Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: What does the chip do for me?

How 'killer' products emerge through microelectronics advances ... the surprise of transistor radios, calculators, PCs, faxes, pocket phones, camcorders etc. artificial senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and brain power

Chapter 2: The pioneers

How it all happened... Edison's tube Shockley's transistor Kilby's chip... erratic early days in transistors entrepreneurs vs. established corporations... booms and busts ... effect on computers, calculators, watches... innovation followed by commoditization collapsing prices... early days in chips ... emergence of PCs

Chapter 3: How the chip became an industry

America invents an industry Silicon Valley gets started Fairchild ... Intel memory chips and microprocessors ... missiles and Moon rockets ... Japan mobilizes and catches up ... Europe intellectualizes and wilts... Taiwan and South Korea emerge

Chapter 4: Where are we now?

What can a chip do?... What will it soon be doing?... impact on computers... impact on communications... free storage, transmission and processing... merging of equipment types and information types... superhighways and their effects

Chapter 5: How does it happen

Moore's Law the Pentagonal Pyramid ... Makimoto's Wave the incredible shrinking transistor... the Silicon Cycle... growth trends to 2000 AD

Chapter 6: Who are the players?

The main chip players their origins... their contributions to microelectronics... their successes and failures

Chapter 7: Triumphs and disasters

Great disasters**: the Schlumberger takeover of Fairchild and United Technologies' acquisition of Mostek **Great triumphs**: Chips and Technologies, Intel, Samsung the advantages of the paranoid

Chapter 8: Living with the chip-makers

A guide for the outsider in coping with the chip-makers... how to invest and when to disinvest... who to work for, who to avoid how to choose a chip supplier and what to expect how to be a canny consumer of chip-based products

Chapter 9: What can we expect?

The changing environment ... the loss of control and downsizing of the dominant companies... the democratizing effect of the chip on the computer the liberating effects of new communications ways to exploit the new possibilities

Chapter 10: Imagination

The new opportunities... solutions to global problems social dangers of chips... chips implanted in the body... proliferation of chips as cost falls... new uses for chips new businesses new kinds of jobs

Index