What electronic components are currently used in building computers?

The electronic devices currently used in manufacturing computers are "very large-scale integrated circuits"; very large-scale integrated circuits are an inherited circuit that combines a large number of transistors into a single chip, and its density is greater than that of large-scale integrated circuits. Computers The use of key devices has gone through the era of tubes, transistors, integrated circuits, and now is the era of large-scale and ultra-large-scale integrated circuits.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 10 system, DELL G3 computer.

What are the electronic devices currently used in manufacturing computers?

Computers use key components and have gone through the era of tubes, transistors, and integrated circuits. Now they are large-scale and ultra-large-scale. Integrated Circuit Era

Currently, the electronic devices used in manufacturing computers are very large-scale integrated circuits. VLSI is an integrated circuit that combines a large number of transistors into a single chip. Its integration level is greater than that of large-scale integrated circuits. The number of integrated transistors varies between standards. Since the 1970s, with the development of complex semiconductor and communication technologies, the research and development of integrated circuits has gradually begun.

The control core microprocessor in a computer is the most typical example of a very large scale integrated circuit. Very large scale integrated circuit design (VLSI design), especially digital integrated circuits, is usually carried out using electronic design automation. Become one of the important branches of computer engineering.

Integrated circuits that integrate more than 100,000 components or more than 10,000 gate circuits on one chip are called very large-scale integrated circuits. VLSI was successfully developed in the late 1970s and is mainly used to manufacture memories and microprocessors. 64k-bit random access memory is the first generation of very large-scale integrated circuits, containing approximately 150,000 components and a line width of 3 microns.

The integration level of very large-scale integrated circuits has reached 6 million transistors, and the line width has reached 0.3 microns. Electronic devices manufactured with very large scale integrated circuits are small in size, light in weight, low in power consumption and high in reliability. Using VLSI technology, an electronic subsystem or even an entire electronic system can be "integrated" on a chip to complete multiple functions such as information collection, processing, and storage. For example, the entire 386 microprocessor circuit can be integrated on a single chip, with an integration level of 2.5 million transistors. The successful development of very large-scale integrated circuits is a leap forward in microelectronics technology, which greatly promotes the progress of electronic technology, thus driving the development of military technology and civilian technology. VLSI has become an important symbol to measure a country's scientific, technological and industrial development level. It is also an area with the most intense competition among the world's major industrial countries, especially the United States and Japan.

Extended Knowledge: Shortcomings of Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits

As the scale of technology continues to expand, the complexity of microprocessors also continues to increase. Designers have encountered several challenges.

• 1. Power consumption and heat dissipation: As the scale of component integration increases, the thermal power generated per unit volume gradually increases. However, the heat dissipation area of ​​the device remains unchanged, resulting in heat dissipation per unit area. The dissipation does not meet the requirements. At the same time, the static power consumption caused by the weak sub-threshold current of a single transistor becomes increasingly significant due to the substantial increase in the number of transistors. Some low-power design techniques, such as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), have been proposed to reduce the total power dissipated.

• 2. Process deviation: Since photolithography technology is limited by optical laws, higher-precision doping and etching will become more difficult, and the possibility of errors will become greater. big. Designers must perform technical simulations before chip manufacturing.

• 3. Stricter design rules: Due to problems with photolithography and etching processes, the design rules for integrated circuit layout must be more stringent. Designers must always consider these rules when designing a layout. The total cost of custom design has reached a critical point, and many design organizations prefer to start with electronic design automation to achieve automated design.

• 4. Design convergence: As clock frequencies in digital electronic applications tend to rise, designers are finding it more difficult to maintain low clock skew across the entire chip. This has led to interest in multi-core, multi-processor architectures (see Amdahl's Law).

• 5. Cost: As the size of the grain decreases, the size of the wafer becomes larger, and the number of grains per unit wafer area increases. In this way, the photomask used in the manufacturing process The complexity rises sharply. Modern high-precision photomask technology is expensive.

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