Post-1960: third generation and beyond

The explosion in the use of computers began with "third-generation" computers, making use of Jack St. Clair Kilby's^[85] and Robert Noyce's^[86] independent invention of the integrated circuit (or microchip), which led to the invention of the microprocessor. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004,^[87] designed and realized by Ted Hoff,Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor at Intel.^[88]