Integrated Circuits

 These are marvelous little beasties, like spiders very adaptable.
 they have been around for some years now, from the humble 555 timer to the
 more sofisticated chips that are in your Amiga.
 Chips that are so small you could not even see them, layer upon layer of
 silicon.
 More sofisticated than you may think.
 In 1958 the first chip was invented by an American scientist called Jack
 Kilby. He put two transistors onto a silicon crystal.
 Since then the mighty chip has made leaps and bounds.
 Hundreds and hundreds of transistors all packed into one very small space.
 There are some chips that cannot be touched by human hands these are called
 MOS meaning Metal Oxide Silicon but the more common chip is TTL meaning
 Transistor Transistor Logic.

 Look at the IFF 'Chips' to see a sample of just how differant that these
 chips can be, there are also a few other IFF pictures for you to look at
 concerning the use of chips or at least some of the uses.
 The IFF samples are manly to do with audio amplifiers but there are a few
 others for you to look at aswell.

 Earlier I said that some chips you cannot touch, well for you to use these
 chips you must first use Anti Static handling precautions, where you must
 have an Anti Static mat and possibly an Anti Static wrist strap, which must
 be earthed to the table where you would work.
 This may seem a lot to do and use but it is better to do this than lose a
 chip, although a lot of chip these days that are MOS have zener diodes
 built in to help protect them from static.

 As there are so many types of chips on the market it is not possible to go
 into all of them, but I have done IFF's for the most common of them all,
 starting with the very popular 555 timer.

 Although chips are used in a lot of places these days you can still get the
 Valve, chips may rule a lot of things but the Valve still has its uses.
 There are a lot of books you can get from the local library or shops such
 as, 'CB Projects' by R.A.Penfold, 'Solid State Short Wave Receivers for
 beginners' by R.A.Penfold, 'How to Build Advanced SHort Wave Radio' by
 R.A.Penfold, '50 Simple L.E.D Circuits' by R.N.Soar.
 All these books would be a good start for the beginner.
 
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