microprocessor chip

They turned to David Blaauw, an electrical engineer and collaborator at the University of Michigan who produced a microprocessor chip that measures roughly 100 micrometers wide and contains a mere 128 bits of programmable memory.

If all the billions of transistors on a modern microprocessor chip are used simultaneously, the heat they create will melt the chip.

All the same, the slowdown in smartphone shipments is bad news for chipmakers that design microprocessors: each phone needs just one microprocessor chip versus rapid growth of memory content in devices.

When Google’s AlphaGo computer program bested South Korean Go champion Lee Se-dol in March, it took advantage of a secret weapon: a microprocessor chip specially designed by Google.

McKenna witnessed, and helped shape, several major milestones in Silicon Valley history, including the advent of the microprocessor chip, the birth of biotech and, most famously, the early years of Apple.