This fall, visitors to the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum will have the opportunity to learn more about the hidden heroes powering everything from computers and phones to home appliances, cars, and medical devices: microchips.
Opening in October, “Microchips That Shook the World” is a highly mobile, interactive exhibit from IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, through the IEEE Global Museum. The exhibit is presented in partnership with IEEE Spectrum and IEEE Foundation, with philanthropic support from ASML, the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society, the Bill and Dianne Mensch Foundation, and other generous donors.
The Attleboro Area Industrial Museum will celebrate the exhibit’s arrival with a special opening reception on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 2 p.m. The reception will feature light refreshments, and admission is free and open to the public.
Featuring a display of microchips and artifacts dating back to the 1970s, “Microchips That Shook the World” explores how microchips function and the vital roles they play in electronic technology. Guests can take an up-close look at the first single-chip speech synthesizer, which made possible Texas Instruments’ educational Speak & Spell toy, and contemplate how far photography has come by gazing at the image sensor at the heart of the first Kodak digital camera.
“Chips do so many things in our lives, but they’re always hidden away. ‘Microchips That Shook the World’ makes them visible, literally and figuratively,” said Kathleen Kramer, 2025 IEEE President and CEO. “This exhibit promotes awareness of how technological progress unfolds over generations and how engineers and researchers can build on past achievements to improve people’s lives.”
Visitors will learn about those in engineering who were behind the invention of microchips that shaped this technological society. Guests will encounter:
- The ubiquitous FM radio chip that inspired a thousand gadgets in the 1980s because one factory manager went rogue
- The humble 555 timer chip—designed by hand 50 years ago, yet still in mass production because every electronics engineer will use it at one time or another
- The microchip that became the main brain of seminal computers like the Commodore 64
- And other chips with cryptic names, like “KAF-1300” and “PIIX3,” that made possible iconic retro products visitors will remember or recognize from their own lives.
The exhibit will remain on view at the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum from October through December 2025.