1. Microprocessors, microcontrollers and FPGAs

The first integrated circuits, although containing only a few transistors, immediately enabled the creation of families of simple logic circuits: logic "gates" (combinatorial logic) then flip-flops (sequential logic).

The challenge of the nineteen-seventies was to integrate on a single silicon "chip" the several thousand transistors needed to integrate a computer's sequencer and its arithmetic and logic unit. This was only possible thanks to the development of LSI (Large Scale Integration) techniques applied to MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) transistors, which consume less power than bipolar transistors, and are therefore less dissipative.

A microprocessor to which memory is added to house its program and data constitutes a true computer, whose computing power is limited only by the...