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Technology and Economic Growth in the Information Age
The Microprocessor: An
Invention with Many Applications
In our time, it's the microprocessor - the tiny "brain" of the personal computer - that's producing spillovers and spawning waves of new and improved products. Invented just 25 years ago, the microchip already has enabled the inventions of thousands of smart consumer products. Just a few are: the answering machine, pocket calculator, caller-ID device, camcorder, CD player, personal computer,. Digital camera, fax machine, microwave over, organizer, pacemaker, pager, pocket translator, laser printer, remote control, radar detector and VCR. The microchip resided unseen in most products, its functions vital though increasingly taken for granted.Invention with Many Applications
In cellular phones, microchips translate voices to electronic signals and back, reduce interference and store and execute programmed functions. In automobiles, they control carburetion, timing, transmission, suspension, emissions, brakes, air bags, seat positions, navigational aids, engine diagnostics, keyless locks, instruments and more. In fact, today's cars have more computing power than the lunar landing module of the Apollo 11 mission that put Americans on the moon. And even more applications are just over the horizon, as time and imaginations point us to new ways to use microprocessors.
Meanwhile, the computer chip is getting even more powerful. At the start of the 1990s, the fastest chips could handle 94 million instructions per second. The next generation, due out this years, will increase that computations speed to 1.6 billion.