The Transistor 1953

[Homer J Simpson]

[rrinker]

 That is quite interesting. Fun to see the shot of the production line in the Allentown PA plant - I grew up near there, and when I was in high school, in 1983, I participated in an engineering day thing at that plant. This was just shortly after the (forced) breakup of the Bell System, so on at least one occasion while viewing a canned presentation, the presenter joked "just ignore those little Bells in the corner". This was just after another breakthrough for them - the 64K (yes, K) RAM chip. We got to see the whole process, from crystal growth to wafer slicing to the lithography and packaging and testing. They gave us each a sample (failed ones though). Think about that one, mostly germanium transistors in 1953, 30 years later a small sliver of silicon with 100K+ transistors on it, the whole 16 pin DIP package being not really bigger than those 1953 transistors.

                                    --Randy

[rjeberhardt]

Good bit of nostalgia.  I particularly liked the picture of someone at the beach with a portable television set

If they could have seen us now!

Russell

[retrolefty]

unlike many perdections, this one nailed it.