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The History of Computing:The Integrated Circuit

Ira HeifetsAlexander Eidenzon

Our world is full of Integrated Circuits

We can find them everywhere

Integrated electric circuit

• Just a very advanced electric circuit. • Made from different electrical components: transistors, resistors,

capacitors and diodes, connected to each other in different ways.

Transistors

• Operates like a switch• Turns electricity on or off• Amplifies current• Used in computers to store

information, or to amplify signals

Resistors

• Limits the flow of electricity and allows to control the current

• Used, among other things, to control the volume in television sets or radios

Capacitors

• Collects electricity and releases itall in one quick burst

• Ex: in cameras where a tiny battery can provide enough energy to fire the flashbulb

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Diodes

• Stops electricity under some conditions and allows it to pass under another

• Ex.: broken light bean in photocells triggers the diode to stop electricity from flowing

Vacuum Tubes

• Controls movement of electrons in evacuated space to amplify, switch or modify signal

• Critical devices in electronics technology: radio broadcasting, television, telephone, analog and digital computers

• Still used as display device in television sets and computer monitors

Vacuum Tubes in Complex Circuits

• Engineers quickly became aware of vacuum tube limitations in complex circuits.

• First digital computer ENIAC weighed over thirty tons, consumed 200 kilowatts of electrical power.

• It had around 18,000 constantly burning out vacuum tubes – very unreliable.

1946-55

Transistor vs. Vacuum Tube

VT• Like a light bulb• Generates a lot of heat and

burns out • Slow, big and bulky

Transistor• Invented in 1947, considered a

revolution. • Small, fast, reliable, effective• Quickly replaced vacuum tube

1947

Tyranny of Numbers

• Advanced circuits contained many components and connections • Virtually impossible to build • This problem was known as the tyranny of numbers• Had to construct circuits by hand, soldering components in place,

connecting with metal wires

On the way to IC

• Problems: Size & Speed• Large computer components

and long connecting wires• Signals traveled too slow

through the circuit, making the computer ineffective

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The birth of the IC

• Precursor idea to IC: creating small ceramic squares (wafers), each containing single miniaturized component.

• Components could then be integrated into a two- or three- dimensional compact grid.

Jack Kilby Robert Noyce

The first integrated circuits were manufactured independently by two scientists

1959-61

Jack Kilby (1923-2005)• Summer 1958, Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments solved miniaturization problem.

• Made all components and the chip out of the same block of semiconductor material.

• Circuits could be made smaller, manufacturing process could be automated.

Kilby received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for the invention of the IC.

1958

Robert Noyce (1927-1990)

• Robert Noyce, general manager of Fairchild Semiconductor, had his own idea for IC.

• Solved Kilby’s circuit problems, interconnecting all components on the chip.

• Added metal as final layer, then removed some of it to form wires for components connecting.

1961

Mayor of Silicon Valley

• Robert Noyce also was one of the co-founders of Intel in 1968.

• Intel is one of the largest manufacturers of integrated circuits in the world.

• Robert Noyce’ nickname was “Mayor of Silicon Valley”

IC: some details

• Depletion region in reversevoltage as electrical isolation

R.Noyce:

The integrated circuit accomplishes the separation andinterconnection of transistors and other circuit elementselectrically rather than physically. The separation isaccomplished by introducing PN diodes which allow current toflow in only one direction.

Layout and Fabrication

Integrated Circuit Layout

Colored rectangles for different layers

• Photolithography used in microfabrication to selectively remove parts of bulk of substrate

• Uses light to transfer geometric pattern from photomask to light-sensitive photoresist on the substrate

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Small-Scale Integration

• First IC contained only a few transistors.

• Called "Small-Scale Integration" (SSI), used circuits containing transistors numbering in tens.

• SSI circuits were crucial to early aerospace projects.

• Apollo program needed lightweight digital computers for its inertially-guided flight computers

1960-63

Apollo Guidance Computer

• Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was first modern embedded system

• Used in real-time by astronaut pilots to collect and provide flight information and control navigational functions of spacecraft

• Developed by the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory

1969

AGC Description• Block I version used 4,100 ICs and Block II used 5,600

IC’s.• The computer's RAM was magnetic core memory (4K)

and ROM was implemented as core rope memory (32K). Both had cycle times of 12 microseconds.

• Core frequency of 0.78125Hz to 51.2 kHz (17 stages)

1969

AGC in ApolloEach flight to the moon had two AGCs, one each in the command module (the spacecraft itself) and the lunar module (the lander portion).

AGC in Lunar Module ran its Primary Guidance, Navigation and Control System, called PGNCS (pronounced "pings").

AGC in Command Module was at the centre of spacecraft's guidance & navigation system (G&C).

1969

The Mainframe Era

• Large mechanical assembly that held the central processor and input/output complex.

• In the 1960s, most mainframes had no interactive interface.

• Accepted decks of punch cards, operated in batch mode to support back office functions.

• Teletype devices were also common, especially for system operators.

1960s

Punch Cards

• Paper containing digital info represented by presence / absence of holes in predefined positions.

• First used around 1725 in textile industry.• Early computers used punched cards for input of programs and data.• In 1896 Tabulating Machine Company was founded to develop punch cards

data processing (later merged into IBM).

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Batch Mode Processing

• Computer gives full attention to your program. • Had to prepare program off-line on a key punch machine.

IBM Key Punch machine:

- operates as a typewriter

- produces punched cards rather than printed sheet of paper

Time Sharing & Teletype Devices• Time sharing:

- Way to interact with mainframe in round-robin fashion. - Perhaps 100 users were logged on, each typing on a teletype.- Firstly implemented in 1957, on IBM 704, later on IBM 7090.

• Teletype:- motorized typewriter- transmitted keystrokes to mainframe- printed computer's response on roll of paper.

IBM and the Seven Dwarfs• IBM• Burroughs• UNIVAC• NCR• Control Data• Honeywell• General Electric• RCA

IBM's dominance grew out of their 700/7000 series and 360 series mainframes.

International Business Machines Corporation

• Multinational computer technologycorporation, headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA.

• Largest of 8 major computer companies at the 1960s.

• In the 1950s, became chief contractor for developing computers for US Air Force's.

• Gained access to crucial research at MIT, working on first real-time digital computer.

IBM 700/7000 series • Series of LS computer systems made in the

1950s and early 1960s. • Included several incompatible processor

architectures.• The 700's used vacuum tube logic and were

replaced by the transistorized 7000s. • The 7000s were replaced by System/360,

announced in 1964.

IBM 7090's at NASA's Project Mercury, 1962.

-1964

IBM 704

• First mass-produced computer with floating point arithmetic hardware, introduced in 1954.

• IBM 704 Manual of operation:The type 704 Electronic Data-Processing Machine is a large-scale, high-speed electronic calculator controlled by an internally stored program of the single address type.

• FORTRAN and LISP were first developed for the 704.

1954

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IBM Mainframe family tree

1952-64

IBM System/360

• Mainframe computer system family announced in 1964.

• First computers family separating architecturefrom implementation

• Allowed release of compatible designs at different price points.

• One of the most successful computers ever, influencing computer design for many years.

1964

General Electric

• Had extensive line of general purpose and special purpose computers.

• Among them were: - General purpose computers: GE 200, GE 400, GE 600 series

- Real time process control computers: GE 4010, GE 4020, GE 4060

- Message switching computer: Datanet 30

GE-200

• Family of medium large computers• Optional features were:

- Floating Point - Decimal arithmetic- Real-Time clock- Move command

• Technology was solid-state (diodes and transistors).

• 8K words system contained 1,000 circuit boards, 10,000 transistors, 20,000 diodes and 186,000 magnetic cores.

1960s

Burroughs

• The Burroughs Corporation developed highly innovative architectures, based on the design philosophy of "language directed design".

• Large systems machines starting with the B5000 in 1961 were stack machines designed to be programmed in an extended Algol 60.

• Included virtual memory and support for multiprogramming and multiprocessing.

• The B2000 or "medium systems" computers aimed primarily at the business world, architected to execute COBOL efficiently.

Control Data Corporation

• For most of the 1960s, built the fastest computers in the world

• In 1964, CDC 6600, outperformed everything by roughly ten times.

• Considered to be the first successful supercomputer

• CPU with multiple asynchronous functional units, used 10 logical, external I/O processors to offload common tasks.

• CPU only processed data, other controllers punched cards, ran disks etc.

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UNIVAC

• In 1960 started 1100 series of compatible 36-bit transistorizedcomputer systems

• Supported multiprogramming: sharing CPU time among several batch runs.

Digital Equipment Corporation

• PDP-8 was introduced in 1964. • Small enough to fit on a cart. • Simple to be used for many roles,

sold in huge numbers to new market niches, labs, railways etc.

• First computer to be purchased by a handful of end users.

• Regarded as the first minicomputer.

Bibliography• http://en.wikipedia.org• http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/physics/integrated_circ

uit/history/• www.pbs.org/transistor/background1/events/icinv.html • ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5/17614/00811607.pdf • inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa080498.htm • www.bartleby.com/65/in/integrated.html • http://www.ibm.com/us/• http://www.ge.com/en/company/companyinfo/at_a_glance/hist_l

eader.htm• www.hbci.com/~wenonah/history/edpart6.htm • http://www.answers.com/topic/integrated-circuit• http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~wylie/ICs/monolith.htm• http://web.mac.com/joynerian/iWeb/Ian%20Joyner/Burroughs.ht

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