Integrated Circuits

A chip is also called an (integrated circuit (IC) (aka microchip or just chip). It is a
microelectronic semiconductor device consisting of many interconnected transistors and
other components.Generally it is a small, thin piece of silicon onto which the transistors
making up the microprocessor have been etched.
A chip might be as large as an inch on a side and can contain tens of millions of
transistors. Simpler processors might consist of a few thousand transistors etched onto a
chip just a few millimeters square. Integrated circuits can be classified into analog, digital
and mixed signal (both analog and digital on the same chip). Digital integrated circuits
can contain anything from one to millions of logic gates, flip-flops, multiplexers, etc. in a
few square millimeters. The small size of these circuits allows high speed, low power
dissipation, and reduced manufacturing cost compared with board-level integration.
The growth of complexity of integrated circuits follows a trend called "Moore's Law", it
states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles every two years.