The evolution in semiconductor technology that builds a gigantic circuit on an entire wafer. Just as the integrated circuit eliminated cutting apart thousands of transistors from the wafer only to solder them together on circuit boards, wafer scale integration eliminates cutting apart the chips. All the circuits for an entire computer are designed onto one super-sized chip. See
wafer.
A Huge Wafer Scale Achievement
In 2019, Cerebras Systems developed its Wafer Scale Engine for deep learning applications (see
Cerebras AI computer).
Attempted More than Forty Years Ago
In 1979, Trilogy tried wafer scale integration with a 2.5 x 2.5" chip but failed to produce a product (see
Trilogy). Since then, the multichip module, which connects several chips in a single housing, has become widely used (see
MCM). In addition, the system-on-chip (SoC) found in every smartphone packs thousands of circuits onto one chip that handles nearly everything (see
SoC).