for these soldered joints. Without these two men we could be at the transistor level. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce are the two men who developed the method of taking everything that was on a printed circuit and etching it into a wafer of silicon (CHIP) making the device many magnitudes smaller in the process. This breakthrough allows the complex circuits and microprocessors with the myriad of battery operated electronic devices to exist. What we now accept as civilization. .The book is well written, no knowledge of electronics is required or explained. It is just the history of two men developing a new idea to fruition.

4 people found this helpful

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