The Microprocessor and the World Wide Web – Two Technological Revolutions and a Second Reversal? – 1971, 1991

Eduardo Albuquerque

Chapter Chapter 7 in Technological Revolutions and the Periphery, 2023, pp 159-189 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Intel’s microprocessor, in 1971, starts the fifth technological revolution. In this chapter summarizes the connections between the innovation scenario before the microprocessor and after the www. Four interrelated areas constitute a specific dynamic: components, computers, software, and networks. The interactions among them show a set of self-reinforcing mechanisms, with strong impact on the whole economy – one is how it affects all previous innovations: textiles are produced using computers. This is the first technological revolution that is faced by independent nations, able to design national policies for development. In this chapter shows how our five countries/regions had attempted to produce computers and/or components, but the intensity of the changes in these fields produced obsolete competencies – entry and exit from these technologies seems to be a peculiarity of this phase. Miller (Chip War: the fight for world’s most critical technology. Scribner, New York, 2022) describes the current situation, with the production of semiconductors concentrated in East Asia – China included –, and a very special firm – ASML – monopolizing the production of advanced chipmaking machines. A very difficult challenge for countries in our five regions, that have been trying to devise specific roles within those four areas to join global markets – such as India in the realm of software.

Keywords: Semiconductors; Computers and networks; International production; Periphery; New varieties of capitalism; Trajectories and technological gaps; Entry and exit in information industries; Superposition of backwardnesses; “Boomerang effect” (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-43436-5_7

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