Semiconductor history check: The integrated circuit (IC) was invented by Jack Kilby working at which organization?

Introduction / Context:
The development of the integrated circuit marked a turning point in modern electronics, enabling miniaturization and mass production of complex logic. Identifying the correct inventor and organization helps ground your understanding of computing hardware history and its industrial origins.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Inventor: Jack Kilby.
• Timeframe: late 1950s.
• Question: On whose payroll and at which company did the breakthrough occur?

Concept / Approach:
Jack Kilby demonstrated the first integrated circuit while employed by Texas Instruments, showing that resistors, capacitors, and transistors could be fabricated together as a single piece. This enabled compact, reliable, and scalable electronics. Although other organizations contributed to GUI, AI, and research (e.g., Xerox PARC, MIT), the IC invention credited to Kilby is tied to Texas Instruments.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Historical accounts and awards (including the Nobel Prize in Physics to Kilby) document the Texas Instruments affiliation for the integrated circuit’s first demonstration.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• MIT: a leading research university, but not where Kilby invented the IC.
• Xerox: known for PARC innovations (GUI, Ethernet, laser printing), not Kilby’s IC.
• All of the above: impossible; the invention is credited to a single organization.
• None of the above: false because Texas Instruments is correct.

Common Pitfalls:
Confusing general computing milestones (like GUI at Xerox PARC) with semiconductor fabrication breakthroughs; mixing up multiple inventors across companies.

Final Answer:
Texas Instruments