Today we are so used to the enormous capabilities of microelectronics that it is hard to imagine what it might have been like in the early Sixties and Seventies when much of the technology we use today was being developed. This paper will first present a brief history of microelectronics and computers, taking us to the threshold of the inventions of the MOS silicon gate technology and the microprocessor. These two creations provided the basic technology that would allow only a few years later to merge microelectronics and computers into the first commercial monolithic computer. By the late Seventies, the first monolithic computer weighting less than one gram, occupying a volume of less than one cubic centimeter, dissipating less than one Watt, and selling for less than ten dollars, could perform more information processing than the UNIVAC I, the first commercial electronic computer introduced in 1951, made with 5200 vacuum tubes, dissipating 125 kW, weighting 13 metric tons, occupying a room larger than 35 m², and selling for more than one million dollars per unit. The first-person story of the SGT and the early microprocessors will be told by the Italian-born physicist who led both projects.

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MOS硅栅极技术和首批微处理器

如今，我们已经习惯了微电子的巨大功能，以至于很难想象当我们今天使用的许多技术正在开发时，六十年代和七十年代初期的情况会是什么样。本文将首先介绍微电子学和计算机的简要历史，将我们带入MOS硅栅极技术和微处理器的发明门槛。这两款产品提供了基本技术，仅在数年后便可以将微电子学和计算机合并为第一台商用单片计算机。到七十年代末，第一台重量小于1克，体积小于1立方厘米，耗散小于1瓦，售价不到10美元的单片计算机可以完成比UNIVAC I更高的信息处理能力。 1951年推出的第一台商用电子计算机，由5200根真空管制成，耗散125 kW，重13公吨，占地大于35 m ²，每套售价超过一百万美元。SGT和早期微处理器的第一人称故事将由负责这两个项目的意大利出生的物理学家讲述。