How Microprocessors Work How Chips are Made Microprocessors are essential to many of the products we use every day such as TVs, cars, radios, home appliances and of course, computers.
Transistors are the main components of microprocessors.
At their most basic level, transistors may seem simple. But their development actually required many years of painstaking research. Before transistors, computers relied on slow, inefficient vacuum tubes and mechanical switches to process information. To explore how transistors work, choose one of the buttons below.