You know what? You might be right. However, Verizon seemed to pitch it as some sort of "brain" when I was there. At least, they definitely implied the transistor originated there. But thank you for clarification. Always appreciated.
Bell Labs, where the transistor was discovered, did exactly what you suggest, so maybe the transistor did actually appear 10 years early. It's famous for letting its scientists concentrate on research without concern for commercial uses.
I love that. It’s funny, though – I know the transistor is “little” compared to the vacuum tube, but look at it next to an actual brain cell and it’s enormous!
The patent doesn't mention the term "transistor"; but obviously the patent office came to the conclusion that it is a patentable invention, and the cited by list confirms that it is considered a relevant invention by Bell Labs and other notable institutions. Prior art by Lilienfeld did even stop some applications of Bell Labs from going forward. The transistor invented in 1947 was a point-contact transistor, which is not the concept applied in micro processors as the article confirms.
To be fair, there were plenty of people working into creating a transistor, so if Bell Labs weren't there, somebody else would have done it. It is not even clear that they were really the first.
To be fair, they predict that transistors will be everywhere including places where they (mostly) aren't found today such as in our bodies and close to our food.
I would take that bet, too. If you say “transistor” to non-technical people over 50 or so, they more likely would think of small portable radios (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio). To them, and many others, computers don’t have transistors, they have chips.
They _might_ know the transistor replaced vacuum tubes, but I doubt many would be able to tell what function either had, or be able to point out the transistors inside such a radio.
That's not accurate. AT&T dominated telecommunications for decades before the transistor. Many of Bell Labs great scientific inventions predate the transistor, such as information theory.
Likewise, AT&T licensed the transistor to a small Japanese startup and told them it would probably only be useful for making a hearing aid. Fortunately, Sony had a knack for finding consumer applications of the device and humanity now makes quadrillions of transistors every year.
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