Kilby was here

It's likely you haven't heard of Jack St. Clair Kilby, who passed away on Monday.

But every time you click your computer mouse and your PC responds, make a digital phone call (VoIP or otherwise) or for that matter, use any modern consumer electronics appliance, you honor Kilby's memory.

For, you see, some 45 years ago while at Texas Instruments, Kilby invented the monolithic integrated circuit. Today, you know the breakthrough as the microchip. And, as his bio says today on TI's website:

"It was this breakthrough that made possible the sophisticated high-speed computers and large-capacity semiconductor memories of today's information age."

In 2000, Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.

Kilby's peers recognized and respected him for his work. And with the next instruction you send to this very device you are reading this on, you will too.

Jack St. Clair Kilby, thanks - figuratively and literally - for the memory.