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The tiny, mighty transistor
LA Times ^ | 15 December 2007 | By Saswato R. Das

Posted on 12/15/2007 7:01:52 AM PST by shrinkermd

...A transistor is a little electronic switch capable of amplifying electric current, invented by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at Bell Labs in New Jersey on Dec. 16, 1947. They jury-rigged the first transistor using a paper clip, some germanium and gold foil, and found that it boosted electrical current a hundredfold. They kept the discovery to themselves for a bit, and showed their bosses the device just before Christmas. Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1956.

...To put it in economic terms, if the price of an automobile had kept pace with the price drop of a transistor, we would be paying less for a car than for a slice of pizza.

In the next few years, the question is whether the semiconductor industry can sustain this relentless progress. Further shrinking transistors is proving problematic as certain fundamental physical barriers are being reached. At the same time, new frontiers are opening up. The quest is on to create efficient transistors that use and boost light instead of electricity, which will enable much faster processing speeds.

So on its 60th birthday, answer your cellphone, boot up your computer, flip on your iPod -- and in the process, toast the incredible transistor, the humble electronic switch that, in two human generations, has forever changed how we live, work and play.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: birthday; transistor
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1 posted on 12/15/2007 7:01:56 AM PST by shrinkermd
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To: shrinkermd

To put it in political terms, if the price government had kept pace with the price drop of a transistor, democrats would be able to deliver what they promise for the of pizza.


2 posted on 12/15/2007 7:04:43 AM PST by DManA
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To: shrinkermd

Perhaps the single most influential invention of the 20th century.


3 posted on 12/15/2007 7:05:32 AM PST by Hegemony Cricket (Although most dead people vote democrat, aborted babies, if given the choice, would vote Republican.)
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To: DManA

Cost decline with shrinking physical size. Time to shrink gov’t.


4 posted on 12/15/2007 7:06:52 AM PST by Paladin2 (Huma for co-president!)
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To: Hegemony Cricket
Perhaps the single most influential invention of the 20th century.

I'll second that.

5 posted on 12/15/2007 7:07:21 AM PST by randog (What the...?!)
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To: shrinkermd

IC bump


6 posted on 12/15/2007 7:10:04 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona....)
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7 posted on 12/15/2007 7:11:24 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham
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To: shrinkermd
They kept the discovery to themselves for a bit, and showed their bosses the device just before Christmas

You don't suppose that they were contemplating keeping the idea (and profit) for themselves?

8 posted on 12/15/2007 7:12:01 AM PST by fhayek
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To: Paladin2

Moore-on’s Law - The number of bureaucrats that can fit inside the DC beltway increases exponentially.


9 posted on 12/15/2007 7:13:32 AM PST by DManA
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To: shrinkermd

But’s let’s also not forget the triode, the world’s first electrical amplifier and switch - which celebrates its 100th Anniversary next year.

It was the triode which allowed the creation of the first radios, televisions, and yes, even computers.


10 posted on 12/15/2007 7:16:40 AM PST by canuck_conservative
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To: Hegemony Cricket
Perhaps the single most influential invention of the 20th century.

Right up there with the telephone, automobile, airplane, television...

11 posted on 12/15/2007 7:31:48 AM PST by Rudder
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To: Hegemony Cricket
But second to the invention of "Globulus Warming!"

Talk about a Gorejus source of power!

12 posted on 12/15/2007 7:35:07 AM PST by Young Werther (Julius Caesar (Quae Cum Ita Sunt. Since these things are so.))
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To: Hegemony Cricket

I think that the atomic bomb had the greatest ‘impact’.


13 posted on 12/15/2007 7:36:01 AM PST by fhayek
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To: canuck_conservative
A fellow Toastmaster who passed in 1995 was our equivalent of Indiana Jones. As a youngster he followed the events of the Titanic sinking and built his first radio from parts and pieces he could find in the local hardware store. He matriculated at Purdue and graduated in 1919 with a degree in {GULP} Electrical Engineering.

He was hired by Western Electric and in 1921, (or thereabouts), participated in the first Transcontinental Telephone call that was made possible by those new fangled vacuum tube amplifiers.

He retired in 1966 with a healthy portfolio of ATT stock. He moved to Texas after his wife passed and lived with his daughter. He was a high school teacher who taught night classes for those kidswho had dropped out and now needed a GED. He felt that in his small way he was "giving back"!

He was a real "live wire" who amplified his talents and broadcast his feelings!!

14 posted on 12/15/2007 7:44:21 AM PST by Young Werther (Julius Caesar (Quae Cum Ita Sunt. Since these things are so.))
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To: Rudder
Try living without toilet paper, the washing machine and duct tape.
15 posted on 12/15/2007 7:45:10 AM PST by Musketeer
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To: fhayek

ooooh!

profiteering is evil capitalism.

/s


16 posted on 12/15/2007 7:47:12 AM PST by ken21 ( people die + you never hear from them again.)
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To: DManA

Reverse engineered from the Roswell wreckage of July 1947?....I’m just sayin’.


17 posted on 12/15/2007 7:49:34 AM PST by oldsalt (There's no such thing as a free lunch.)
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To: ken21
I don’t mind the profiting, but if they developed the transistor on Bell Laboratory’s time, then Bell should profit. I’m not impugning the inventors, just that it took ten days to tell their bosses about ‘the most significant invention of the twentieth century’. There may have been temptation for one of them to break off and claim they invented it independently. Can’t say that I wouldn’t have been tempted too. Anyway, they didn’t do that, so they did the proper thing.
18 posted on 12/15/2007 7:52:45 AM PST by fhayek
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To: A.A. Cunningham
In the Smithsonian?
19 posted on 12/15/2007 7:53:10 AM PST by Last Dakotan (All my tools are hammers, except screwdrivers which are chisels and punches.)
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To: shrinkermd

Oh come on now... We all know that Bell Labs didn’t “invent” the transistor! They reverse engineered it from the wreckage of an alien spacecraft. It was in all the papers!

Mark


20 posted on 12/15/2007 7:56:05 AM PST by MarkL
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