Integrated circuits are electronic circuits where components (especially MOSFETs) are directly on a wafer of silicon.
The integration level of chips describe how many components are on the wafer. Small-scale integration (SSI) chips have less than 10 gates. Medium-scale integration (MSI) chips have less than 1000 gates. Large-scale integration (LSI) chips, like simple 8-bit microprocessors have less than 10 000 gates. Very large-scale integration (VLSI) chips describe modern chips with more than 10 000 gates.