Very large scale integration

Very Large-Scale Integration or VLSI (very large-scale integration) is the process of creating a circuit chip made up of millions of transistors on a single chip. VLSI began to be used in the 1970s, as part of the semiconductor and communication technologies that were being developed.

Early semiconductor chips contained only one transistor each. As manufacturing technology advanced, more and more transistors were added, and as a result, more and more functions were integrated on a single chip. The microprocessor is a VLSI device.

The first generation of computers relied on vacuum tubes. Then came discrete semiconductors, followed by integrated circuits. The first integrated circuits contained a small number of devices, such as diodes, transistors, resistors, and capacitors (but not inductors), making it possible to fabricate logic gates on a single chip. The fourth generation (LSI) consisted of systems with at least a thousand logic gates. The natural successor to LSI was VLSI (several tens of thousands of gates on a single chip). Microprocessors today have several million gates on the same chip.

Towards the beginning of 2006, microprocessors with technology of up to 65 nm were commercialized, in 2010 chips with 32 nm technology were commercialized.

Major companies producing VLSI ICs

• Intel
• Texas Instruments
• Samsung
• Analog Devices
• ATI Technologies
• Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
• STMicroelectronics
• Freescale Semiconductor
• Infineon
• IBM
• NEC
• Toshiba
• NVIDIA
• Qualcomm
• National Semiconductor
• Renesas
• Broadcom
• Micron Technology
• Transmeta