Managing the Manpower Aspects of Applying Micro-Electronics Technology

The last decade has witnessed the appearance of a new form of information technology created by advances in the field of micro‐electronics. The microprocessor and its related devices are, in fact, only the latest of a series of technological developments based largely on earlier scientific discoveries made in solid state physics. The essence of the micro‐electronic “revolution” lies in the fact that it has made commercially available computers which are significantly smaller, cheaper and more reliable than their predecessors. In its package a microprocessor occupies about one‐five‐thousandths of the space occupied by a comparable central processing unit of a 1960 machine. A similar reduction in price and power consumption has also taken place. While the mean fail time is now measured in years rather than hours.