Transistor and Microcomputer History

A set of vocabulary flashcards detailing the key figures, inventions, and laws associated with the development of the transistor and the early microcomputer industry.

William B. Shockley

Known as the "Father of the Transistor," he joined Bell Labs in 1936 and later devised the junction transistor.

Walter Houser Brattain

An experimental physicist who worked on vacuum tubes and was part of the Bell Labs team that developed the first transistor.

John Bardeen

A physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1956 and worked with Shockley and Brattain on semiconductors starting in 1946.

December 1947

The month and year when Bardeen and Brattain put together the first transistor.

Jack Kilby

An employee of Texas Instruments who conceived of integrated circuits (ICs) and reduced the transistor to the size of a match head.

Integrated circuits (ICs)

A manufacturing method that allows the miniaturization of electronic circuits on semiconductor chips.

Robert Noyce

A co-founder of Intel who, while at Fairchild, adapted "planar" manufacturing to embed metal wiring in silicon chips.

Planar manufacturing

A system where transistors and resistors are formed together on a silicon chip with metal wiring embedded in the silicon.

Moore’s Law

The observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months while the price remains the same.

Grosch’s law

A law for mainframes stating that every year, the power of computers doubles while the price is cut in half.

Intel

Founded in 1968 by Noyce, Moore, and Andrew Grove, initially focusing on random access memory (RAM) chips.

Ted Hoff

The designer of the Intel 4004, which became the first microprocessor in 1969.

Intel 4004

The first microprocessor, designed by Ted Hoff in 1969.

Ed Roberts

The founder of Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1968.