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A Tour Welcome to the Intel Museum
Your Board of Directors has arranged this special event for this months program on Thursday, May 29, 2003. The Docent led tour starts at 11 a.m. and ends about noon. Guests are welcome. Even teenagers.
Lunch at nearby Bennigans on their shaded semi-private patio (weather permitting).
INTEL MUSEUM Robert Noyce Building. 2200 Mission Blvd., just north of 101, off San Tomas Expressway, Santa Clara.
BENNIGANS 415 Great America Parkway, just north of 101, west side, between Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church and Holiday Inn, Santa Clara.
How Microprocessors Work
In November 1971, Intel introduced the worlds first commercial microprocessor, the 4004, invented by three Intel engineers. Primitive by todays standards, it contained a mere 2,300 transistors and performed about 60,000 calculations in a second. Twenty-five years later, the microprocessor is the most complex mass-produced product ever, with more than 5.5 million transistors performing hundreds of millions of calculations each second.
This interactive site is based on a real-life exhibit installed in the Intel Museum in Santa Clara, California.
A Guarantee: Youll Love It!
You will learn something about microprocessors and chips that you never knew. This tour is one of the most extraordinary learning experiences you will ever find. It is literally unbelievable what goes into creating microprocessors.
Bennigans has an outstanding selection of reasonably priced burgers, sandwiches, salads, and main course entrees. Kudos to Merle Issak for implementing this splendid program. As usual, he did a unique job. Its sad that our past presidents Joe Cassisi and Dale Detwiler wont be there. They would be proud.
Be sure to bring a guest or two. They will thank you for it, and you will feel great that you brought them. What you will see on this tour you will have a hard time believing. It will definitely give you a new and refreshing outook on life.
Thoughts for Growth
MAKE WAY FOR THE MILLENIALS
You know Baby Boomers and Generation X. Now look out for the 2003 college graduates who are part of Generation Y otherwise known as the Millenials. Their values and goals are shaped by the technological advancements and cultural changes that have occurred in the past few decades. Consider the world as they know it:
A belief is not merely an idea that the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.
Here it is five months into 2003. Edwin May Teale, naturalist, said, The worlds favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.
Things have changed a lot since 2001. Its barely two years since 9/11, when the extremist muslims declared war on the United States. Yet how many have almost completely forgotten this infamy already? Or was that in 2000? (Of course not!)
The best thing seen lately: The United Nations Deck of Weasels cards. If you go to www.maxnews.com on the internet, you can get a preview. The ace of spades (top weasel) is Jacques Chiracq of France. The ace of diamonds is Senator Robert KKK Byrd. The two jokers are Jimmy Carter and Jesse Jackson. The cards are fashioned after the Iraq deck that is so popular.
Just reflecting. Saturday night and the editor is so enthusiastic about the May 29 program he wants to get this issue out fast. However, the coffee got cold (again). So its back to the microwave.
HOW CHIPS ARE MADE
Silicon wafers cut from an ingot of pure silicon, are used to make microprocessors. Silicon, the primary ingredient of beach sand, is a semiconductor of electricity. Semiconductors are materials that can be altered to be either a conductor or an insulator.
Chemicals and gases are used throuenout the chip-making process. Some, like hexamethyldisilazane, are complex and difficult to pronounce. Others, such as boron, are simple elements found in the Periodic Table of Elements.
Metals, such as aluminum and copper, are used to conduct electricity throughout the microprocessor. Gold is also used to connect the actual chip to its package.
Ultraviolet (UV) light has very short wavelengths and is just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum. UV light is used to expose patterns on the layers of the microprocessor in a process much like photography.
Masks used in the chip-making process are like stencils. When used with UV light, masks create the various circuit patterns on each layer of the microprocessor.
This is a brief introduction to what is in store for those who take part in the tour of the Intel Museum on Thursday, May 29, at 11 a.m. The world of microchips is a new world that everyone should be acquainted with. A major key to the technology is mathematics.
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