Editing History of computing hardware (section)

==Integrated circuit computers==
{{main|History of computing hardware (1960s–present)#Third generation}}
The "third-generation" of digital electronic computers used [[integrated circuit]] (IC) chips as the basis of their logic.

The idea of an integrated circuit was conceived by a radar scientist working for the [[Royal Radar Establishment]] of the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]], [[Geoffrey Dummer|Geoffrey W.A. Dummer]].

The first working integrated circuits were invented by [[Jack Kilby]] at [[Texas Instruments]] and [[Robert Noyce]] at [[Fairchild Semiconductor]].{{sfn|Kilby|2000}} Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958.<ref name="TIJackBuilt">{{cite web |url=https://www.ti.com/corp/docs/kilbyctr/jackbuilt.shtml |title=The Chip that Jack Built |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805081956/http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/kilbyctr/jackbuilt.shtml |archive-date=2017-08-05 |date=c. 2008 |publisher=Texas Instruments |access-date=29 May 2008}}</ref> Kilby's invention was a [[hybrid integrated circuit]] (hybrid IC).<ref name="Saxena140">{{cite book |last1=Saxena |first1=Arjun N. |title=Invention of Integrated Circuits: Untold Important Facts |date=2009 |publisher=[[World Scientific]] |isbn=9789812814456 |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3lpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |access-date=2019-12-07 |url-status=live |archive-date=2023-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202181650/https://books.google.com/books?id=-3lpDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA140}}</ref> It had external wire connections, which made it difficult to mass-produce.<ref name="nasa">{{cite web |title=Integrated circuits |website=[[NASA]] |url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ic-pg3.html |access-date=13 August 2019 |archive-date=2019-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190721173218/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/ic-pg3.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Noyce came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year after Kilby.<ref>{{Cite patent |country=US |number=2981877 |title=Semiconductor device-and-lead structure |gdate=1961-04-25 |invent1=Noyce |inventor1-first=Robert |inventorlink=Robert Noyce|assign1=[[Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation]]}}</ref> Noyce's invention was a [[monolithic integrated circuit]] (IC) chip.<ref name="computerhistory1959">{{cite web |title=1959: Practical Monolithic Integrated Circuit Concept Patented |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/practical-monolithic-integrated-circuit-concept-patented/ |website=[[Computer History Museum]] |access-date=13 August 2019 |archive-date=2019-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024144046/https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/practical-monolithic-integrated-circuit-concept-patented/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nasa"/> His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of [[silicon]], whereas Kilby's chip was made of [[germanium]]. The basis for Noyce's monolithic IC was Fairchild's [[planar process]], which allowed integrated circuits to be laid out using the same principles as those of [[printed circuit]]s. The planar process was developed by Noyce's colleague [[Jean Hoerni]] in early 1959, based on [[Mohamed M. Atalla]]'s work on semiconductor surface passivation by silicon dioxide at [[Bell Labs]] in the late 1950s.<ref name="Lojek120">{{cite book |last1=Lojek |first1=Bo |title=History of Semiconductor Engineering |date=2007 |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |isbn=9783540342588 |page=120}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bassett |first1=Ross Knox |title=To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology |date=2007 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=9780801886393 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA46 |access-date=2019-12-07 |archive-date=2023-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202181649/https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA46 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Huff |first1=Howard R. |last2=Tsuya |first2=H. |last3=Gösele |first3=U. |title=Silicon Materials Science and Technology: Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Silicon Materials Science and Technology |date=1998 |publisher=[[Electrochemical Society]] |pages=181–182 |isbn=9781566771931 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SnQfAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA181 |access-date=2019-12-07 |url-status=live |archive-date=2023-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202182712/https://books.google.com/books?id=SnQfAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA181}}</ref>

Third generation (integrated circuit) computers first appeared in the early 1960s in computers developed for government purposes, and then in commercial computers beginning in the mid-1960s.  The first silicon IC computer was the [[Apollo Guidance Computer]] or AGC.<ref name= ceruzzi>{{cite web |title=Apollo Guidance Computer and the First Silicon Chips |last=Ceruzzi |first=Paul |date=2015 |website=SmithsonianNational Air and Space Museum |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/apollo-guidance-computer-and-first-silicon-chips |access-date=2021-05-12 |url-status=live |archive-date=2021-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522064136/https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/apollo-guidance-computer-and-first-silicon-chips}}</ref> Although not the most powerful computer of its time, the extreme constraints on size, mass, and power of the Apollo spacecraft required the AGC to be much smaller and denser than any prior computer, weighing in at only {{convert|70|lb|kg}}. Each lunar landing mission carried two AGCs, one each in the command and lunar ascent modules.