Customers say
Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. It provides clear technical explanations in a non-technical way. The book covers the history of semiconductors and their impact on society. Readers appreciate the well-organized chapters and pacing. Overall, they describe the book as an engaging read for both techies and non-techies alike.
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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
Barely fifty years ago a computer was a gargantuan, vastly expensive thing that only a handful of scientists had ever seen. The world’s brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000. In this completely revised and updated edition of The Chip, T.R. Reid tells the gripping adventure story of their invention and of its growth into a global information industry. This is the story of how the digital age began.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: Bas Vodde
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent summary of the invention of the microchip and how it changed the world
Review: The Chip is a smallish (300 pages) book about the history of the microchip which has lead to miniaturization of circuits that lead to the revolution of the personal computer. The book is easy to read (at times, perhaps too easy as it is lacking some technical details) and insightful. I’ve enjoyed reading the chip a lot.The book consists of 11 different chapters, each covering an area in the history of the microchip. The first chapter starts with the invention of “the monolith idea” which is the concept that we integrate all the components on one circuit instead of wiring up different smaller and smaller components. Both Bob Noyce and Jack Kilby had this idea at around the same time and both of them are recognized as the inventor of the chip. The second chapter quickly introduces the history of electronics and the invention of the transistor… all the things that happened before before the monolith idea, the basis for the idea. Chapter 3 is the history of Jack Kilby and chapter 4 is the history of Bob Noyce (nicely done). Chapter five discusses the patent case about whether Noyce or Kilby is the first inventor and how this never really got resolved. Chapter 6 introduces computers and explains how the chip was perfect for making digital computers. Chapter 7 shows how the space race actually provided the demand for the microchips, as there wasn’t enough industrial interest yet due to the price. Chapter 8 tells about how (again) Jack Kilby assisted with the invention of the handheld calculator that was the first introduction of the chip to the larger public. Chapter 9 is a bit an odd chapter, it explains how a calculator works. Chapter 10 talks about the Japanese microchip industry threatening the American and how Bob Noyce led the industry to improve quality in manufacturing that kept the US in the forefront of the industry. Chapter 11 is a closing chapter about what happened to Bob Noyce and Jack Kliby after all that.As I said, I started this book as another book in the history of computers, but I found myself quickly very interested in the book and spend longer reading sessions on it than usual and finished it actually rather quickly. It feels well researched, it is an easy read and well balanced the details of the particular invention with all the surrounding developments. I would recommend it to anyone who want to know anything about where chips came from and how they influence the world. Excellent book and recommended reading.
Reviewer: Martin Vesely
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Book both for laypersons and specialists in the field
Review: From my point of view, the book is worth reading both for laypersons interested in technique and specialists in the field. It is nice combination of technical subject and history (both business one and technical one). In the first chapter, the author brings short introduction to the chips and their importance for electronics as we know it today. Then brief history of electronic parts, going from discovery that current can go through vaccum to termionic valves to transistors and finally to integrated circuits is provided. Next two chapters are dedicated to Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce CVs and their ideas how to build chips . Then legal battle between Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductors for patent of integrated circuit is described. After it, the author is telling story about integrated circuits using in many fields. The author included two purely technical chapters as well. First one is on binary logic and computer science development. and second one is concerning calculator (or primitive computer) and how it works. Last chapter is decicated to last years of both inventors of chip.Overall, the book is very nice and very readable. I understand that the book is aimed at as much as possible wide spectrum of readers, however, sometimes it suffers from technical inaccuracy.Firstly, the author claimed that loudspeaker in radio works with direct current because the rectifier is used in the radio. It is wrong since speaker operates with AC but with relatively low frequency in comparison with radio signal. The reason for using rectifier is to get modulation envelope (what is more, this is true only for AM radios). Then high frequency part of signal is filtered by capacitor and AC low frequency current for loudspeak is gained.Second issue is concerning Boolean logic. The author says that equation x^2 = x is valid in Boolean logic since it has solution 0 and 1. That is true, however, it is not reason why this equation is important for Boolean algebra. The true reason is that the equation says: “Power of logical variable is always variable itself”. Similar law is valid for logical addition, namely x + x = x.Finally, I would like to note that the autor consider Mr. Deming (founder of quality management noted in conjuction with Japanese chip manufactures) as somebody who firstly used statistics to imporove manufacturing processes. Personally, I think it is not true since first man who used scientific approach of this kind was Taylor in the beginning of 20th century.
Reviewer: Misael Deleon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Historical Review of modern Tech
Review: This book is very insightful especially for those young people who were not around at the turn of the 20th century for the invention of the light bulb (that may be most of us)in how it brought about the invention of the tube, the transistor and hence the chip. It is very clear and informative in its total development. It brings the reader into the world of the inventor, their hopes, dreams and aspirations. Moreover, it brings you a glimpse of what scientist/inventors must do to prove down the road if they indeed invented said invention. Finally, it brings a complete idea of how Americans created industries but only to loose them to their competitive counter parts by their lack of vision in the production process that resulted in poor quality standards. The book is a must read especially for those interested in how Intel became to be known as Intel especially from the human perspective of the inventor. A great read for all.
Reviewer: jjkaye
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Story Good Read Good Knowledge
Review: The writing style and language makes an enjoyable read, and invokes a pride that both the transistor and chip are U.S.A. inventions. The author is well educated and experienced but is Not an engineer. This may be a bit responsible for his ability to come to a workable understanding, and relate that in a way that imparts the needed amount of knowledge, while holding reader interest.Information regarding such American inventions is sadly hard to find even as a comprehensive list, which itself would be very long.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a nice piece of industrial and technical history. It was interesting to see how people reacted to things back then when before chips and society evolved into so much more.
Reviewer: Pepito
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Soy un fan de los microprocesadores. Creo que son el equivalente a la rueda y el vapor. Muy detallado libro sobre los inicios y desarrollo de ellos a lo largo del tiempo.
Reviewer: Ralf Gruetzner
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Steht drin was drauf steht. Eine sehr informative Lektüre zu dem Thema!!leider nur auf Englisch, aber dass wusste man ja vorher.
Reviewer: Bill, in BC
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent, well worth reading. Not overly technical.
Reviewer: SURENDRA KUMAR
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Good Book about IC Circuits and Chips….
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