Ferranti: Monolithic Microcircuits

Abstract

During the early development of semiconductor electronic components individual products had their own particular function, which in each case was roughly analogous to the function performed by a given type of thermionic valve. While the use of semiconductor components provided significant advantages over valves (in particular smaller physical size, lower power consumption and, once the devices had become established commercial products, lower unit-costs) these components, like valves, were manufactured as individual items and then wired together to make a circuit. However, by the early 1960s leading semiconductor manufacturers in America (notably Fairchild and Texas Instruments) had developed commercial processes that were capable of forming interconnected arrangements of components on a single chip of semiconductor material. These chips, or integrated circuits, enabled the functions of a number of electronic components to be performed by a single device.