Transistor turns 60

(yesterday, officially)

[RonPK]

[news.com...]

Happy birthday, little fellow! Amazing how much you've shrunk over the years...

[Dabrowski]

Wow! I wonder how big my PC would be if nobody had invented it?

This page has a good pic of the first ever transistor. It's been mounted on a crystal for display purposes but looks quite cool. Wish I had one in my calculator!

[Habtom]

Wow! I wonder how big my PC would be if nobody had invented it?

hehe, the question is not how big your PC would be. Would you afford it?

[King_Fisher]

D-Ski

Where's the picture?...KF

[Dabrowski]

D'oh! What an idiot!

Here's the link!
[porticus.org...]

[LifeinAsia]

hehe, the question is not how big your PC would be. Would you afford it?

I think the real question is this: what would all of us be doing (job-wise) if PCs/Internet had not become cheap and ubiquitous?

[jsinger]

I remember our family's first transistor radio from about 1955. Contained FOUR transistors (not ICs) and cost about $50. Worked very well.

I also vaguely remember vacuum tube portable radios that used up $5 worth of 22 volt batteries in a few hours of playing time.

[jsinger]

Yeah transistors are nice, but the greater invention from my standpoint: no white shirts and ties. We had reached the moon before they figured out that one.

[engine]

Those were the days when it was still possible to repair stuff!

[Dabrowski]

Those were the days when it was still possible to repair stuff

Because it was cost effective to. Now you just chuck another chip in it and that's cheaper than repairing the old one.

I bought a toaster not long ago, it's apparently microchip controlled. It cost £3.75. Imagine if it went wrong the cost of calling a repair dude?

[digitalghost]

As much as I enjoy solid state, ICs and transistors, I will always have a place in my heart for vacuum tubes. Watching them warm up, going to the store to stand in front of the giant vacuum tube tester to test suspect tubes and working on the old vacuum tube devices was always enjoyable.

I collect old radios now just to have an excuse to work with the old tubes. As a result, I have to collect old vacuum tubes. My kids call the things "mad scientist" bulbs. Of course, they call my Tesla coil the "attempted suicide device".

Looking at a transistor just isn't much fun. Fire up a vacuum tube though and it's magic.

[Dabrowski]

they call my Tesla coil the "attempted suicide device".

Isn't that what they use to generate real lightning? Up to 1,000,000 volts or something silly like that?

You're lucky they don't call it 'The actual suicide device'.

[digitalghost]

All depends on how you handle the heat dissipation and what type of switch you use and of course, the input. But yes, they can be dangerous. But you get to create hot plasma!(bad) And cool and make it dissipate. (good)

Output ranges from around 100,000 volts to several millions.

[jsinger]

Fire up a vacuum tube though and it's magic

Most people today don't know that vacuum tubes had to warm up before they functioned, cost a couple of 1950s dollars, got real hot, required high dangerous voltages, used huge amounts of current and lasted maybe three years in heavy use. What a step forward the transistor was!

The last consumer remnant, the CRT, is fading from use. Still used for high power radio transmitter final amplifiers.

[digitalghost]

All the serious high-end stereo equipment uses vacuum tubes. They're not quite gone yet.

[grandpa]

Were it not for transistors, I may have never learned the hole theory.