Chapter 1. Running Start

In this chapter...

• About This Book

• Some Words to Know

Few things have altered modern life as much as the discovery of semiconductors, and certainly none in living memory. Modern electronics have completely changed the way we talk with each other and who we talk with. It has changed medical research, entertainment, record keeping, travel, and exploration. There's almost no business, profession, or industry that hasn't changed since the introduction of solid-state electronics in the last 50 years.

Computers are only the beginning of it. PCs and other types of computers are often made the figurehead for the entire electronics industry, but less than half of the world's electronics are used in computers of any kind. Most of them go into more mundane, but probably more useful products like thermostats, automobile antilock brake systems, air conditioning, televisions, x-ray scanners, radios, and cellular telephones. It's the everyday, little-seen effects of modern electronics that make it so ubiquitous and so much a part of our lives.

One of the basic building blocks of modern electronics is the transistor, a device that became a household word in the 1960s with the introduction of transistor radios. In 2001, the semiconductor industry manufactured about 60 million transistors for every man, woman, and child on Earth. By 2010, this number is expected to be about 1 billion transistors per capita. Once scientific marvels, these tiny flakes of silicon have now become more plentiful than rice.