The Silicon Age? It's Just Dawning

Few inventions have changed the world as profoundly--and rapidly--as the microprocessor. The first brain chip was born just 25 years ago. Intel Corp. announced its arrival in a November, 1971, trade-magazine ad that heralded "a new era in integrated electronics." But even Intel didn't anticipate the scope of the revolution it was unleashing on business and society.

Today, the world's chip population has swollen to 350 billion, including 15 billion microprocessors. That's more than two silicon brains for every person on earth. In the U.S. and other industrial countries, most homes--those without personal computers, that is--are filled with a couple of dozen microprocessors. They're in TV sets, wristwatches, cameras, kitchen appliances, vacuum cleaners, and just about everything else that plugs into the wall. Cars typically have at least 10 microprocessors, and the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class models have 50.