The Integrated Circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a compact assembly of electronic circuits—such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors—and their interconnections, fabricated onto a thin, flat piece of semiconductor material, most commonly silicon. Compared to assemblies built from discrete components, ICs are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, more energy-efficient, and less expensive, and have revolutionized modern technology. The development began in 1958 with Jack Kilby, who successfully demonstrated the first working example. Robert Noyce developed the first practical monolithic silicon IC chip in 1959. Modern chips utilize Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) and may contain billions of transistors.

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