Editing Dual in-line package (section)

===Uses===
[[File:Ultrasound-PreAmp-Breadboard.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Breadboard prototype: Ultrasonic microphone preamp build with SMD-parts soldered to DIP and SIP breakout boards]]
The original dual-in-line package was invented by Bryant "Buck" Rogers in 1964 while working for Fairchild Semiconductor. The first devices had 14 pins and looked much like they do today.<ref>Dummer, G.W.A. ''Electronic Inventions and Discoveries'' 2nd ed. Pergamon Press {{ISBN|0-08-022730-9}}</ref> The rectangular shape allowed integrated circuits to be packaged more densely than previous round packages.<ref>[http://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline/1965-Package.html Computer Museum retrieved April 16, 2008]</ref> The package was well-suited to automated assembly equipment; a PCB could be populated with scores or hundreds of ICs, then all the components on the circuit board could be soldered at one time on a [[wave soldering]] machine and passed on to automated testing machines, with very little human labor required. DIP packages were still large with respect to the integrated circuits within them. By the end of the 20th century, [[surface-mount technology|surface-mount]] packages allowed further reduction in the size and weight of systems. DIP chips are still popular for circuit prototyping on a [[breadboard]] because of how easily they can be inserted and used there.

DIPs were the mainstream of the microelectronics industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Their use has declined in the first decade of the 21st century due to the emerging new [[surface-mount technology]] (SMT) packages such as [[plastic leaded chip carrier]] (PLCC) and [[small-outline integrated circuit]] (SOIC), though DIPs continued in extensive use through the 1990s, and still continue to be used today. Because some modern chips are available only in surface-mount package types, a number of companies sell various prototyping adapters to allow those surface-mount devices (SMD) to be used like DIP devices with through-hole breadboards and soldered prototyping boards (such as [[stripboard]] and [[perfboard]]). (SMT can pose quite a problem, at least an inconvenience, for prototyping in general; most of the characteristics of SMT that are advantages for mass production are difficulties for prototyping.)

For programmable devices like [[EPROM]]s and [[Generic array logic|GAL]]s, DIPs remained popular for many years due to their easy handling with external programming circuitry (i.e., the DIP devices could be simply plugged into a socket on the programming device.) However, with [[In-System Programming]] (ISP) technology now state of the art, this advantage of DIPs is rapidly losing importance as well.

Through the 1990s, devices with fewer than 20 leads were manufactured in a DIP format in addition to the newer formats. Since about 2000, newer devices are often unavailable in the DIP format.