Compared with discrete transistors, integrated circuits have two main advantages: cost and performance. The cost is low because the chip prints all the components as a unit by photolithography technology, instead of making only one transistor at a time.
In 2006, the chip area was from a few square millimeters to 350mm, and each mm could reach one million transistors. The first prototype of the integrated circuit was completed by jack kilby in 1958, including a bipolar transistor, three resistors and a capacitor. The most advanced integrated circuit is the core of microprocessor or multi-core processor, which can control everything from computer to mobile phone to digital microwave oven.
Although the cost of designing and developing a complex integrated circuit is very high, when it is distributed to millions of products, the cost of each integrated circuit is the smallest.