#integrated-circuit — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #integrated-circuit, aggregated by home.social.
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“The system, to a large extent, causes its own behavior”*…
The geocentric universe illustrated, with the sun and planets revolving around the Earth. Interestingly, the illustration above was created in 1660, a few decades after Galileo popularized the fact that geocentrism was completely inaccurate. (source)Alan Jacobs quotes from Freeman Dyson‘s epic 1998 book, Imagined Worlds…
It often happens that a scientific revolution is accompanied by a change in style. I like to use the names of Napoleon and Tolstoy to symbolize two contrasting styles: rigid organization and discipline represented by Napoleon, creative chaos and freedom represented by Tolstoy. In the world of computers, Napoleon is the massive IBM main-frame; Tolstoy is the humble Macintosh. The computer revolution was an escape from the Napoleonic ambitions of von Neumann to the Tolstoyan anarchy of the Internet. Future revolutions will bring more such escapes.
Jacobs goes on to observe…
The big AI companies are the apotheosis — literally, in the view of many who work for them — of Napoleonic science. The open web and the world of hobbyist and small-scale devices (often built on the Raspberry Pi) are our remaining refuges of Tolstoyan computing.
See also: “Twenty Five Years After Imagined Worlds, What World Are We Living In? – Our surprisingly Napoleonic twenty-first century,” in which Erik Larson unpacks Dyson’s thinking and reconciles it to the world of 2022 (when Larson wrote the piece).
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As we contemplate culture, we might spare a thought for Jack Kilby; he died on this date in 2005. An electrical engineer, he made a– if not the— foundational advance that moved us into the age we’re now navigating: the integrated curcuit (or as we know it, the chip).
In mid-1958, as a newly employed engineer at Texas Instruments, Kilby didn’t yet have the right to a summer vacation. So he spent the summer working on the problem in circuit design known as the “tyranny of numbers” (how to add more and more components, all soldered to all of the others, to improve performance). He finally came to the conclusion that manufacturing the circuit components en masse in a single piece of semiconductor material could provide a solution. On September 12, he presented his findings to the management: a piece of germanium with an oscilloscope attached. Kilby pressed a switch, and the oscilloscope showed a continuous sine wave– proving that his integrated circuit worked and thus that he had solved the problem.
Kilby is generally credited as co-inventor of the integrated circuit, along with Robert Noyce (who independently made a similar circuit a few months later). Kilby has been honored in many ways for his breakthrough, probably most augustly with the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Kilby’s first integrated circuit
#AlanJacobs #chip #culture #ErikJLarson #FreemanDyson #history #integratedCircuit #Napoleon #Science #Technology #Tolstoy -
Once you start looking for it, you'll be surprised at just how many "features we're bragging about" on electronic component datasheets for ICs boil down to "we put a capacitor across this input".
#IC #IntegratedCircuit #ICs #datasheet #electronics #components #marketing
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A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer
https://www.righto.com/2025/09/marilou-schultz-navajo-555-weaving.html
#HackerNews #NavajoWeaving #IntegratedCircuit #555Timer #TechArt #CulturalHeritage
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Integrated circuits, chips, and silicon... Yesterday I was on site at a client’s headquarters, and the owner asked me a question that took me completely by surprise. He asked, “How are ICs and chips related? What does one have to do with the other? And where does silicon fit in?”
As a college professor, through painful experience, I developed a concept I call the Common Body of Knowledge. The Common Body of Knowledge includes those things my students will already know when they attend class. I don’t have to teach these things. For example, when explaining this to my students, I’ll ask, “What is the name of the ocean on the east coast of the USA?” My students just sit there, and I have to encourage them by saying, “It’s not a trick question. The answer is as easy as you think it is. I’m trying to teach you a concept, and this illustration will help.” Finally, one or two brave souls will say, “The Atlantic.”
“Yes! That’s it! You see, that’s in the Common Body of Knowledge. Now, here’s the problem I run into as your instructor: sometimes, I’ve known something for so long that I just assume it’s in the Common Body of Knowledge. But it actually isn’t. Someone had to teach me this ‘thing,’ somewhere in my distant past. I’ve known it so long I don’t even remember learning it. Now, during class, I may casually mention something like everyone knows it, and I’ll just go on to the next thing. I’m counting on you to stop me. Raise your hand. Ask the question. Because if you don’t know what I just said, there’s a very good chance that some other people in the class don’t know, either.”
I look around the class, and make eye contact with as many students as possible. “I want you to be the brave one. Ask the question. That’s how I will learn that something I said is NOT in the Common Body of Knowledge, and I need to back up and add it to the class session.”
Now, back to the opening of this post. My client was hearing things in the news, and asked me to explain chips, ICs, and silicon. I had no idea this wasn’t in the Common Body of Knowledge, but it’s not. People have to learn it.
Here now, for you, is a brief explanation.
SILICON
Silicon is a special element with remarkable chemical properties. It doesn’t conduct electricity easily, like gold or copper. But it’s also not an insulator, like rubber or pure water. Silicon is a semiconductor. We can make it conduct electricity, or stop conducting electricity, by mixing silicon with other chemicals and applying various voltages to it. This is the heart of all electronic parts now. Conducting or not conducting. On or off. One and zero.CHIP
Through a complex manufacturing process, we combine a bunch of these little on/off junctions on a very tiny piece of silicon. This piece of silicon is a flat “chip” of a silicon rock.INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
Infinitesimal gold wires are attached to various points on the chip to apply voltages. The tiny gold wires then connect to larger metal pins that can be attached in various ways to a circuit board. The assembly of the chip, the gold wires, and the pins is enclosed in a plastic or ceramic housing. This package is rugged enough to be shipped and sold as an integrated circuit, or IC.SLANG USAGE
The terms “chips” and “ICs” are used so interchangeably that you can now forget everything I said about a distinction between the two. The little piece of silicon is an integrated circuit. The entire package is a chip. There is no problem with using either term in common conversation.SUPPLY CHAIN THREAT
Question: who controls the design and manufacture of the chips? It’s possible for a malicious manufacturer to put extra circuitry in the package to do whatever they want it to do. This is why the manufacture of silicon integrated circuits is so important. You should buy chips from “friendly” manufacturers you can trust.I hope this helps you understand what you’re reading in the financial news about the sourcing and manufacturing of electronics parts.
#IntegratedCircuit #ASIC #Silicon #SupplyChain #IC #ChipManufacturing
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When Repairs Go Inside Integrated Circuits - What can you do if your circuit repair diagnosis indicates an open circuit within ... - https://hackaday.com/2025/05/20/when-repairs-go-inside-integrated-circuits/ #integratedcircuit #repairhacks #icrepair
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#Asianometry: Japan’s Legendary Semiconductor Breakthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOKBUI3p_cs
#electronics #VLSI #IntegratedCircuit #SemiConductors #RetroComputing
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Sometimes I, as I suppose anyone, have a delayed laughter response. This was a magnificent 10 seconds…
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Bitmain Dispatches Initial KS3 Antminers Amid Surge in Kaspa’s Hashrate - According to Bitmain, the well known crypto ASIC mining rig manufacturer, the comp... - https://news.bitcoin.com/bitmain-dispatches-initial-ks3-antminers-amid-surge-in-kaspas-hashrate/ #graphicsprocessingunits #application-specific #consensusalgorithm #integratedcircuit #blockgeneration #bitmainminers #core-dominant #kaspahashrate #impressively #kheavyhash #profitable #heavyhash #kaspapool #antminer #filminer #kaspa
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Opening Up ASIC Design - The odds are that if you’ve heard about application-specific integrated circuits (... - https://hackaday.com/2023/04/05/opening-up-asic-design/ #integratedcircuit #softwarehacks #circuit #openram #design #memory #asic #sram #tool #ram #ic
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Copy and Paste Lithium Battery Protection - Lithium batteries have, nearly single-handedly, ushered in the era of the electric... - https://hackaday.com/2023/02/02/copy-and-paste-lithium-battery-protection/ #integratedcircuit #batteryhacks #lithiumion #protection #charger #lithium #tp4056 #parts #dw01a #pcb
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Laser rust removal is mesmerizing to watch, but this IC "cleaning" is on another level.
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Comparing Solar Energy Harvesters - There doesn’t have to be much more to setting up a simple solar panel installation... - https://hackaday.com/2022/10/27/comparing-solar-energy-harvesters/ #integratedcircuit #energyharvester #weatherstation #solarhacks #battery #energy #small #solar #cell
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Integrated Circuit Manufacturing At Bell Labs In 1983 - With the never ending march of technological progress, arguably the most complex t... - https://hackaday.com/2022/08/23/integrated-circuit-manufacturing-at-bell-labs-in-1983/ #integratedcircuit #fabrication #belllabs #history #vintage #wafer
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Old Printer Becomes Direct Laser Lithography Machine - What does it take to make your own integrated circuits at home? It’s a question th... - https://hackaday.com/2022/03/22/old-printer-becomes-direct-laser-lithography-machine/ #integratedcircuit #galvanometer #lithography #laserhacks #etching #optical #silicon #galvo #laser #mems
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Factory Defect IC Revived With Sandpaper And Microsoldering - We might be amidst a chip shortage, but if you enjoy reverse-engineering, there’s ... - https://hackaday.com/2022/01/31/factory-defect-ic-revived-with-sandpaper-and-microsoldering/ #integratedcircuit #repairhacks #leadframe #bodge #die #ic
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The Zeloof Z2 Intergrated Circuit Has 100 Transistors - Back in 2018 we reported on the first silicon integrated circuit to be produced in... - https://hackaday.com/2021/08/14/the-zeloof-z2-intergrated-circuit-has-100-transistors/ #integratedcircuit #chipfabrication #chipprinter #samzeloof #hardware
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Decap ICs Without The Peril - There can be few of us who haven’t gazed with fascination upon the work of IC decappers, whether t... more: https://hackaday.com/2019/05/19/decap-ics-without-the-peril/ #integratedcircuit #chemistryhacks #chipdecapping #chipdecap #parts #chip
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A Steady Hand Makes This Chip Work Again - What do you do when you’re working with some vintage ICs and one of the tiny legs pops off? That’s... more: https://hackaday.com/2019/03/21/a-steady-hand-makes-this-chip-work-again/ #integratedcircuit #supernintendo #repairhacks #leadframe #snes #nes #ic
