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I've looked around on the web a bit but it's the same jumbled up garbage. I'm convinced most of the articles are by people who've only heard what a microchip is but who don't actually know.

microchip

My assumption is that a microchip is like that thing above, not a green board with soldered connections but that it represents what one might put together on a bread board except in a much more condensed form. Is that correct?

Adam Haun
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Jacksonkr
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This is definitely not a microchip, although there are microchips soldered to it (source):

Circuit board and soldering iron

It's called a printed circuit board (PCB) or (less commonly) a printed wiring board (PWB).

The object in your picture looks like a microchip, but all we can see is a DIP-24 package. (The lack of a part number suggests that it's a stock photo, not a real product.) The integrated circuit chip itself is buried inside the package. This question has some good pictures of ICs, but this one probably shows what you're looking for:

SOIC package with die and bond wires exposed

The thing in the middle with the wires coming off of it is the integrated circuit die -- the actual "chip" of silicon. Since ICs are almost always packaged, the word "microchip" is also used to refer to packaged chips.

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Adam Haun
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My assumption is that a microchip is like that thing above, not a green board with soldered connections but that it represents what one might put together on a bread board except in a much more condensed form. Is that correct?

Yes, and no.

First, Microchip is a brand name producer of integrated circuits. (Think Xerox, Dry Ice, Thermos etc.). The name has become synonymous, almost genericized, to mean integrated circuits.

Second, an integrated circuit, as pictured, is the result of decades of engineering evolution. Single ICs have replaced what used to be a bigger circuit of various passive and active discrete parts (transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.). Miniaturization and greater efficiency through the decades has allowed them to become very very small.

But an IC, while being a replacement for a discrete circuit, is also part of larger circuits. And then, newer ICs can integrate those functions as well.

The green board with soldered connections is referred to as a printed circuit board (PCB), often populated with various ICs.

fuzzyhair2
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Passerby
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    The word "microchip" as a synonym for integrated circuit goes back to 1975, according to etymonline. Microchip Technology, Inc., was founded in 1989. So this is not a case of a trademarked name becoming generic like your other examples. – The Photon Jan 27 '15 at 04:34
  • @ThePhoton yet there is no citation provided. – Passerby Jan 27 '15 at 05:43
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    I also searched Google books and actually found the word used back to 1969. – The Photon Jan 27 '15 at 05:44
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    @Passerby - we're not talking ancient history here - lots of us are old enough to remember microchips before Microchip. –  Feb 01 '15 at 22:06