In the 1940s, the first electronic computers were built. But they were huge room-sized monsters that weighed several tons each. Forecasters predicted that one day there would be perhaps a dozen such giant computers located strategically across the United States to process data. Instead, the computer industry developed along radically different lines: thanks to the invention of the integrated circuit (IC) -- a tiny silicon chip containing hundreds of transistors, diodes and transistors. Mainframe computers began giving way to mini-computers (roughly the size of small car) in the late 1960s.

In 1971, the microprocessor was developed, sparking off a new, third wave in the Information Technology (IT) revolution. The microprocessor is a single silicon chip containing hundreds of thousands of electronics components (a large-scale integrated circuit, or LSI).