The transistor
A solid-state switch replaces the vacuum tube, and everything electronic becomes possible.
- When
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley demonstrate the point-contact transistor at Bell Labs in December 1947. It amplifies and switches like a vacuum tube but is tiny, robust, cheap and uses almost no power. Every computer, phone and digital device since is built from them; a modern processor contains tens of billions. It is arguably the most consequential single invention of the twentieth century.