INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (IC)

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (IC) are miniature electronic circuits. They are housed inside a DUAL INLINE PACKAGE (DIP) which has pins linked to the chip inside. The pins are numbered counter clockwise from the top left, and the top can be discovered by looking for the half circle indentation on the component. These are really sensitive, and if you are soldering you need to use a DUAL INLINE SOCKET (DIL SOCKET). Its basically another plastic component with pins to solder to the board and pin holders that you can just push the IC into when you are finished.

Sometimes there are other labels on the DIP besides number. These do not effect the numbering system, so they replace the number and the pin count remains the same. So if pin 1 was labeled VDD, pin 2 would still be pin 2, not pin 1. Here are some common alternates:

VDD - positive supply
VSS - ground or negative supply
GND - ground or negative supply

ICs are designed to be placed over the cooling area on the breadboard, connecting columns E and F together. This is a photo of the Hex Inverter IC used in the first project.