151-422: (Redirected from Compies ) Compy may refer to: An abbreviation, slang term or pet name for a computer The shortened form of Procompsognathus , as used in the book Jurassic Park Compy 386 , a computer in the comedy web series Homestar Runner Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
302-521: A binary system meant that Zuse's machines were easier to build and potentially more reliable, given the technologies available at that time. The Z3 was not itself a universal computer but could be extended to be Turing complete . Zuse's next computer, the Z4 , became the world's first commercial computer; after initial delay due to the Second World War, it was completed in 1950 and delivered to
453-502: A calque of the Latin root (e.g. Russian кремний , from кремень "flint"; Greek πυρίτιο from πυρ "fire"; Finnish pii from piikivi "flint", Czech křemík from křemen "quartz", "flint"). Gay-Lussac and Thénard are thought to have prepared impure amorphous silicon in 1811, through the heating of recently isolated potassium metal with silicon tetrafluoride , but they did not purify and characterize
604-632: A central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a microprocessor , together with some type of computer memory , typically semiconductor memory chips. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information . Peripheral devices include input devices ( keyboards , mice , joysticks , etc.), output devices ( monitors , printers , etc.), and input/output devices that perform both functions (e.g. touchscreens ). Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and they enable
755-618: A field-effect amplifier made from germanium and silicon, but he failed to build a working device, before eventually working with germanium instead. The first working transistor was a point-contact transistor built by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain later that year while working under Shockley. In 1954, physical chemist Morris Tanenbaum fabricated the first silicon junction transistor at Bell Labs . In 1955, Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick at Bell Labs accidentally discovered that silicon dioxide ( SiO 2 ) could be grown on silicon. By 1957 Frosch and Derick published their work on
906-425: A hexagonal close-packed allotrope at about 40 gigapascals known as Si–VII (the standard modification being Si–I). An allotrope called BC8 (or bc8), having a body-centred cubic lattice with eight atoms per primitive unit cell ( space group 206 ), can be created at high pressure and remains metastable at low pressure. Its properties have been studied in detail. Silicon boils at 3265 °C: this, while high,
1057-419: A keyboard , and computed and printed the results, demonstrating the feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine. During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation . However, these were not programmable and generally lacked
1208-524: A mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialized applications. At the University of Manchester , a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a machine using the newly developed transistors instead of valves. Their first transistorized computer and the first in the world, was operational by 1953 , and a second version was completed there in April 1955. However,
1359-429: A monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip. Kilby's IC had external wire connections, which made it difficult to mass-produce. Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby. Noyce's invention was the first true monolithic IC chip. His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon , whereas Kilby's chip
1510-652: A 1998 retrospective, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern electronic computer. As soon as the Baby had demonstrated the feasibility of its design, a project began at the university to develop it into a practically useful computer, the Manchester Mark 1 . The Mark 1 in turn quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1 , the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer. Built by Ferranti , it
1661-512: A Chip (SoCs) are complete computers on a microchip (or chip) the size of a coin. They may or may not have integrated RAM and flash memory . If not integrated, the RAM is usually placed directly above (known as Package on package ) or below (on the opposite side of the circuit board ) the SoC, and the flash memory is usually placed right next to the SoC. This is done to improve data transfer speeds, as
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#17327878756181812-410: A common Fermi level; electrons flow from n to p, while holes flow from p to n, creating a voltage drop. This p–n junction thus acts as a diode that can rectify alternating current that allows current to pass more easily one way than the other. A transistor is an n–p–n junction, with a thin layer of weakly p-type silicon between two n-type regions. Biasing the emitter through a small forward voltage and
1963-476: A conductivity (i.e., too high a resistivity ) to be used as a circuit element in electronics. In practice, pure silicon is doped with small concentrations of certain other elements, which greatly increase its conductivity and adjust its electrical response by controlling the number and charge ( positive or negative ) of activated carriers. Such control is necessary for transistors , solar cells , semiconductor detectors , and other semiconductor devices used in
2114-402: A ferrosilicon alloy, and only approximately 20% is refined to metallurgical grade purity (a total of 1.3–1.5 million metric tons/year). An estimated 15% of the world production of metallurgical grade silicon is further refined to semiconductor purity. This typically is the "nine-9" or 99.9999999% purity, nearly defect-free single crystalline material. Monocrystalline silicon of such purity
2265-478: A group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster . A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems , including simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls , and factory devices like industrial robots . Computers are at the core of general-purpose devices such as personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones . Computers power
2416-403: A medieval European counting house , a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money. The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest known mechanical analog computer , according to Derek J. de Solla Price . It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in
2567-525: A much more general design, an analytical engine , was possible. The input of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards , a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms such as the Jacquard loom . For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. The engine would incorporate an arithmetic logic unit , control flow in
2718-529: A number of successes at breaking encrypted German military communications. The German encryption machine, Enigma , was first attacked with the help of the electro-mechanical bombes which were often run by women. To crack the more sophisticated German Lorenz SZ 40/42 machine, used for high-level Army communications, Max Newman and his colleagues commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus . He spent eleven months from early February 1943 designing and building
2869-400: A purely notional figure given the lack of a simple Si cation in reality. At standard temperature and pressure, silicon is a shiny semiconductor with a bluish-grey metallic lustre; as typical for semiconductors, its resistivity drops as temperature rises. This arises because silicon has a small energy gap ( band gap ) between its highest occupied energy levels (the valence band) and
3020-562: A sequence of sets of values. The whole machine was to be controlled by a read-only program, which was complete with provisions for conditional branching . He also introduced the idea of floating-point arithmetic . In 1920, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the arithmometer , Torres presented in Paris the Electromechanical Arithmometer, which allowed a user to input arithmetic problems through
3171-455: A structural complexity unseen in oxocarbons . Silicon tends to resemble germanium far more than it does carbon, and this resemblance is enhanced by the d-block contraction , resulting in the size of the germanium atom being much closer to that of the silicon atom than periodic trends would predict. Nevertheless, there are still some differences because of the growing importance of the divalent state in germanium compared to silicon. Additionally,
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#17327878756183322-542: A structural material for their skeletons. Some plants accumulate silica in their tissues and require silicon for their growth, for example rice . Silicon may be taken up by plants as orthosilicic acid (also known as monosilicic acid) and transported through the xylem , where it forms amorphous complexes with components of the cell wall. This has been shown to improve cell wall strength and structural integrity in some plants, thereby reducing insect herbivory and pathogenic infections. In certain plants, silicon may also upregulate
3473-460: A successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906. In his work Essays on Automatics published in 1914, Leonardo Torres Quevedo wrote a brief history of Babbage's efforts at constructing a mechanical Difference Engine and Analytical Engine. The paper contains a design of a machine capable to calculate formulas like a x ( y − z ) 2 {\displaystyle a^{x}(y-z)^{2}} , for
3624-485: A trend toward increasingly complex silicate units with cooling, and the introduction of hydroxide and fluoride anions in addition to oxides. Many metals may substitute for silicon. After these igneous rocks undergo weathering , transport, and deposition, sedimentary rocks like clay, shale, and sandstone are formed. Metamorphism also may occur at high temperatures and pressures, creating an even vaster variety of minerals. There are four sources for silicon fluxes into
3775-402: A universal Turing machine. Early computing machines had fixed programs. Changing its function required the re-wiring and re-structuring of the machine. With the proposal of the stored-program computer this changed. A stored-program computer includes by design an instruction set and can store in memory a set of instructions (a program ) that details the computation . The theoretical basis for
3926-581: Is porcelain , which is based on the silicate mineral kaolinite . Traditional glass (silica-based soda–lime glass ) also functions in many of the same ways, and also is used for windows and containers. In addition, specialty silica based glass fibers are used for optical fiber , as well as to produce fiberglass for structural support and glass wool for thermal insulation . Silicones often are used in waterproofing treatments, molding compounds, mold- release agents , mechanical seals, high temperature greases and waxes, and caulking compounds. Silicone
4077-500: Is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation ). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs . These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. The term computer system may refer to a nominally complete computer that includes the hardware , operating system , software , and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation; or to
4228-425: Is a deep water Si gradient of greater than 0.3 parts per thousand. Si is most commonly associated with productivity in the oceans. Crystalline bulk silicon is rather inert, but becomes more reactive at high temperatures. Like its neighbour aluminium, silicon forms a thin, continuous surface layer of silicon dioxide ( SiO 2 ) that protects the metal from oxidation. Thus silicon does not measurably react with
4379-411: Is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor . It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium , tin , lead , and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive. Silicon is a significant element that is essential for several physiological and metabolic processes in plants. Silicon
4530-432: Is a major structural motif in silicon chemistry just as it is for carbon chemistry. However, the 3p subshell is rather more diffuse than the 2p subshell and does not hybridise so well with the 3s subshell. As a result, the chemistry of silicon and its heavier congeners shows significant differences from that of carbon, and thus octahedral coordination is also significant. For example, the electronegativity of silicon (1.90)
4681-496: Is also sometimes used in breast implants , contact lenses, explosives and pyrotechnics . Silly Putty was originally made by adding boric acid to silicone oil . Other silicon compounds function as high-technology abrasives and new high-strength ceramics based upon silicon carbide . Silicon is a component of some superalloys . Elemental silicon is added to molten cast iron as ferrosilicon or silicocalcium alloys to improve performance in casting thin sections and to prevent
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4832-428: Is conducted in the presence of scrap iron with low amounts of phosphorus and sulfur , producing ferrosilicon . Ferrosilicon, an iron-silicon alloy that contains varying ratios of elemental silicon and iron, accounts for about 80% of the world's production of elemental silicon, with China, the leading supplier of elemental silicon, providing 4.6 million tonnes (or 2/3rds of world output) of silicon, most of it in
4983-406: Is created when heat produces free electrons and holes, which in turn pass more current, which produces more heat). In addition, the insulating oxide of silicon is not soluble in water, which gives it an advantage over germanium (an element with similar properties which can also be used in semiconductor devices) in certain fabrication techniques. Monocrystalline silicon is expensive to produce, and
5134-453: Is deposited in many plant tissues. Owing to the abundance of silicon in the Earth's crust , natural silicon-based materials have been used for thousands of years. Silicon rock crystals were familiar to various ancient civilizations , such as the predynastic Egyptians who used it for beads and small vases , as well as the ancient Chinese . Glass containing silica was manufactured by
5285-484: Is deposited into the world's oceans each year. Of that value, 80–240 megatonnes are in the form of particulate silicon. The total amount of particulate silicon deposition into the ocean is still less than the amount of silicon influx into the ocean via riverine transportation. Aeolian inputs of particulate lithogenic silicon into the North Atlantic and Western North Pacific oceans are the result of dust settling on
5436-524: Is easily produced on Si surfaces by processes of thermal oxidation or local oxidation (LOCOS) , which involve exposing the element to oxygen under the proper conditions that can be predicted by the Deal–Grove model . Silicon has become the most popular material for both high power semiconductors and integrated circuits because it can withstand the highest temperatures and greatest electrical activity without suffering avalanche breakdown (an electron avalanche
5587-534: Is essential to the transistors and integrated circuit chips used in most modern technology such as smartphones and other computers . In 2019, 32.4% of the semiconductor market segment was for networks and communications devices, and the semiconductors industry is projected to reach $ 726.73 billion by 2027. Silicon is an essential element in biology. Only traces are required by most animals, but some sea sponges and microorganisms, such as diatoms and radiolaria , secrete skeletal structures made of silica. Silica
5738-435: Is highly exothermic and hence requires no outside energy source. Hyperfine silicon is made at a higher purity than almost any other material: transistor production requires impurity levels in silicon crystals less than 1 part per 10 , and in special cases impurity levels below 1 part per 10 are needed and attained. Silicon nanostructures can directly be produced from silica sand using conventional metalothermic processes, or
5889-470: Is much less than that of carbon (2.55), because the valence electrons of silicon are further from the nucleus than those of carbon and hence experience smaller electrostatic forces of attraction from the nucleus. The poor overlap of 3p orbitals also results in a much lower tendency toward catenation (formation of Si–Si bonds) for silicon than for carbon, due to the concomitant weakening of the Si–Si bond compared to
6040-524: Is of use in NMR and EPR spectroscopy , as it is the only one with a nuclear spin ( I = 1 / 2 ). All three are produced in Type Ia supernovae through the oxygen-burning process , with Si being made as part of the alpha process and hence the most abundant. The fusion of Si with alpha particles by photodisintegration rearrangement in stars is known as the silicon-burning process ; it
6191-507: Is still lower than the temperature at which its lighter congener carbon sublimes (3642 °C) and silicon similarly has a lower heat of vaporisation than carbon, consistent with the fact that the Si–Si bond is weaker than the C–C bond. It is also possible to construct silicene layers analogous to graphene . Naturally occurring silicon is composed of three stable isotopes , Si (92.23%), Si (4.67%), and Si (3.10%). Out of these, only Si
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6342-463: Is the stored program , where all the instructions for computing are stored in memory. Von Neumann acknowledged that the central concept of the modern computer was due to this paper. Turing machines are to this day a central object of study in theory of computation . Except for the limitations imposed by their finite memory stores, modern computers are said to be Turing-complete , which is to say, they have algorithm execution capability equivalent to
6493-518: Is the basis of the widely used synthetic polymers called silicones . The late 20th century to early 21st century has been described as the Silicon Age (also known as the Digital Age or Information Age ) because of the large impact that elemental silicon has on the modern world economy. The small portion of very highly purified elemental silicon used in semiconductor electronics (<15%)
6644-411: Is the last stage of stellar nucleosynthesis before the rapid collapse and violent explosion of the star in question in a type II supernova . Twenty-two radioisotopes have been characterized, the two stablest being Si with a half-life of about 150 years, and Si with a half-life of 2.62 hours. All the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than seven seconds, and
6795-508: Is the non-toxic, metal-free nature of silicon. Another application of silicon quantum dots is for sensing of hazardous materials. The sensors take advantage of the luminescent properties of the quantum dots through quenching of the photoluminescence in the presence of the hazardous substance. There are many methods used for hazardous chemical sensing with a few being electron transfer, fluorescence resonance energy transfer , and photocurrent generation. Electron transfer quenching occurs when
6946-532: Is used in building mortar and modern stucco , but more importantly, combined with silica sand, and gravel (usually containing silicate minerals such as granite), to make the concrete that is the basis of most of the very largest industrial building projects of the modern world. Silica is used to make fire brick , a type of ceramic. Silicate minerals are also in whiteware ceramics , an important class of products usually containing various types of fired clay minerals (natural aluminium phyllosilicates). An example
7097-486: Is used in the chemical industry. However, even greater purity is needed for semiconductor applications, and this is produced from the reduction of tetrachlorosilane (silicon tetrachloride) or trichlorosilane . The former is made by chlorinating scrap silicon and the latter is a byproduct of silicone production. These compounds are volatile and hence can be purified by repeated fractional distillation , followed by reduction to elemental silicon with very pure zinc metal as
7248-618: Is usually justified only in production of integrated circuits, where tiny crystal imperfections can interfere with tiny circuit paths. For other uses, other types of pure silicon may be employed. These include hydrogenated amorphous silicon and upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon (UMG-Si) used in the production of low-cost, large-area electronics in applications such as liquid crystal displays and of large-area, low-cost, thin-film solar cells . Such semiconductor grades of silicon are either slightly less pure or polycrystalline rather than monocrystalline, and are produced in comparable quantities as
7399-521: Is usually produced by the Czochralski process , and is used to produce silicon wafers used in the semiconductor industry , in electronics, and in some high-cost and high-efficiency photovoltaic applications. Pure silicon is an intrinsic semiconductor , which means that unlike metals, it conducts electron holes and electrons released from atoms by heat; silicon's electrical conductivity increases with higher temperatures. Pure silicon has too low
7550-421: Is widely regarded as the predominant semiconductor material due to its versatile applications in various electrical devices such as transistors, solar cells, integrated circuits, and others. These may be due to its significant band gap, expansive optical transmission range, extensive absorption spectrum, surface roughening, and effective anti-reflection coating. Because of its high chemical affinity for oxygen, it
7701-619: The Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera , between Kythera and Crete , and has been dated to approximately c. 100 BCE . Devices of comparable complexity to the Antikythera mechanism would not reappear until the fourteenth century. Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in
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#17327878756187852-507: The E6B circular slide rule used for time and distance calculations on light aircraft. In the 1770s, Pierre Jaquet-Droz , a Swiss watchmaker , built a mechanical doll ( automaton ) that could write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed" to read instructions. Along with two other complex machines,
8003-641: The ETH Zurich . The computer was manufactured by Zuse's own company, Zuse KG , which was founded in 1941 as the first company with the sole purpose of developing computers in Berlin. The Z4 served as the inspiration for the construction of the ERMETH , the first Swiss computer and one of the first in Europe. Purely electronic circuit elements soon replaced their mechanical and electromechanical equivalents, at
8154-467: The Egyptians since at least 1500 BC, as well as by the ancient Phoenicians . Natural silicate compounds were also used in various types of mortar for construction of early human dwellings . In 1787, Antoine Lavoisier suspected that silica might be an oxide of a fundamental chemical element , but the chemical affinity of silicon for oxygen is high enough that he had no means to reduce
8305-579: The Internet , which links billions of computers and users. Early computers were meant to be used only for calculations. Simple manual instruments like the abacus have aided people in doing calculations since ancient times. Early in the Industrial Revolution , some mechanical devices were built to automate long, tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms . More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in
8456-446: The automotive industry . Silicon's importance in aluminium casting is that a significantly high amount (12%) of silicon in aluminium forms a eutectic mixture which solidifies with very little thermal contraction. This greatly reduces tearing and cracks formed from stress as casting alloys cool to solidity. Silicon also significantly improves the hardness and thus wear-resistance of aluminium. Most elemental silicon produced remains as
8607-746: The halogens ; fluorine attacks silicon vigorously at room temperature, chlorine does so at about 300 °C, and bromine and iodine at about 500 °C. Silicon does not react with most aqueous acids, but is oxidised and complexed by hydrofluoric acid mixtures containing either chlorine or nitric acid to form hexafluorosilicates . It readily dissolves in hot aqueous alkali to form silicates . At high temperatures, silicon also reacts with alkyl halides ; this reaction may be catalysed by copper to directly synthesise organosilicon chlorides as precursors to silicone polymers. Upon melting, silicon becomes extremely reactive, alloying with most metals to form silicides , and reducing most metal oxides because
8758-489: The heat of formation of silicon dioxide is so large. In fact, molten silicon reacts virtually with every known kind of crucible material (except its own oxide, SiO 2 ). This happens due to silicon's high binding forces for the light elements and to its high dissolving power for most elements. As a result, containers for liquid silicon must be made of refractory , unreactive materials such as zirconium dioxide or group 4, 5, and 6 borides. Tetrahedral coordination
8909-418: The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) is slightly lower in energy than the conduction band of the quantum dot, allowing for the transfer of electrons between the two, preventing recombination of the holes and electrons within the nanocrystals. The effect can also be achieved in reverse with a donor molecule having its highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) slightly higher than a valence band edge of
9060-455: The mantle makes up 68.1% of the Earth's mass and is composed mostly of denser oxides and silicates, an example being olivine , (Mg,Fe) 2 SiO 4 ; while the lighter siliceous minerals such as aluminosilicates rise to the surface and form the crust, making up 0.4% of the Earth's mass. The crystallisation of igneous rocks from magma depends on a number of factors; among them are
9211-497: The microcomputer revolution in the 1970s. The speed, power, and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with transistor counts increasing at a rapid pace ( Moore's law noted that counts doubled every two years), leading to the Digital Revolution during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element , typically
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#17327878756189362-409: The photocurrent emitted by the quantum dots instead of monitoring the photoluminescent display. If the concentration of the desired chemical increases then the photocurrent given off by the nanocrystals will change in response. Although silicon is readily available in the form of silicates , very few organisms use it directly. Diatoms , radiolaria , and siliceous sponges use biogenic silica as
9513-504: The "second generation" of computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum tubes, so give off less heat. Junction transistors were much more reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on
9664-525: The 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others developed mechanical differential analyzers. In the 1890s, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo began to develop a series of advanced analog machines that could solve real and complex roots of polynomials , which were published in 1901 by the Paris Academy of Sciences . Charles Babbage , an English mechanical engineer and polymath , originated
9815-595: The 20th century saw the development of the chemistry and industrial use of siloxanes and the growing use of silicone polymers , elastomers , and resins . In the late 20th century, the complexity of the crystal chemistry of silicides was mapped, along with the solid-state physics of doped semiconductors . The first semiconductor devices did not use silicon, but used galena , including German physicist Ferdinand Braun 's crystal detector in 1874 and Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose 's radio crystal detector in 1901. The first silicon semiconductor device
9966-619: The Cambridge EDSAC of 1949, became operational in April 1951 and ran the world's first routine office computer job . The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain , while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs , built the first working transistor , the point-contact transistor , in 1947, which was followed by Shockley's bipolar junction transistor in 1948. From 1955 onwards, transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs, giving rise to
10117-533: The C–C bond: the average Si–Si bond energy is approximately 226 kJ/mol, compared to a value of 356 kJ/mol for the C–C bond. This results in multiply bonded silicon compounds generally being much less stable than their carbon counterparts, an example of the double bond rule . On the other hand, the presence of radial nodes in the 3p orbitals of silicon suggests the possibility of hypervalence , as seen in five and six-coordinate derivatives of silicon such as SiX 5 and SiF 6 . Lastly, because of
10268-591: The EDVAC in 1945. The Manchester Baby was the world's first stored-program computer . It was built at the University of Manchester in England by Frederic C. Williams , Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill , and ran its first program on 21 June 1948. It was designed as a testbed for the Williams tube , the first random-access digital storage device. Although the computer was described as "small and primitive" by
10419-455: The ENIAC were six women, often known collectively as the "ENIAC girls". It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes). Built under
10570-535: The Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals , which are compounds of silicon and oxygen, often with metallic ions when negatively charged silicate anions require cations to balance the charge. Many of these have direct commercial uses, such as clays, silica sand, and most kinds of building stone. Thus, the vast majority of uses for silicon are as structural compounds, either as the silicate minerals or silica (crude silicon dioxide). Silicates are used in making Portland cement (made mostly of calcium silicates) which
10721-531: The MOS transistor, was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960 and was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturized and mass-produced for a wide range of uses. With its high scalability , and much lower power consumption and higher density than bipolar junction transistors, the MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits . In addition to data processing, it also enabled
10872-455: The Scottish scientist Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to navigation in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate predicted tide levels for a set period at a particular location. The differential analyser , a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration , used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform
11023-493: The U.S. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus, it was much faster, more flexible, and it was Turing-complete. Like the Colossus, a "program" on the ENIAC was defined by the states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that came later. Once a program was written, it had to be mechanically set into the machine with manual resetting of plugs and switches. The programmers of
11174-586: The US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942, the first "automatic electronic digital computer". This design was also all-electronic and used about 300 vacuum tubes, with capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory. During World War II, the British code-breakers at Bletchley Park achieved
11325-898: The advent of the integrated circuit (IC). The idea of the integrated circuit was first conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the Ministry of Defence , Geoffrey W.A. Dummer . Dummer presented the first public description of an integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. , on 7 May 1952. The first working ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor . Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning
11476-399: The air below 900 °C, but formation of the vitreous dioxide rapidly increases between 950 °C and 1160 °C and when 1400 °C is reached, atmospheric nitrogen also reacts to give the nitrides SiN and Si 3 N 4 . Silicon reacts with gaseous sulfur at 600 °C and gaseous phosphorus at 1000 °C. This oxide layer nevertheless does not prevent reaction with
11627-647: The basic concept which underlies all electronic digital computers. By 1938, the United States Navy had developed an electromechanical analog computer small enough to use aboard a submarine . This was the Torpedo Data Computer , which used trigonometry to solve the problem of firing a torpedo at a moving target. During World War II similar devices were developed in other countries as well. Early digital computers were electromechanical ; electric switches drove mechanical relays to perform
11778-408: The behavior of its oxide compounds and its reaction with acids as well as bases (though this takes some effort), and is hence often referred to as a metalloid rather than a nonmetal. Germanium shows more, and tin is generally considered a metal. Silicon shows clear differences from carbon. For example, organic chemistry has very few analogies with silicon chemistry, while silicate minerals have
11929-530: The best Arithmetician that euer [ sic ] breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a human computer , a person who carried out calculations or computations . The word continued to have the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of this period, women were often hired as computers because they could be paid less than their male counterparts. By 1943, most human computers were women. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives
12080-570: The calculation. These devices had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes . The Z2 , created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939 in Berlin , was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer. In 1941, Zuse followed his earlier machine up with the Z3 , the world's first working electromechanical programmable , fully automatic digital computer. The Z3
12231-584: The central silicon atom shares an electron pair with each of the four atoms it is bonded to. The first four ionisation energies of silicon are 786.3, 1576.5, 3228.3, and 4354.4 kJ/mol respectively; these figures are high enough to preclude the possibility of simple cationic chemistry for the element. Following periodic trends , its single-bond covalent radius of 117.6 pm is intermediate between those of carbon (77.2 pm) and germanium (122.3 pm). The hexacoordinate ionic radius of silicon may be considered to be 40 pm, although this must be taken as
12382-418: The chemical composition of the magma, the cooling rate, and some properties of the individual minerals to be formed, such as lattice energy , melting point, and complexity of their crystal structure. As magma is cooled, olivine appears first, followed by pyroxene , amphibole , biotite mica, orthoclase feldspar , muscovite mica , quartz , zeolites , and finally, hydrothermal minerals. This sequence shows
12533-418: The collector through a large reverse voltage allows the transistor to act as a triode amplifier. Silicon crystallises in a giant covalent structure at standard conditions, specifically in a diamond cubic crystal lattice ( space group 227 ). It thus has a high melting point of 1414 °C, as a lot of energy is required to break the strong covalent bonds and melt the solid. Upon melting silicon contracts as
12684-410: The combustion synthesis approach. Such nanostructured silicon materials can be used in various functional applications including the anode of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), other ion batteries, future computing devices like memristors or photocatalytic applications. Most silicon is used industrially without being purified, often with comparatively little processing from its natural form. More than 90% of
12835-400: The computer industry and other technical applications. In silicon photonics , silicon may be used as a continuous wave Raman laser medium to produce coherent light. In common integrated circuits , a wafer of monocrystalline silicon serves as a mechanical support for the circuits, which are created by doping and insulated from each other by thin layers of silicon oxide , an insulator that
12986-565: The concept of a programmable computer. Considered the " father of the computer ", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century. After working on his difference engine he announced his invention in 1822, in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society , titled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". He also designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that
13137-411: The conduction band either thermally or photolytically, creating an n-type semiconductor . Similarly, doping silicon with a group 13 element such as boron , aluminium , or gallium results in the introduction of acceptor levels that trap electrons that may be excited from the filled valence band, creating a p-type semiconductor . Joining n-type silicon to p-type silicon creates a p–n junction with
13288-499: The data signals do not have to travel long distances. Since ENIAC in 1945, computers have advanced enormously, with modern SoCs (such as the Snapdragon 865) being the size of a coin while also being hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than ENIAC, integrating billions of transistors, and consuming only a few watts of power. The first mobile computers were heavy and ran from mains power. The 50 lb (23 kg) IBM 5100
13439-515: The decision of the British Government to cease funding. Babbage's failure to complete the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to political and financial difficulties as well as his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow. Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage , completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill ) in 1888. He gave
13590-460: The direction of John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge, weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The principle of
13741-483: The doll is at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel , Switzerland , and still operates. In 1831–1835, mathematician and engineer Giovanni Plana devised a Perpetual Calendar machine , which through a system of pulleys and cylinders could predict the perpetual calendar for every year from 0 CE (that is, 1 BCE) to 4000 CE, keeping track of leap years and varying day length. The tide-predicting machine invented by
13892-1763: The dominant materials during their respective ages of civilization . Because silicon is an important element in high-technology semiconductor devices, many places in the world bear its name. For example, the Santa Clara Valley in California acquired the nickname Silicon Valley , as the element is the base material in the semiconductor industry there. Since then, many other places have been similarly dubbed, including Silicon Wadi in Israel; Silicon Forest in Oregon; Silicon Hills in Austin, Texas; Silicon Slopes in Salt Lake City, Utah; Silicon Saxony in Germany; Silicon Valley in India; Silicon Border in Mexicali, Mexico; Silicon Fen in Cambridge, England; Silicon Roundabout in London; Silicon Glen in Scotland; Silicon Gorge in Bristol, England; Silicon Alley in New York City; and Silicon Beach in Los Angeles. A silicon atom has fourteen electrons . In
14043-481: The early 11th century. The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE and is often attributed to Hipparchus . A combination of the planisphere and dioptra , the astrolabe was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy . An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer and gear -wheels
14194-443: The early 2000s. These smartphones and tablets run on a variety of operating systems and recently became the dominant computing device on the market. These are powered by System on a Chip (SoCs), which are complete computers on a microchip the size of a coin. Computers can be classified in a number of different ways, including: Silicon Silicon is a chemical element ; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It
14345-399: The early 20th century. The first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II , both electromechanical and using thermionic valves . The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon -based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and
14496-498: The emitted electron carries up to 1.48 MeV of energy. The known isotopes of silicon range in mass number from 22 to 46. The most common decay mode of the isotopes with mass numbers lower than the three stable isotopes is inverse beta decay , primarily forming aluminium isotopes (13 protons) as decay products . The most common decay mode for the heavier unstable isotopes is beta decay, primarily forming phosphorus isotopes (15 protons) as decay products. Silicon can enter
14647-477: The exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004 , designed and realized by Federico Faggin with his silicon-gate MOS IC technology, along with Ted Hoff , Masatoshi Shima and Stanley Mazor at Intel . In the early 1970s, MOS IC technology enabled the integration of more than 10,000 transistors on a single chip. System on
14798-508: The first Colossus. After a functional test in December 1943, Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park, where it was delivered on 18 January 1944 and attacked its first message on 5 February. Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer. It used a large number of valves (vacuum tubes). It had paper-tape input and was capable of being configured to perform a variety of boolean logical operations on its data, but it
14949-725: The first attested use of computer in the 1640s, meaning 'one who calculates'; this is an "agent noun from compute (v.)". The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean " 'calculating machine' (of any type) is from 1897." The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean 'programmable digital electronic computer' dates from "1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937, as Turing machine ". The name has remained, although modern computers are capable of many higher-level functions. Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers . The earliest counting device
15100-497: The first manufactured SiO 2 semiconductor oxide transistor: the first planar transistors, in which drain and source were adjacent at the same surface. The "Silicon Age" refers to the late 20th century to early 21st century. This is due to silicon being the dominant material of the Silicon Age (also known as the Digital Age or Information Age ), similar to how the Stone Age , Bronze Age and Iron Age were defined by
15251-408: The first volatile hydrides of silicon, synthesising trichlorosilane in 1857 and silane itself in 1858, but a detailed investigation of the silanes was only carried out in the early 20th century by Alfred Stock , despite early speculation on the matter dating as far back as the beginnings of synthetic organic chemistry in the 1830s. Similarly, the first organosilicon compound , tetraethylsilane,
15402-409: The form of conditional branching and loops , and integrated memory , making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete . The machine was about a century ahead of its time. All the parts for his machine had to be made by hand – this was a major problem for a device with thousands of parts. Eventually, the project was dissolved with
15553-578: The form of ferrosilicon. It is followed by Russia (610,000 t), Norway (330,000 t), Brazil (240,000 t), and the United States (170,000 t). Ferrosilicon is primarily used by the iron and steel industry (see below ) with primary use as alloying addition in iron or steel and for de-oxidation of steel in integrated steel plants. Another reaction, sometimes used, is aluminothermal reduction of silicon dioxide, as follows: Leaching powdered 96–97% pure silicon with water results in ~98.5% pure silicon, which
15704-418: The formation of cementite where exposed to outside air. The presence of elemental silicon in molten iron acts as a sink for oxygen, so that the steel carbon content, which must be kept within narrow limits for each type of steel, can be more closely controlled. Ferrosilicon production and use is a monitor of the steel industry, and although this form of elemental silicon is grossly impure, it accounts for 80% of
15855-465: The formation of the Solar System . Silicon makes up 27.2% of the Earth's crust by weight, second only to oxygen at 45.5%, with which it always is associated in nature. Further fractionation took place in the formation of the Earth by planetary differentiation : Earth's core , which makes up 31.5% of the mass of the Earth, has approximate composition Fe 25 Ni 2 Co 0.1 S 3 ;
16006-522: The ground state, they are arranged in the electron configuration [Ne]3s 3p . Of these, four are valence electrons , occupying the 3s orbital and two of the 3p orbitals. Like the other members of its group, the lighter carbon and the heavier germanium , tin , and lead , it has the same number of valence electrons as valence orbitals: hence, it can complete its octet and obtain the stable noble gas configuration of argon by forming sp hybrid orbitals , forming tetrahedral SiX 4 derivatives where
16157-430: The increasing energy gap between the valence s and p orbitals as the group is descended, the divalent state grows in importance from carbon to lead, so that a few unstable divalent compounds are known for silicon; this lowering of the main oxidation state, in tandem with increasing atomic radii, results in an increase of metallic character down the group. Silicon already shows some incipient metallic behavior, particularly in
16308-466: The integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". However, Kilby's invention was a hybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC), rather than
16459-411: The integration. In 1876, Sir William Thomson had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators . In a differential analyzer, the output of one integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was the advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in
16610-402: The long-range tetrahedral network of bonds breaks up and the voids in that network are filled in, similar to water ice when hydrogen bonds are broken upon melting. It does not have any thermodynamically stable allotropes at standard pressure, but several other crystal structures are known at higher pressures. The general trend is one of increasing coordination number with pressure, culminating in
16761-471: The lower Ge–O bond strength compared to the Si–O bond strength results in the absence of "germanone" polymers that would be analogous to silicone polymers. Silicon is the eighth most abundant element in the universe, coming after hydrogen , helium , carbon , nitrogen , oxygen , iron , and neon . These abundances are not replicated well on Earth due to substantial separation of the elements taking place during
16912-449: The lowest unoccupied ones (the conduction band). The Fermi level is about halfway between the valence and conduction bands and is the energy at which a state is as likely to be occupied by an electron as not. Hence pure silicon is effectively an insulator at room temperature. However, doping silicon with a pnictogen such as phosphorus , arsenic , or antimony introduces one extra electron per dopant and these may then be excited into
17063-590: The machine did make use of valves to generate its 125 kHz clock waveforms and in the circuitry to read and write on its magnetic drum memory , so it was not the first completely transistorized computer. That distinction goes to the Harwell CADET of 1955, built by the electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell . The metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET), also known as
17214-440: The majority of these have half-lives that are less than one-tenth of a second. Silicon has one known nuclear isomer , Si, with a half-life less than 210 nanoseconds. Si undergoes low-energy beta decay to P and then stable S . Si may be produced by the neutron activation of natural silicon and is thus useful for quantitative analysis; it can be easily detected by its characteristic beta decay to stable P , in which
17365-452: The modern computer was proposed by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper, On Computable Numbers . Turing proposed a simple device that he called "Universal Computing machine" and that is now known as a universal Turing machine . He proved that such a machine is capable of computing anything that is computable by executing instructions (program) stored on tape, allowing the machine to be programmable. The fundamental concept of Turing's design
17516-435: The monocrystalline silicon: 75,000 to 150,000 metric tons per year. The market for the lesser grade is growing more quickly than for monocrystalline silicon. By 2013, polycrystalline silicon production, used mostly in solar cells, was projected to reach 200,000 metric tons per year, while monocrystalline semiconductor grade silicon was expected to remain less than 50,000 tons per year. Silicon quantum dots are created through
17667-403: The more famous Sir William Thomson. The art of mechanical analog computing reached its zenith with the differential analyzer , built by H. L. Hazen and Vannevar Bush at MIT starting in 1927. This built on the mechanical integrators of James Thomson and the torque amplifiers invented by H. W. Nieman. A dozen of these devices were built before their obsolescence became obvious. By the 1950s,
17818-594: The natural minerals. Such use includes industrial construction with clays , silica sand , and stone . Silicates are used in Portland cement for mortar and stucco , and mixed with silica sand and gravel to make concrete for walkways, foundations, and roads. They are also used in whiteware ceramics such as porcelain , and in traditional silicate -based soda–lime glass and many other specialty glasses . Silicon compounds such as silicon carbide are used as abrasives and components of high-strength ceramics. Silicon
17969-422: The ocean: chemical weathering of continental rocks, river transport, dissolution of continental terrigenous silicates, and the reaction between submarine basalts and hydrothermal fluid which release dissolved silicon. All four of these fluxes are interconnected in the ocean's biogeochemical cycle as they all were initially formed from the weathering of Earth's crust. Approximately 300–900 megatonnes of Aeolian dust
18120-641: The oceans from the Sahara and Gobi Desert, respectively. Riverine transports are the major source of silicon influx into the ocean in coastal regions, while silicon deposition in the open ocean is greatly influenced by the settling of Aeolian dust. Silicon of 96–99% purity is made by carbothermically reducing quartzite or sand with highly pure coke . The reduction is carried out in an electric arc furnace , with an excess of SiO 2 used to stop silicon carbide (SiC) from accumulating: This reaction, known as carbothermal reduction of silicon dioxide, usually
18271-490: The oceans through groundwater and riverine transport. Large fluxes of groundwater input have an isotopic composition which is distinct from riverine silicon inputs. Isotopic variations in groundwater and riverine transports contribute to variations in oceanic Si values. Currently, there are substantial differences in the isotopic values of deep water in the world's ocean basins . Between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, there
18422-505: The oxide and isolate the element. After an attempt to isolate silicon in 1808, Sir Humphry Davy proposed the name "silicium" for silicon, from the Latin silex , silicis for flint, and adding the "-ium" ending because he believed it to be a metal. Most other languages use transliterated forms of Davy's name, sometimes adapted to local phonology (e.g. German Silizium , Turkish silisyum , Catalan silici , Armenian Սիլիցիում or Silitzioum ). A few others use instead
18573-486: The practical use of MOS transistors as memory cell storage elements, leading to the development of MOS semiconductor memory , which replaced earlier magnetic-core memory in computers. The MOSFET led to the microcomputer revolution , and became the driving force behind the computer revolution . The MOSFET is the most widely used transistor in computers, and is the fundamental building block of digital electronics . The next great advance in computing power came with
18724-576: The product to a brown powder by repeatedly washing it. As a result, he is usually given credit for the element's discovery. The same year, Berzelius became the first to prepare silicon tetrachloride ; silicon tetrafluoride had already been prepared long before in 1771 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele by dissolving silica in hydrofluoric acid . In 1823 for the first time Jacob Berzelius discovered silicon tetrachloride (SiCl 4 ). In 1846 Von Ebelman's synthesized tetraethyl orthosilicate (Si(OC 2 H 5 ) 4 ). Silicon in its more common crystalline form
18875-450: The product, nor identify it as a new element. Silicon was given its present name in 1817 by Scottish chemist Thomas Thomson . He retained part of Davy's name but added "-on" because he believed that silicon was a nonmetal similar to boron and carbon . In 1824, Jöns Jacob Berzelius prepared amorphous silicon using approximately the same method as Gay-Lussac (reducing potassium fluorosilicate with molten potassium metal), but purifying
19026-724: The production of volatile organic compounds and phytohormones which play a significant role in plant defense mechanisms. In more advanced plants, the silica phytoliths (opal phytoliths) are rigid microscopic bodies occurring in the cell. Several horticultural crops are known to protect themselves against fungal plant pathogens with silica, to such a degree that fungicide application may fail unless accompanied by sufficient silicon nutrition. Silicaceous plant defense molecules activate some phytoalexins , meaning some of them are signalling substances producing acquired immunity . When deprived, some plants will substitute with increased production of other defensive substances. Life on Earth
19177-467: The pure element in the Earth's crust. It is widely distributed throughout space in cosmic dusts , planetoids , and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates . More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals , making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass), after oxygen . Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, often with very little processing of
19328-428: The quantum dot, allowing electrons to transfer between them, filling the holes and preventing recombination. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer occurs when a complex forms between the quantum dot and a quencher molecule. The complex will continue to absorb light but when the energy is converted to the ground state it does not release a photon, quenching the material. The third method uses different approach by measuring
19479-419: The reducing agent. The spongy pieces of silicon thus produced are melted and then grown to form cylindrical single crystals, before being purified by zone refining . Other routes use the thermal decomposition of silane or tetraiodosilane ( SiI 4 ). Another process used is the reduction of sodium hexafluorosilicate , a common waste product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, by metallic sodium : this
19630-548: The results of operations to be saved and retrieved. It was not until the mid-20th century that the word acquired its modern definition; according to the Oxford English Dictionary , the first known use of the word computer was in a different sense, in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait : "I haue [ sic ] read the truest computer of Times, and
19781-538: The same time that digital calculation replaced analog. The engineer Tommy Flowers , working at the Post Office Research Station in London in the 1930s, began to explore the possible use of electronics for the telephone exchange . Experimental equipment that he built in 1934 went into operation five years later, converting a portion of the telephone exchange network into an electronic data processing system, using thousands of vacuum tubes . In
19932-490: The stored-program computer was laid out by Alan Turing in his 1936 paper. In 1945, Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory and began work on developing an electronic stored-program digital computer. His 1945 report "Proposed Electronic Calculator" was the first specification for such a device. John von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania also circulated his First Draft of a Report on
20083-443: The success of digital electronic computers had spelled the end for most analog computing machines, but analog computers remained in use during the 1950s in some specialized applications such as education ( slide rule ) and aircraft ( control systems ). Claude Shannon 's 1937 master's thesis laid the foundations of digital computing, with his insight of applying Boolean algebra to the analysis and synthesis of switching circuits being
20234-535: The thermal processing of hydrogen silsesquioxane into nanocrystals ranging from a few nanometers to a few microns, displaying size dependent luminescent properties. The nanocrystals display large Stokes shifts converting photons in the ultraviolet range to photons in the visible or infrared, depending on the particle size, allowing for applications in quantum dot displays and luminescent solar concentrators due to their limited self absorption. A benefit of using silicon based quantum dots over cadmium or indium
20385-449: The title Compy . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Compy&oldid=1058426384 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Computer A computer
20536-412: The versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers. The first modern analog computer was a tide-predicting machine , invented by Sir William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin) in 1872. The differential analyser , a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration using wheel-and-disc mechanisms, was conceptualized in 1876 by James Thomson , the elder brother of
20687-477: The world's use of free silicon. Silicon is an important constituent of transformer steel , modifying its resistivity and ferromagnetic properties. The properties of silicon may be used to modify alloys with metals other than iron. "Metallurgical grade" silicon is silicon of 95–99% purity. About 55% of the world consumption of metallurgical purity silicon goes for production of aluminium-silicon alloys ( silumin alloys) for aluminium part casts , mainly for use in
20838-406: Was a 16-transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962. General Microelectronics later introduced the first commercial MOS IC in 1964, developed by Robert Norman. Following the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOS transistor by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC with self-aligned gates
20989-411: Was a silicon radio crystal detector, developed by American engineer Greenleaf Whittier Pickard in 1906. In 1940, Russell Ohl discovered the p–n junction and photovoltaic effects in silicon. In 1941, techniques for producing high-purity germanium and silicon crystals were developed for radar microwave detector crystals during World War II . In 1947, physicist William Shockley theorized
21140-625: Was an early example. Later portables such as the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable were considerably lighter but still needed to be plugged in. The first laptops, such as the Grid Compass , removed this requirement by incorporating batteries – and with the continued miniaturization of computing resources and advancements in portable battery life, portable computers grew in popularity in the 2000s. The same developments allowed manufacturers to integrate computing resources into cellular mobile phones by
21291-537: Was built with 2000 relays , implementing a 22 bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz . Program code was supplied on punched film while data could be stored in 64 words of memory or supplied from the keyboard. It was quite similar to modern machines in some respects, pioneering numerous advances such as floating-point numbers . Rather than the harder-to-implement decimal system (used in Charles Babbage 's earlier design), using
21442-511: Was delivered to the University of Manchester in February 1951. At least seven of these later machines were delivered between 1953 and 1957, one of them to Shell labs in Amsterdam . In October 1947 the directors of British catering company J. Lyons & Company decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development of computers. Lyons's LEO I computer, modelled closely on
21593-443: Was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968. The MOSFET has since become the most critical device component in modern ICs. The development of the MOS integrated circuit led to the invention of the microprocessor , and heralded an explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on
21744-825: Was developed in the late 16th century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation. The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it with a mechanical linkage. The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, by the English clergyman William Oughtred , shortly after the publication of the concept of the logarithm . It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division. As slide rule development progressed, added scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions such as logarithms and exponentials, circular and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions . Slide rules with special scales are still used for quick performance of routine calculations, such as
21895-449: Was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan , Persia in 1235. Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe, an early fixed- wired knowledge processing machine with a gear train and gear-wheels, c. 1000 AD . The sector , a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry , multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots,
22046-477: Was made of germanium . Noyce's monolithic IC was fabricated using the planar process , developed by his colleague Jean Hoerni in early 1959. In turn, the planar process was based on Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick work on semiconductor surface passivation by silicon dioxide. Modern monolithic ICs are predominantly MOS ( metal–oxide–semiconductor ) integrated circuits, built from MOSFETs (MOS transistors). The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated
22197-643: Was most likely a form of tally stick . Later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, likely livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers. The use of counting rods is one example. The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from devices used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BCE. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In
22348-434: Was not Turing-complete. Nine Mk II Colossi were built (The Mk I was converted to a Mk II making ten machines in total). Colossus Mark I contained 1,500 thermionic valves (tubes), but Mark II with 2,400 valves, was both five times faster and simpler to operate than Mark I, greatly speeding the decoding process. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable computer built in
22499-464: Was not prepared until 31 years later, by Deville . By electrolyzing a mixture of sodium chloride and aluminium chloride containing approximately 10% silicon, he was able to obtain a slightly impure allotrope of silicon in 1854. Later, more cost-effective methods have been developed to isolate several allotrope forms, the most recent being silicene in 2010. Meanwhile, research on the chemistry of silicon continued; Friedrich Wöhler discovered
22650-443: Was not until 1823 that Jöns Jakob Berzelius was first able to prepare it and characterize it in pure form. Its oxides form a family of anions known as silicates . Its melting and boiling points of 1414 °C and 3265 °C, respectively, are the second highest among all the metalloids and nonmetals, being surpassed only by boron . Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as
22801-552: Was synthesised by Charles Friedel and James Crafts in 1863, but detailed characterisation of organosilicon chemistry was only done in the early 20th century by Frederic Kipping . Starting in the 1920s, the work of William Lawrence Bragg on X-ray crystallography elucidated the compositions of the silicates, which had previously been known from analytical chemistry but had not yet been understood, together with Linus Pauling 's development of crystal chemistry and Victor Goldschmidt 's development of geochemistry . The middle of
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