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本文对于硅微电子学的出现所引起的变革进行了论证。半导体电子学之所以能对那么多领域产生影响主要是由于它的每单位价格所能提供的信息处理能力不断增加的特点所致。在一个硅片或芯片上制造愈来愈多的元件——二极管、晶体管、电容和电阻——使得每个数字操作的价格不断降低。一种非常原始的近似法表明,制造芯片的价格与它上面的器件或线路无关。在单个芯片上能制造的元件数量在最近15年从1增至30000(1)。因此不难理解半导体电子学不仅有可能制造很大的数字系统、而且还能出现在价格敏感的市场上,如用干汽车和家庭娱乐设备。
This article demonstrates the changes caused by the emergence of silicon microelectronics. The impact that semiconductor electronics can have on so many areas is largely due to its ever-increasing information processing power per unit price. Manufacturing more and more components on a silicon or chip - diodes, transistors, capacitors and resistors - keeps the price of each digital operation down. A very primitive approximation shows that the price at which the chip is fabricated is not related to the device or line above it. The number of components that can be manufactured on a single chip has increased from 1 to 30,000 (1) in the last 15 years. It is therefore not hard to understand that semiconductor electronics not only makes it possible to create large digital systems, but also in price-sensitive markets such as dry-car and home entertainment equipment.