Editing Very-large-scale integration (section)

{{Short description|Creating an integrated circuit by combining many transistors into a single chip}}
{{Redirect|VLSI|the former company|VLSI Technology}}
{{Distinguish|Very High Speed Integrated Circuit}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2010}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}

'''Very-large-scale integration''' ('''VLSI''') is the process of creating an [[integrated circuit]] (IC) by combining millions or [[List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#Volta_series|billions]] of [[MOS transistor]]s onto a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when [[MOS integrated circuit]] (metal oxide semiconductor) chips were developed and then widely adopted, enabling complex [[semiconductor]] and [[telecommunications]] technologies. The [[microprocessor]] and [[memory chip]]s are VLSI devices.

Before the introduction of VLSI technology, most ICs had a limited set of functions they could perform. An [[electronic circuit]] might consist of a [[CPU]], [[ROM]], [[RAM]] and other [[glue logic]]. VLSI enables IC designers to add all of these [[system on a chip|into one chip]].
[[Image:Diopsis.jpg|thumb|right|A VLSI integrated-circuit [[die (integrated circuit)|die]] ]]