The
microchip revolution had its beginnings with the inventions of
integrated circuitIn electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
(IC) and the
microprocessorA microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit words...
, both of which were developed to increase
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
efficiency. This in turn caused the much broader
digital revolutionThe Digital Revolution is the change from analog and mechanical electronic technology to digital technology, that has taken place since c. 1980 and continues to the present day. . Implicitly, the term also refers to the sweeping changes brought about by computing and communication technology during...
, one of the most significant occurrences in the
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
of humankind.
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The
microchip revolution had its beginnings with the inventions of
integrated circuitIn electronics, an integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
(IC) and the
microprocessorA microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit words...
, both of which were developed to increase
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
efficiency. This in turn caused the much broader
digital revolutionThe Digital Revolution is the change from analog and mechanical electronic technology to digital technology, that has taken place since c. 1980 and continues to the present day. . Implicitly, the term also refers to the sweeping changes brought about by computing and communication technology during...
, one of the most significant occurrences in the
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
of humankind.