Milestones in Microelectronics
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● ● Future of Digital Economy COVER STORY • 7 Milestones in Photo: ©Bettmann/CORBIS Microelectronics By George SCALISE Nearly 70 years ago, Joseph Schum- between different types of calculating peter, a European-born economics pro- operations required manually moving fessor at Harvard University, published numerous cables and switches. Despite his landmark work, “Capitalism, its bulk and unwieldy operations, ENIAC Socialism, and Democracy.” In this mon- was a very efficient computer: it could do umental work, Professor Schumpeter set in about 30 seconds a complex calcula- forth his now-famous concept of “cre- tion that a skilled person with a desk cal- ative destruction.” culator took 20 hours to complete. ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Creative Destruction – the Real A Major Milestone – the Invention Calculator), 1946 Basis of Competition of the Transistor in 1947 in place of vacuum tubes, the aerospace Simply put, Schumpeter argued that ENIAC demonstrated not only the industry was an early driver of demand for real competition consists of not merely potential of electronic computing but lightweight, highly durable, low-power offering a commodity product at a lower also the need for a technological break- systems built around the transistor. price than a competitor. The real basis through that would reduce the size and Even the transistor rather quickly ran of competition is radical innovation power requirements while increasing the up against scaling limits. With a rapidly based on new technology, new methods computational capabilities of future com- growing demand for more complex elec- of production, and new organizational puters. That breakthrough came the fol- tronic circuitry, the search was on for a structures to offer new products that lowing year, in 1947, with the invention new type of device that could further have such compelling advantages that the of the transistor by William Shockley, shrink the size of individual transistors new products literally kill off older prod- John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain at while enhancing the performance and ucts in a process of creative destruction. Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. This reducing the cost of electronic systems. Nowhere has this process been more invention – revealed 60 years ago last dramatically demonstrated than in the December – signaled the onset of a new Another Milestone in microelectronics industry. Although era and the birth of the microelectronics Microelectronics – the First Schumpeter lived to see the dawning of industry. The three scientists won the Integrated Circuits the digital age, it is doubtful that even 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their he foresaw the extent of the creative invention of the transistor. The next major breakthrough came destruction that began in the late 1940s. The process of creative destruction was 50 years ago, in 1958, when a young sci- The basic building block of electronic brutally effective: not one of the US com- entist at Texas Instruments, Jack Kilby, systems through the first four decades of panies that had dominated the manufac- invented the integrated circuit – an the 20th century was the vacuum tube. ture of vacuum tubes made a successful ungainly-looking device that contained Invented in the late 1800s, the vacuum transition to competition in the emerging all of the required elements of a circuit tube was itself a great breakthrough that era of solid-state microelectronics. on a single piece of semiconducting made possible radical new inventions The transistor was a huge breakthrough, material, in this case germanium. including radio and television broadcast- with enormous advantages over the vacu- Kilby’s invention was followed a year ing, telephone networks, radar, and count- um tube – especially in size and power later, in 1959, by the invention of the pla- less other electronic devices. In 1946 the consumption. The “portable” radio of the nar integrated circuit by Robert Noyce, world’s first electronic digital computer pre-transistor era was approximately the then a young engineer with Fairchild (named ENIAC for Electrical Numerical size of a microwave oven and generated Semiconductor. Noyce’s contribution was Integrator And Calculator) was unveiled at enough heat to warm a small room. the creation of a system of interconnected the University of Pennsylvania. Vacuum tubes were also rather fragile and transistors on a single, monolithic silicon ENIAC was both a marvel and a mon- frequently burned out. Solid-state circuit- chip. Noyce’s invention provided the ster. The computer weighed more than ry was much more rugged and well suited breakthrough enabling seemingly unlimit- 30 tons, occupied 1,800 square feet of to new applications that required small ed scalability. Today, the most advanced floor space, and consumed more than size, great endurance, and the ability to chips contain two billion transistors on a 150 kilowatts to power more than 17,000 operate on battery power. While the tran- sliver of silicon about the size of a dime. vacuum tubes, 10,000 capacitors, and sistor radio is widely recognized as the first Kilby was awarded the 2000 Nobel 6,000 manual switches. Switching important product employing transistors Prize in Physics for his invention. JAPAN SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2008 25 COVER STORY • 7 The first integrated circuits (ICs) Nobel prizes are not awarded posthu- Photos: Intel mously, and Noyce had died suddenly in 1990. At the awards ceremony, Kilby graciously stated that he was accepting the prize not only for his own contribu- tions but also in recognition of Noyce as the co-inventor of the integrated circuit. Smaller, Faster, Cheaper – the Mantra of the Microelectronics Industry Bob Noyce’s IC, 1959 Jack Kilby’s IC, 1958 In the nearly half century since the cameras. In another example of creative Moore’s Law first working silicon integrated circuit destruction at work, the instant film cam- was unveiled, “smaller, faster, cheaper” era has virtually disappeared from the In 1965, when the microchip industry has become the mantra of the microelec- market. While there are a handful of was still in its early infancy, another bril- tronics industry. The pervasiveness of manufacturers still producing typewriters, liant young engineer at Fairchild integrated circuits has grown exponen- these remarkable machines first invented Semiconductor, Gordon Moore, made tially as microchips have enabled an in the 19th century have almost disap- an observation about the pace of techno- incredible variety of electronic devices peared from the modern office, replaced logical progress in integrated circuits. that existed only in science fiction half a by word processors and laser printers Working from only two data points, century ago. Today it is hard to imagine filled with advanced electronic circuitry. Moore observed that the number of a world without personal computers, cell This year the worldwide semiconduc- transistors on a square inch of silicon phones, the Internet, email, ecommerce, tor industry will produce nearly 900 had doubled every year since the inven- digital cameras, and a host of other million transistors for every man, tion of the integrated circuit. Moore, products made possible by advances in woman, and child on earth. who later went on to co-found Intel microchip technology. Corp. with his colleague Robert Noyce, The worldwide semiconductor industry Consumers Now Drive Industry predicted that this rate of progress could is huge – worldwide sales of microchips Growth continue for at least another 10 years. will be more than $266 billion in 2008 The observation, of course, has become and will surpass $324 billion in 2011. Industry growth is now being driven known as “Moore’s Law” and it has Industry revenues, however, tell only a principally by consumers – approximate- been the benchmark of industry progress small part of the story of the growing ly 55% of semiconductor industry rev- for more than four decades. While the demand for semiconductors and the ever- enues are from circuits that go into pace of technological advance has slowed more important role chips play in our products purchased by individual con- slightly in recent years – chip density world. Integrated circuits are unique in sumers. This is a major change from now doubles approximately every 18 that each year these electronic marvels just a few years ago when corporate months – observers who predicted the become faster and more powerful, deliver- information technology was the major imminent end of Moore’s Law have ing increased performance and function- demand driver for semiconductors. been consistently proven wrong. ality in end products – for less money! Over the past 10 to 15 years, major eco- The personal computer is an excellent nomic and political changes throughout Photo: Agere example of how advances in semicon- the world have brought literally hundreds ductor technology have dramatically of millions of new consumers into the reduced the cost of electronic products marketplace for electronic products. while delivering enormous improve- Enormous new markets in China, India, ments in performance and functionality. Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin The typical desktop computer of 2007 America have opened up. China alone sold for approximately $630 versus now has a middle class of more than 300 $1,833 for a typical desktop system in million people – roughly equivalent to the 1997 – barely more than one-third the entire population of the United States. cost of a decade ago. The typical