IC i so'o se mea. I le 2019, e sili atu i le 634 piliona tupe meataalo na gaosia i le lalolagi atoa, fafaga le 412 piliona pisinisi. E ala i le tu'uina atu o galuega fou, sili atu le fa'atinoga ma le tau maualalo i augatupulaga ta'itasi, o le alualu i luma i tupe meataalo ua maua ai oloa fou ma suia pisinisi.

E lua ituaiga tele ole IC: Logic chips ma Memory chips.

Logic chips o le 'fai'ai' o masini eletonika - latou te fa'agaioia fa'amatalaga e fa'auma ai se galuega. Faatasi ai ma Logic chips, CPUs (central processing units) o 'ulu'aga tupe meataalo, muamua na fuafuaina i le 1960s. Ae o loʻo i ai foʻi faʻalapotopotoga faʻapitoa faʻapitoa i le mafaufau, e pei o GPU (iunite faʻasologa o ata, lea e sili ona lelei mo faʻaaliga vaʻaia) ma NPUs (iunite faʻaogaina neural, fuafuaina mo faʻaoga loloto ma masini aʻoaʻoga).

E teu fa'amatalaga meataalo manatua. E lua ituaiga tupe meataalo: DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), o 'meamea e manatua ai galuega' e na'o le fa'asaoina o fa'amaumauga a'o ki le mana o le masini, ma le NAND Flash, e fa'asaoina ai fa'amaumauga e o'o lava. pe a tape le masini. Mo se faʻataʻitaʻiga, DRAM fesoasoani e faʻatautaia polokalame i luga o lau masini, ae o le NAND e teu au ata. A'o DRAM e televave, NAND e tuai ona faitau ma tusi fa'amaumauga.

IC mo Microchip e lua ona fa'amanuiaga sili i luga ole va'aiga fa'apitoa: tau ma fa'atinoga. E maualalo le tau ona o tupe meataalo, ma o latou vaega uma, e lolomi e avea o se iunite e photolithography nai lo le fausiaina tasi transistor i le taimi. E le gata i lea, o IC fa'apipi'i e fa'aogaina le tele o meafaitino nai lo ta'amilosaga tu'ufa'atasi.
O le Microchip Technology Inc. ose fa'alapotopotoga fa'alaua'itele a Amerika o lo'o gaosia microcontroller, fa'afefiloi-fa'ailoga, analog ma Flash-IP IC. O ana oloa e aofia ai microcontrollers (PIC, dsPIC, AVR ma SAM), Serial EEPROM masini, Serial SRAM masini, faʻapipiʻiina masini saogalemu, leitio (RF) masini, vevela, mana ma le pulea o maa masini analog, faʻapea foʻi ma laina laina, atinaʻe ma uaealesi. fofo. Microchip e ofoina atu le tele o oloa, e aofia ai le IC. O la matou kamupani o loʻo galulue faʻatasi ma Microchip mo sina taimi ma o loʻo i ai se auala lelei e ofoina atu vaega i tagata faʻatau.