61.   Silicon germanium chips use a fundamentally different circuit design from general-purpose microprocessors like the Intel Corp. Pentium or the Athlon line from AMD.

62.   Silicon chips are made in batches of several hundred per wafer by machines call steppers, which etch circuits into the silicon.

63.   Silicon chips are not conscious, nor are the components of any future molecular or quantum computer.

64.   Similar examples today include gallium-arsenide semiconductors, which are used for very high speed applications, even though they cost much more than conventional silicon chips.

65.   Silicon chips replace vacuum tubes.

66.   Squeezing ever more parts onto each silicon chip also requires etching finer and finer wires to connect them.

67.   Steven Wereley are carving microchannels in the silicon chips to conduct the heat elsewhere.

68.   That pushes back the timing of the doom expected for the silicon chip.

69.   The company makes silicon chips in Singapore and Malaysia, where the labor is inexpensive and highly skilled.

70.   The company now operates two plants that make microprocessors, the silicon chips that serve as the brains of personal computers, while Intel has six such factories.