In December 1947, at Bell Labs, a sliver of germanium touched by two gold contacts amplified an electrical signal. The physicists who built it knew they had something. They had no idea they had just set off the biggest technological upheaval in history. Since that first transistor, microchips have worked their way into nearly everything we own and do, and almost nobody noticed. No revolution has ever reached so far so quietly. The Microchip Revolution tells the whole story: the early breakthroughs, the birth of Silicon Valley, the first microprocessor (whose design was led by Italian-born physicist Federico Faggin), and today's race toward artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It's a story of brilliant ideas, bitter rivalries and companies that grew into giants. It's also a guide to the technology that is quietly shaping the world we live in, and the one we're heading into. Inside, you'll learn: How a microchip actually works, and why Moore's Law drove half a century of progress The people behind it: Noyce, Moore, Faggin, Grove, Jobs, Morris Chang, Lisa Su, Jensen Huang How Silicon Valley was born, and how Intel, Apple and NVIDIA rose to the top How the first microprocessor changed computing for good Where artificial intelligence and quantum computing are taking us For anyone who loves technology, enjoys the history of innovation, and wants to understand the forces shaping our future. About the author Lorenzo Martini is an electronics engineer with more than 30 years in the industry. He lived through much of the story told in these pages firsthand, and he brings to it both technical expertise and a passion for history, technology and science communication.
