Reporter Remembers Microchip Inventor Jack Kilby

May 2024 · 1 minute read

RAY SUAREZ:

Not so long ago, computers filled entire rooms, big rooms. But then, Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit in 1958. The same processing power could now fit on a small chip half the size of a paper clip — the world's first microchip. That first chip had one transistor.

Today, it's possible to squeeze more than 100 million transistors in the same amount of space. Kilby's breakthrough coincided with a similar invention by Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel. Together, they helped shape the electronic era. Look around.

Without the microchip, there would be no personal computers, microwave ovens, cell phones, digital watches, iPods, even cars. Kilby spent his career working for Dallas-based Texas Instruments, and also invented the handheld calculator while he was there.

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