50 years of the first integrated circuit

On September 12, 1958, Texas Instruments created the world's first integrated circuit. Fifty years later, one can say without a hitch that this was almost the most significant day of the 20th century (April 12, 1961 is more important, but still). With this scheme, and began the rapid development of technology, without which our PCs and other equipment would not have become so compact and common.

The first chip is a tiny strip of germanium on a glass substrate. It was located only one transistor, a pair of resistors and a capacitor. Today it looks more than primitive, but at that time it was a global breakthrough. Manual labor for the installation of electronic components was no longer necessary, since inside the chip all the transistors and other elements are already interconnected. This paved the way for mass production of higher integration schemes.

PS
It is a little late, but it is impossible not to mention such an event.
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via Engadget