Integrated Circuits

An Integrated Circuit (IC) is a layer of silicon comprising dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of transisters. These transisters form logical gates, and these gates are interconnected to form a digital electronic circuit. The silicon wafer is normally packaged in a single unit (commonly called a "chip") to be soldered onto a printed circuit board.

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There was an excellent book out called Understanding Digital Electronics, put out by Texas Instruments, Copyright 1978. I bought a version of this printed for Radio Shack. It goes into great detail about how digital electronics and integrated circuits work, even how they are made. IMO, this is an excellent insight for fully understanding computers.