The transistor turns 60!


In December 1947, Bells Labs scientists succeeded in building a revolutionary technology that would change the world of electronics forever: the transistor.

The transistor, a semiconductor device commonly used as an amplifier or an electrically controlled switch, is the fundamental building block of the circuitry in computers, cellular phones, and all other modern electronic devices.

Incorporated into integrated circuits, transistors helped to make electronic devices smaller, faster and cheaper. In 1970, Intel manufactured its first processor, the 4004, counting 2,300 transistors. In 1995, the Pentium Pro contained 5.5 million transistors. And today, a current Quad Core processor has about 820 million transistors!


The transistor is considered the most important innovation of the 20th century and its inventors won the Nobel Prize of physics in 1956.