Circuit

Kilby used a sliverofconductivegermanium to connect a transistor and other bits,dubbingthesoldered assembly an "integrated circuit" (IC).

Engineer Robert Noyce was designing his own IC "inparallel"atFairchild Semiconductor but didn't debut his creationuntilaboutsix months later. Noyce went on to found US chip makinggiantIntelin 1968.

While Kilby was the first to demonstrate an IC, Noyce cameupwitha design that could be mass produced, according toLeslieBerlin,project historian for Stanford Silicon ValleyArchives andauthor ofa book about Noyce.

"It was an idea whose time had come," Berlin told AFP."Therewereefforts all over the world to make something likeanintegratedcircuit."

History gives Noyce and Kilby shared credit forinventingthecircuit that transformed the world of electronics.

"The IC was an idea so revolutionary, so life-changing,wedon'teven remember the world before it came along,"TexasInstrumentschief executive Rich Templeton said at aceremonyhonoring Kilby.

"And we can't imagine life without it."

The year Kilby demonstrated his circuit, computerswerecolossalmachines that filled rooms and were commanded bycodedpunch cards.

Televisions featured black-and-white pictures andfewchannels.The only telephones were wired in place. There werenoiPods,flat-screen televisions, Internet searches orlaptopcomputers.

Integrated circuits replaced vacuum tubes; bulky bulbsthatguzzleelectricity, spew heat and burn out.

The circuits became building blocks formicroprocessors,theincreasingly powerful and compact chips that arethe brainsbehindthe Internet and most of today's "smart" electronicdevices.

"It's been only 50 years, but think of thedramaticimprovementsin everything we do around the world today,"Intelspokesman BillCalder told AFP.

"In the scheme of inventions, certainly the integratedcircuithasto be one of the greatest inventions of our time. Thisworld ofbyteswe live in today would not be possible without them."

Berlin says that integrated circuits are at the coreofthemicrochip industry mantra of "smaller, faster, cheaper"andcanlikely be found in anything with an on-off switch.

Kilby was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 2000forhisinvention. It is believed a Nobel Prize would have alsobeengivento Noyce, who died in 1990 at the age of 62. Kilby was 81whenhedied in 2005.

"The integrated circuit has proved to be the singlemostimportantdriver of increased productivity and economic growthinhistory,"said Semiconductor Industry Association presidentGeorgeScalise.

"The integrated circuit provides the criticaltechnologyforcountless electronic devices that enable peopleeverywhere toleadmore productive lives."

The semiconductor industry is on track to post 265billiondollarsin sales this year, according to Scalise.

Templeton described Kilby as quick to creditsuccessorsforturning integrated circuits into the power drivingInternet Age technologies.

It is said that Kilby responded to people making "a bigfuss"overhis work by quoting fellow Nobel Prize winner CharlesTownes:

"When I hear that kind of thing, it reminds me of whatthebeavertold the rabbit as they stood at the base of HooverDam:'No, Ididn't build it myself, but it's based on an idea ofmine.'"

Texas Instruments is planning a new research centertobechristened "Kilby Labs."

"Jack Kilby was a hero, an artist, a philanthropist, ageniusanda real believer in the power of the imagination,"Templetonsaid.

"And his invention is a reminder of the responsibility thatwe,asengineers, have in making ours a better world."

When once asked by a mother what can be done tohelpchildreninvent new things, Kilby reportedly replied"Readthemfairytales."


















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