Transistors - Progress

Progress

The number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years with minimal rise in cost.

1954 - First Transistor Radio

The first manufactured commercial transistor video, the Regency Model TR-1 Transistor Radio, is released on 1954. The radio costs around $50 (about $400 today), and is able to receive AM stations ("Regency Model TR-1 Transistor Radio").

Back in 1948, transistor are already stable, but the U.S. millitary purchased all the available transistors they have produced. ("Regency Model TR-1 Transistor Radio"). It was not until 1954 when a small radio company saw the potential profit in transistor radios, and began producing them.

1955 - Sony TR-55

The first Japanese transistor radio, manufactured by Sony.

1957 - Mesa Transistor

In 1957, Jack Kilby from Texas instruments developed the Mesa Trasistor (Troutman et al., 1862).

1959 - MOSFET Transistor

The MOSFET transistor, the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, is invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng. This semiconductor relied on the principles of silicon oxidation aforementioned, and is the most common type of semiconductor used in modern computing devices, such as personal computers and phones

1970 - Unix Epoch

The Unix Epoch is a method to represent time on most modern computing devices. This system is invented in 1969, by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, father of the Unix Operating System (National Inventors Hall of Fame). It represent the number of seconds that have passed since 00:00AM on January 1st, 1970.

The invention of Unix time represents the start of the modern computing era, which even until now is possible thanks to transistors.

Commercialization

Soon enough, transistors were ready to be sold to the public. During the 1950s, where production of commercially used transistors are most prevalent, Bell Labs license the technology of the transistor to other companies, including General Electric, Raytheon, RCA, and Transistron Electrics (Riordan). These transistors were used in making lightweight electronic devices such as hearing aids and portable radios.

Transistors also replaced vacuum tubes in computers manufactured by companies including IBM, Control Data, and other companies. In a radio interview with Bell Labs scientists, circuit engineer Robert Wallace say, “This means you can pack a large number of them in a small space without excessive heat generation and achieve low propagation delays. And that’s what you need for logic applications. The significance of the transistor is not that it can replace the tube but that it can do things the vacuum tube could never do”! After 1955, IBM began purchasing germanium transistors from Texas Instruments in masses, and by the end of the 1950s bipolar junction have almost completely replaced vacuum tubes in the industry (Riordan).

Further Development

In the late 1950s, silicon oxidation is achieved by C. J. Frosh, which allowed the production of the MOSFET transitor, another improved version of the transistor, to be possible. MOSFET transistors would Later come into daily use in the 1970s (Troutman et al., 1862).

At this point, transistor technology has been greatly developed. The MOSFET transistor was the final stable version of the transistor, which was widely used by modern technology, especially personal devices. It relying on silicon as a semiconductor means that it can be mass produced in extremely small sizes, a few nanometers wide at times, and integrated into chips. The process of manufacturing modern processor chips also builds on top of a silicon wafer. The invention of transistor truely changed humanity's fate and enabled modern computing.