Integrated circuit turns 50, now isn't that nifty?

Hard to believe that Jack Kilby's unsightly concoction (pictured above) turned 50 yesterday, but it's true. Half a century ago, Mr. Kilby crafted the integrated circuit, which ended up having a monumental impact on taking computers from warehouse-sized to, well, not-warehouse-sized. As the story goes, the very first microchip was demonstrated on the 12th of September in 1958, and it passed its first test: "producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen." Safe to say we all know how things progressed from there. Here's to you, IC -- and here's to 50 more.

[Via MAKE]

[solidus @ Sep 13th 2008 10:21AM]

wow lol, truely amazing how far we have come...

[drumdbeat @ Sep 13th 2008 10:26AM]

its evolved into something a lot quicker than fire ever did.

[Flashpoint @ Sep 13th 2008 10:34AM]

Back in those days, you'd need a computer the size of a state to run Crysis.

[happy_penguin @ Sep 13th 2008 11:54AM]

It would take a helluva big blender too.

[Cam @ Sep 13th 2008 11:38PM]

Rhode Island or Alaska?

[Allan @ Sep 13th 2008 10:24AM]

wow

[Bakersdozen @ Sep 13th 2008 10:25AM]

my hats off to you, sir

[computer.dude.28 @ Sep 13th 2008 10:47AM]

How many hats do you have?!

[Rob Bourne @ Sep 13th 2008 10:30AM]

IC Weiner?

Crud.

[PuBeLeSs @ Sep 13th 2008 10:31AM]

happy birthday

[Mike @ Sep 13th 2008 10:32AM]

American implementation of a British idea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Dummer

Usual Americans rewriting the history books.. Reminds me of the movie U571, where the Americans apparently captured the Enigma machine (reality again, was the British captured it years before...)

[Mike @ Sep 13th 2008 10:35AM]

Non wiki link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/403690.stm

[matt merritt @ Sep 13th 2008 10:38AM]

Crafting something and thinking that it would be a good idea to craft something are different things.

[chefgon_ign @ Sep 13th 2008 10:39AM]

Please do not associate my country with that god awful movie. It does not represent us.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 13th 2008 10:44AM]

Americans think they invented everything. It was a british man that came up with the world wide web.

[zfurie @ Sep 13th 2008 10:48AM]

Al Gore is British???????

[steven @ Sep 13th 2008 10:50AM]

The Americans invented the computer so I don't think the WWW would be as useful without a computer.

[PEZ @ Sep 13th 2008 10:58AM]

The only thing the british invented was the tax-free-for-kings-and-queens declaration. I believe it was done on the "typewriter", or some similar device.

[Chris @ Sep 13th 2008 10:59AM]

I remember when America invented the British Empire. Ah, those were the days.

[happy_penguin @ Sep 13th 2008 10:59AM]

From your second link:

"The microchip was invented by a UK Ministry of Defence scientist, only for the patent to be registered seven years later in the US, the BBC has learned."

But:

"But Mr Dummer said MoD mandarins were unimpressed after a prototype failed and the idea went no further."



Apparently he who thunk it couldn't make it work. To the victor belong the spoils. Share the information yes but don't distort it.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 13th 2008 11:02AM]

@steven
Some how I don't think so.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_first_inventor_of_the_computer


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage

[Wwhat @ Sep 13th 2008 11:56AM]

hmm, so a brit patented the IC in 1952 and failed to create one, while in 1949 a german created a IC amplifier and patented that, but nobody used it.
In my book that means a german really invented it first, although he's not the "father of modrn IC's" since it didn't take off from that point, that kind of thing seems to happen a lot, and to a lot of people, I bet half of the readers here had some idea at one time or another but no way/energy to push it and then later read somebody else brought it to the market or patent office and got the glory.

[Aaronage @ Sep 13th 2008 12:00PM]

Oo, never knew that :)

Go Brits! :D

[Arcanum @ Sep 13th 2008 12:26PM]

usual butthurt brit snobs.

[Reader @ Sep 13th 2008 9:10PM]

I think the Romans won first place a long time ago...

[Wwhat @ Sep 15th 2008 2:08AM]

We are talking about IC's, not roads.

[Reader @ Sep 15th 2008 8:57AM]

I was talking about computers, not integrated circuits, or roads...

[Imran @ Sep 13th 2008 10:36AM]

Wow, it's always nice to remember how things started off :)

[~Trail @ Sep 13th 2008 10:55AM]

Yay! *Throws party streamers* Please tell me it's not Silicon wafer cake, I much prefer chocolate. :p

[Samboini @ Sep 13th 2008 11:10AM]

Intergrated circuit? Pah, my laptop only needs love!

[kamu @ Sep 13th 2008 11:11AM]

On ya IC.

Keep it up.

[Elora HRanma @ Sep 13th 2008 11:25AM]

50 more? Not if the mad scientists of the world have anything to say!
At least one of those wonderful technologies (quantum/molecular computing) we've been promised for decades should become viable and reign in 50 years, right?

[bodeh6 @ Sep 13th 2008 11:55AM]

Took them 11 years to get the technology from the Roswell UFO crash landing.
Humans stole the technology from the superior race.

[Itchy @ Sep 13th 2008 12:09PM]

I used to work for a guy (in the news industry, no less) who swore that integrated circuit technology was from aliens. He insisted that we got the technology from a UFO. His reasoning: "It's like, all of the sudden we had these computers. How is that possible?" There was nothing I could do to convince him otherwise.

He also insisted that his car (a VW Jetta) emitted no CO2, and he had the documentation to prove it. When he pulled out his smog inspection report, I had to explain to him that the 0 he was pointing to was the amount his car was over the allowable limit for C02 emissions.

Yeah. This guy was in charge of a news room.

[JAY JAY @ Sep 13th 2008 1:25PM]

We should all thank each other for the technological advances we have provided for people... No matter what country its from.

[happy_penguin @ Sep 13th 2008 1:47PM]

I think we should thank the person who made the advancement.

[kyle allen @ Sep 13th 2008 2:58PM]

they totally run doom!! yay

[Rogbog4299 @ Sep 13th 2008 10:59PM]

Jack Kilby whose he? I got to remember him for a trivia question. I know I will win some money on this one for sure! Jack Kilby inventor of the integrated circuit. Got it!

[Zzephyr @ Sep 14th 2008 3:47PM]

Yep, plus he drew some real neato comics, like Fantastic 4 and the Hulk, too!

[Brian @ Sep 13th 2008 11:41PM]

that is the first TRANSISTOR. A circuit by itself can be just a light bulb and a battery. So technically that was not the first circuit neither the first IC or the first processor... it was the first building block for the technology that many years later was to become ICs (integrated circuits) and later on microprocessors, and even later on: Personal computers.

[joe @ Sep 14th 2008 3:06AM]

Thank you Jack Kilby. They should make you one of the great people in civilization (real life and in the video game). I feed my family using your invention.

[Nate DiDonato @ Sep 15th 2008 3:16AM]

Whatever Britain makes, America makes better. Whatever America makes, Japan makes better. Whatever Japan makes, Germany takes another spin at.
Then China rips them ALL off and makes it dirt cheap for the majority of Americans to buy.

Well, technology wise at least. Food would be a completely different topic.

"...and I think to myself... what a wonderful world"