Integrated Circuits

I still remember the first time I ever saw an integrated circuit. Don brought one home from work and showed it to me. It was a small, black plastic rectangle, with two rows of metallic "feet." Don told me it contained thousands of tiny transistors and other components. It was equal to a printed-circuit card, with all its attached transistors, diodes, and so on.

I was amazed that such a tiny object could do so much. Integrated circuits were the next step in making electronics technology smaller and smaller. They truly changed the world, just as transistors had done.