A modern solderless breadboard consists of a perforated block of plastic with
numerous tin plated phosphor bronze spring clips under the perforations. Integrated
circuits (ICs) in dual inline packages (DIPs) can be inserted to straddle the centerline of
the block. Interconnecting wires and the leads of discrete components (such as
capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc.) can be inserted into the remaining free holes to
complete the circuit topology. In this
manner, a variety of electronic systems
may be prototyped, from small circuits to
complete central processing units (CPUs).
However, due to large stray capacitance
(from 2-25pF per contact point), solderless
breadboards are limited to operating at
relatively low frequencies, usually less than
10 MHz, depending on the nature of the
circuit. The Figure 4-1 shows the outer and
insider structure of breadbaord.