Wednesday, June 17, 2009
How many people cloud say why 1959 is an important date ? Probably not many .But this the year when the chip was invented. You may then ask , " But what is a chip?! " It is the nickname for a small piece of silicon that, like magic, is changing modern life. This chip which under microscope looks like a city map of streets and buildings , is an integrated circuit, the " brain " in our computers, calculators, watches and other electronic goods that save time and labor and help us work with greater precision .
Many uses were soon found for the new invention , and scientists made chips that were more and more complicated. Computers ,which were once so big and expensive, could now be smaller and cheaper. People could have their own personal computers and use them in their homes. Chips went into television sets, radios, car engines. In a popular video game the chip may take a player into space to fight imaginary battles, or in a fast car down a busy highway where there are many dangers. When we buy things in a shop that has an electronic cash register, the clerk just passes the articles we have bought over a certain spot, and the computer gives the price of each article , then adds them up , and finally corrects the shop's records of how much it has of each article.
The place in California where this new industry originally developed got its nickname, Silicon Valley, from the material that is used to make the chip.Silicon Valley is near two well-known universities ( Stanford and Berkeley ) ,and it is interesting that ii is not far from the place where gold was discovered in 1849, which also brought thousands of people to California. This time people who came were scientists and engineers !