Microchips

Microchips have made it possible to turn electricity into information. The large amount of transistors contained inside them signal "on" and "off" states which can represent a zero or a one in binary language.

On Feb. 6, 1959, the first chip was patented as an organization of semiconductor material in which all the circuits are integrated, hence the expression "integrated circuit." Jack Kilby from Texas Instruments was given credit for the idea and received the Nobel Prize in 2000 for the invention of integrated circuits.

As microchips developed, the size of their transistors kept getting smaller and smaller. In 2009, the Nehalem architecture microprocessor chip was introduced into the market which had 45 nanometer transistors (a human hair is about 2000 nanometers wide).

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore basically predicted that the amount of transistors in a given amount of space in a microchip doubles every two years. Although this law is not exactly followed, the idea that transistors can shrink even more is conceivable because of this concept.

Integrated circuits in microchips can be structured in a way that can make a computer not only store information but process it. Microprocessors are microchips that allow computers to "think." They are basically small chips that execute commands and perform actions based on the input that is given.

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Microchip Technology (NASDAQ: MCHP) is an American manufacturer of microcontroller, memory and analog semiconductors. The company was founded in 1987 when General Instrument spun off its microelectronics division as a wholly owned subsidiary.[2] Its products include microcontrollers (PICmicro, dsPIC / PIC24, PIC32), Serial EEPROM devices, Serial SRAM devices, KEELOQ devices, radio frequency (RF) devices, thermal, power and battery management analog devices, as well as linear, interface and mixed signal devices. Some of the interface devices include USB, ZigBee/MiWi, Controller Area Network, and Ethernet. In April 2009, Microchip Technology announced the nanoWatt XLP™ Microcontrollers (With World’s Lowest Sleep Current). This industry-leading combination of low power consumption and functionality makes these PIC MCUs ideal for any battery-powered or power-constrained application.

Corporate headquarters is located at Chandler, Arizona with wafer fabs in Tempe, Arizona and Gresham, Oregon.

Among its chief competitors are Analog Devices, Atmel, Freescale, Infineon, Maxim Integrated Products, NXP, Renesas Technology, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments.