Integrated circuits come in digital, analog, or mixed types

An integrated circuit combines major circuit components onto a single device

Before 1958, these components were fabricated separately before manual assembly, introducing human error, delays, and higher costs. The invention of the IC laid the foundation for automated manufacturing, miniaturization, and improvements to speed and energy efficiency.

Transistors are the foundational components of integrated circuits and microchips and manage the processing of electronic signals by controlling the flow of electricity.

Semiconductor chips are electronic devices that store and process information

They can contain billions of microscopic switches on a chip smaller than a fingernail. An article provides a quick overview of how the devices work and how they’ve provided the backbone of the computer age.

Photonic integrated circuits use light instead of electrons within circuit components

Instead of processing electric signals, photons in the visible and near-infrared serve as optical signals between chips made of electro-optical crystals. PICs can enable lower power consumption and heat generation by eliminating the friction from electrons moving along wires.

Logic gates—digital versions of conditional statements, such as 'if 0 and 1, then 1'—are specialized circuits that combine multiple digital signals, like the binary code representing numbers, into a single output, thereby allowing machines to perform math.

A simple explanation of semiconductors

Semiconductor chips are electronic devices that store and process information. Today they can contain billions of microscopic switches on a chip smaller than a fingernail. The article provides a quick overview of how the devices work and how they've provided the backbone of the computer age.

Various types of memory, each serving unique functions, create a complex brain system

These forms of memory, which can overlap in daily life, have been sorted into broad categories, such as short-term and long-term memory, and subtypes such as implicit memory, which uses saved information without conscious awareness that it’s being recalled.

Watch a tour of an integrated circuit fabrication plant

Explore the protocols in place to ensure clean rooms have no dust to jeopardize the integrity of silicon wafers as they are transformed into working microchips. Layering, photolithography, etching, and chemical vapor deposition are shown alongside digital visualizations.

Immersive technologies include virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality

Virtual reality relies on technologies that use screens to generate every pixel, immersing a user in an entirely digital world. In contrast, augmented reality overlays digital content onto views of the real world. Mixed reality combines both to allow real-time interaction with virtual objects.

NASA purchased about 60% of all integrated circuits from 1961 to 1965

The US government adopted the new technology to support the development of the Apollo Guidance Computer, which would help astronauts fly to the moon. This drove manufacturing up and costs down, setting the stage for the modern computing era.

All computers are defined by their ability to input, store, process, and output data

From wooden machines to wearable tech, computers have changed a lot in appearance, but they all still perform the same essential tasks. Early computers were made of wood and metal—some were so big that they filled entire rooms just to solve simple math problems.

Before transistors, which regulate the flow of electricity, vacuum tubes—glass tubes containing no gas that resemble light bulbs—served as the electronic switches in computers.

The Internet of Things connects everyday objects to the internet

The IoT enables physical devices to share data collected via sensors or specialized software, often without human intervention. Controlling the air conditioning and heating in one's home via an app, as well as receiving alerts when away from home about someone at the door, is made possible by the IoT.

Within fabrication plants, it takes about three months to manufacture hundreds of microchips from a single wafer of pure silicon using light and significant quantities of electricity, water, and hazardous chemicals.

Watch a microscopic tour of an Intel i486 microprocessor

Released in 1989 for $950, the chip contained over a million transistors on a piece of silicon the size of a postage stamp, much less packed than today’s chips. The layering of components makes the chip resemble a network of structures—not unlike a city—when zoomed in.

When buying a custom computer, selecting integrated graphics is more affordable, but a dedicated graphics card should be considered for CAD, video content creation, high-end gaming, and 3D modeling.

A cochlear implant stimulates parts of the cochlea directly, with limited pitch and timbre capabilities

People with these devices have to learn or relearn how to train their brains to interpret nerve signals as sound. The range of the type of sounds that the brain can distinguish with a cochlear implant is limited and consequently it's difficult to understand a tonal language or distinguish individual speakers in a crowd.

The Internet of Things refers to the connection of all devices to the cloud

These connections between everyday objects, each other, and data processing centers enable devices to adapt to user needs and improve their ability to respond to real-time data. IoT networks are designed to enhance the efficiency of homes, cities, and industries.

With many smaller computing cores, graphics processing units process many identical tasks in parallel, whereas central processing units have fewer, larger cores built to handle a wide variety of more complex tasks sequentially.

How do touchscreens work?

Touchscreens have revolutionized digital interactions, but how they work widely varies depending on the device. Explore the history and workings of the most common types—capacitive and resistive—and new interaction methods incorporated into foldable screens and touchless interfaces.

Infrared light is most often associated with thermal radiation and cooking food

Although extensively used in remote controls for electronics, where LED lights send signals wirelessly, infrared cameras allow for night vision and thermography—imaging of heat patterns in the body to non-invasively reveal blood flow for supplementary diagnostics. Infrared radiation also provides heat in toasters, saunas, and other technologies.

Flexible integrated circuits can be built from carbon nanotubes and elastic materials

Stanford researchers arranged the nanotubes in fishnet-like networks that allow deformation without loss of function. The stretchable ICs have been shown to power micro-LED displays and may be used in smart clothing.

An explanation of Turing machines—the foundations of digital algorithms and computers

The device reads data, overwrites or ignores it, and then moves on to the next piece of data based on a set of programmed rules. By imagining this data as zeros and ones—binary that makes up computer code—Turing machines became the theoretical models for how any algorithm could be run on a computer if the procedure could be coded into a set of digital rules.

Transistors in traditional computers are physically limited to atomic scales

As computer parts shrink, transistors—tiny switches that control the path of electrical signals—become obsolete because electrons can quantum tunnel through switch barriers. This makes quantum computers, which take advantage of quantum effects, an enticing alternative.

The Model K—named for its construction on a kitchen table—was the first electromechanical digital binary adder, which used an electric circuit to provide the sum of a pair of zeroes and ones in binary.

Lasers help build the layers of circuit components in microchips

During the photolithography process, light is projected through a blueprint onto a light-sensitive chemical layer on silicon wafers, etching patterns that become transistors through a series of successive reactions. These processes require significant electricity, as only about 2% of photons reach the wafer.

Memory exists as multiple types stored across various brain systems

Memory isn't one uniform function—it's made up of multiple systems, like declarative (facts/events) and non-declarative (skills/habits), which involve different brain areas such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum.

A brief history of artificial intelligence.

The concept of artificial intelligence and what it may mean for humanity has evolved as computer technologies have grown increasingly powerful through the decades. Beginning with the first (massive) computers in the 1940s, scientists have sought to make the machines as intelligent as humans. But it wasn't until computing power made exponential gains have computers begun to imitate human behavior.

An overview of 12 fundamental types of algorithms and the uses for each

These include search algorithms to quickly process and find important information, cryptographic algorithms to secure communications, randomized algorithms—such as Monte Carlo simulations for estimating probabilities of outcomes—and greedy algorithms, which make optimal choices based on available data in a step-by-step fashion, as seen in navigation apps.

Some graphics processing units advertised under different product names, such as Nvidia's RTX 5070-Ti and RTX 5080, are identically manufactured microchips with different defect counts.

Data centers can be kept cool by circulating fluid over plates atop high-temperature components or by submerging equipment in non-corrosive oil that does not conduct electricity.

The most common types of touchscreens are capacitive and resistive

Capacitative screens are coated with a conductive material that creates a uniform electric field, which is disrupted by fingers. This disruption is registered by the device across a grid to determine where contact was made. Resistive screens identify touch when fingers push gap-separated sheets into contact with one another.

There is a limit to how small transistors can become because they rely on being able to allow or block the flow of electrons, but quantum effects allow electrons to leak through these barriers, generating heat, current loss, and potential data errors.

The world's first commercial biological computer combines neurons with silicon

Australian start-up Cortical Labs unveiled CL1, a hybrid chip designed to help scientists study brain function in real-time. The 800,000 lab-grown neurons on the chip are kept viable for six months via a built-in life support system.

Machine learning and deep learning are successive subsets of artificial intelligence

ML allows systems to learn from data, while DL uses complex neural networks to analyze large amounts of unstructured data. Neural networks enable capabilities like image and speech recognition through their use of algorithms to identify patterns in data.

Lasers, semiconductors, medical imaging, and atomic clocks rely on quantum mechanics

Semiconductors, crucial in electronics, operate based on quantum superposition. Lasers use stimulated emission, a quantum process, and MRI machines leverage the quantum spin of hydrogen atoms for imaging. Atomic clocks measure time with unprecedented precision using quantum transitions.

CES debuted in 1967 amid a wave of miniaturization in at-home electronics

The rapid development of integrated circuits—the basis of computing power—in the 1960s catalyzed an industrial shift toward miniature devices, including pocket transistor radios, smaller TVs, and more. This first consumer electronics trade show (with a slate of 117 exhibitors and 17,000 attendees) sought to make everyday electronics accessible and portable. See a timeline of early consumer tech with photos.

The first neural devices were cochlear implants, designed to treat hearing loss

Neural interfaces connect with our nervous system to restore or enhance abilities, such as hearing or movement. These neuroprostheses have enabled the restoration of mobility, communication, and activities of daily living that might otherwise require a caregiver.

Problem solving, problem recognition, and learning ability makes up intelligence

Psychologists have several theories from which the concept of intelligence is explained, including general and multiple intelligences. Although IQ is used to quantify intelligence, issues like its cultural biases have spurred debate.

How brain cells carry information

At any moment, there is an electrical storm coursing through your body. Discover how chemical reactions create an electric current that drives our responses to everything from hot pans to a mother’s caress.

What is a smart city?

The internet of things and automation are two of the technologies used in smart cities. Learn about the technologies making cities more human-centric in this three-minute read.

Microchips in payment cards improve security by generating unique transaction codes

Magnetic strips store unchanging data that is easily cloned, but microchips act as miniature computers that encrypt sensitive data. They also resist fraud by creating data unique to each transaction, preventing duplication.

A breakdown of algorithms, how they are constructed, and their applications

Algorithms are instructions for accomplishing a goal and typically take the form of a step-by-step procedure. Given the conditions, these procedures can take various paths, increasing an algorithm's complexity. While traditional computer algorithms are programmed to account for all possible scenarios within a given process, machine learning systems build their own rules from data-driven patterns.

Cochlear implants stimulate nerves inside the ear to provide the sensation of sound

In a surgical procedure, one part of the implant is placed under the skin behind the ear and electrodes are threaded into the cochlea in the inner ear. Another part of the implant sits behind the ear and picks up sound and then converts it into patterns of nerve stimulation.

More than 2,000 years ago, a hand-powered model of the solar system called the Antikythera mechanism—the oldest example of an analog computer—could predict solar eclipses.

Although GPU stands for graphics processing unit, the acronym is often used to refer to a graphics card—an assembly that houses the microchip along with supporting components.

Synthetic diamonds may be used to cool microchips

The strong carbon bonds in diamonds efficiently carry vibrations, allowing them to conduct heat several times faster than copper, a metal commonly used in heat sinks. AI and high-performance computing have pushed researchers to investigate alternative materials for cooling solutions.

The work of Claude Shannon, for whom Anthropic's AI chatbot is named

Known as the father of information theory, Claude Shannon applied Boolean algebra—a subset of mathematics that quantifies true or false statements as 1 or 0, respectively—to circuit design to develop the concept of a binary digit. His paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" (1948) laid the groundwork for all modern digital systems.

Breaking down the main classes of intellectual property: trademark vs. copyright vs. patent

Trademarks, copyrights, and patents are all intellectual property classifications that give exclusive ownership of ideas and concepts to individuals or businesses. Patents usually refer to innovative products or processes, copyrights are centered around the right to reproduce content, and trademarks usually involve branding elements, like names, logos, and distinct product elements.

Since computers rely on the distribution of electrons in microchips to represent binary code, cosmic rays and ionizing radiation from radioactive elements can introduce software errors by detaching electrons from atoms.