Power devices are in the chips: New power integrated circuits, called PICs, put both power-handling semiconductors and logic on the same IC chip; soon they may be part of every household appliance

Today's automobile is burdened with some 100 pounds of wiring. It could be cut to 50. Commercial airliners carry some 8000 lb of electric wiring. It could be cut to a few hundred pounds. Standard power integrated circuits could help do the job, if only they were available. Power integrated circuits would help utilities and their rate-payers as well; ac motors consume more than 50 percent of all the electricity used in the United States, much of which is wasted because the motors run at constant speed. Variable-speed motors in washing machines, air conditioners, and machine tools - under the control of power ICs - would eliminate this vast waste.