Transistors and transistor computers

Summary

Due to their immense size and high power consumption, tube computers are not attractive for companies. This changes through the transistor. It controls low electronic currents. The term is borrowed from the English words “transfer” and “resistor”.

Although the transistor was invented by physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley as early as 1947, the first types are still far too expensive to develop computers suitable for the masses. This is due to the rare semiconductor material Germanium. This changes in 1954 with the much cheaper silicon.

Transistors are small, robust, their power consumption is minimal and they switch about 100 times faster than tubes. Researchers at the University of Manchester are experimenting with new computer types. In 1953 they introduced probably the first transistor computer. As with the tubes, however, there are high failures. Only around 1960 are transistors reliable and inexpensive.