Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit, often abbreviated as IC, is a silicon-based electronic device, typically the size of a human fingernail, that contains many switching elements, or transistors. IC's were invented separately around 1958 by two people: Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments, and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor. The invention of the IC paved the way for the seminal introduction, in the early 1970's, of the first "single-chip" microprocessors such as the Intel 8080 processor first sold in 1974.