Silicon
Updated: 06/27/2017 by Computer Hope
First discovered by Baron Jons Jackob Berzelius in 1823, silicon (symbol Si, atomic number 14) is a chemical element. It is the fundamental material in making computer chips because of its excellent semi-conducting properties and because of its abundance.
The picture shows an example of a Silicon wafer with well over 100 silicon chips. After this wafer is made, each of the chips are cut out of the wafer.