Sunday , 10 November 2024
Health

From an interesting book Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.

Debugging:

Moreover, vacuum tubes made it possible for these digital computers to be reprogrammed. Mechanical gears such as those in a bombsight could only perform a single type of calculation because each knob was physically attached to levers and gears…However, the connections between vacuum tubes could be reorganized, enabling the computer to run different calculations.

This was a leap forward in computing–or it would have been, if not for the moths. Because vacuum tubes glowed like lightbulbs, they attracted insects, requiring regular “debugging” by their engineers.

Computer “chips”

Rather than a separate piece of silicon or germanium to build each transistor, he thought of assembling multiple components on the same piece of semiconductor material…Multiple transistors could be built into a single slab of silicon or germanium. [Jack] Kilby called his invention an integrated circuit but it became known colloquially as a “chip” because each integrated circuit was made from a piece of silicon chipped off a circular silicon wafer.

I am about a third of the way through the book and so far has been an interesting read.

Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

What you need to know about Limb Amputation Surgery: Causes, Risks, and Recovery?

Have you ever wondered what happens when a limb Amputation is a...

Links

Employee opinions on their health insurance. Republican vs. Democratic physicians. States’ perspective...

There’s an Opportunity for More Providers to Partner with the 988 Lifeline, Execs Say

Two executives at behavioral health care companies discussed why it’s important for...

Media Call: What a Second Trump Administration May Mean for Health Care

Former President Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 could bring...