In the 60 years since its invention, the transistor has shrunk from hulking origins to the point where more than six billion can fit in an area the size of a credit card. Follow the history of the transistor from its humble origins in Bell Labs to its possible quantum future.
They don't make them like this anymore. We cast an eye back over the ever-shrinking transistor, the invention that became the cornerstone of computing and the modern world.
This is one of the first transistors, a replica of which has been donated to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, by LSI Corporation to mark the device's 60th birthday. This hulking forefather was shrunk down to become the brains of integrated circuits in everything from computers and mobile phones to guided missiles and pacemakers.
Credit: LSI Corporation
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