They were the first, I believe, to publish about point contact transistors. Transistors made by sticking a piece of contaminated germanium (most likely) with those sharp needles.
Such an arrangement is obviously too fragile and so more solid junctions were invented. I imagine this was done […]
Such an arrangement is obviously too fragile and so more solid junctions were invented. I imagine this was done […]
Original post on masto.ai
masto.ai
December 27, 2025 at 2:51 AM
They were the first, I believe, to publish about point contact transistors. Transistors made by sticking a piece of contaminated germanium (most likely) with those sharp needles.
Such an arrangement is obviously too fragile and so more solid junctions were invented. I imagine this was done […]
Such an arrangement is obviously too fragile and so more solid junctions were invented. I imagine this was done […]
That’s really the thing. Transistors are devices that were discovered by trial and error.
Junctions were known about in some way at least for a simple reason: they were used in crystal radios, in the form of ‘point contact junctions’. One made a radio receiver by brushing the fine point of a […]
Junctions were known about in some way at least for a simple reason: they were used in crystal radios, in the form of ‘point contact junctions’. One made a radio receiver by brushing the fine point of a […]
Original post on masto.ai
masto.ai
December 27, 2025 at 2:47 AM
That’s really the thing. Transistors are devices that were discovered by trial and error.
Junctions were known about in some way at least for a simple reason: they were used in crystal radios, in the form of ‘point contact junctions’. One made a radio receiver by brushing the fine point of a […]
Junctions were known about in some way at least for a simple reason: they were used in crystal radios, in the form of ‘point contact junctions’. One made a radio receiver by brushing the fine point of a […]
Transistors are devices that are taught to students as operating according to the strengths and extents of electrical fields within them.
Especially in the case of the most common transistors--field effect transistors, which have ‘field’ in their name--they are akin to electron tubes.
Tubes […]
Especially in the case of the most common transistors--field effect transistors, which have ‘field’ in their name--they are akin to electron tubes.
Tubes […]
Original post on masto.ai
masto.ai
December 27, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Transistors are devices that are taught to students as operating according to the strengths and extents of electrical fields within them.
Especially in the case of the most common transistors--field effect transistors, which have ‘field’ in their name--they are akin to electron tubes.
Tubes […]
Especially in the case of the most common transistors--field effect transistors, which have ‘field’ in their name--they are akin to electron tubes.
Tubes […]
If transistors were treated as ‘quantum’ devices, it would be necessary to give electronics engineering students an education in quantum physics, rather than in classical electromagnetics. But it is the latter education they get. They get only the usual Introductory Physics for Engineers stuff […]
Original post on masto.ai
masto.ai
December 27, 2025 at 2:13 AM
If transistors were treated as ‘quantum’ devices, it would be necessary to give electronics engineering students an education in quantum physics, rather than in classical electromagnetics. But it is the latter education they get. They get only the usual Introductory Physics for Engineers stuff […]
Ok this was nuts. Like... I knew that the transistors on modern computer chips are tiny but it's mind-boggling to visualise just *how* tiny they really are.
I shrunk down into an M5 chip
YouTube video by Marques Brownlee
www.youtube.com
December 27, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Ok this was nuts. Like... I knew that the transistors on modern computer chips are tiny but it's mind-boggling to visualise just *how* tiny they really are.
Marques Brownlee shrinks down to explore the #Apple M5 #computer chip. Using #Blender, this #video visually demonstrates the minuscule size of #transistors, comparing them to everyday items at increasingly smaller scales.
#EpicSpaceman #MarquesBrownlee @mkbhd.com #SFX #VFX #GFX #AppleM5
#EpicSpaceman #MarquesBrownlee @mkbhd.com #SFX #VFX #GFX #AppleM5
I shrunk down into an M5 chip
YouTube video by Marques Brownlee
youtu.be
December 26, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Marques Brownlee shrinks down to explore the #Apple M5 #computer chip. Using #Blender, this #video visually demonstrates the minuscule size of #transistors, comparing them to everyday items at increasingly smaller scales.
#EpicSpaceman #MarquesBrownlee @mkbhd.com #SFX #VFX #GFX #AppleM5
#EpicSpaceman #MarquesBrownlee @mkbhd.com #SFX #VFX #GFX #AppleM5
Excellent @mkbhd.com video on understanding the scale of modern transistors and computer chips youtu.be/Jh9pFp1oM7E?...
I shrunk down into an M5 chip
YouTube video by Marques Brownlee
youtu.be
December 26, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Excellent @mkbhd.com video on understanding the scale of modern transistors and computer chips youtu.be/Jh9pFp1oM7E?...
I just headcanon that nuclear science is where all the miniaturization "went to" instead of transistors. Massive computers, engine sized nuclear reactors and nuclear infantry weapons. I know that's not how it works, but...
December 26, 2025 at 3:39 AM
I just headcanon that nuclear science is where all the miniaturization "went to" instead of transistors. Massive computers, engine sized nuclear reactors and nuclear infantry weapons. I know that's not how it works, but...
📰 Graphene transistors turn nanoscale flaws into unclonable digital fingerprints
Manufacturing defects in graphene transistors, typically considered flaws, can serve as the basis for unforgeable wireless security keys. The atomic thinness of graphene makes each transistor...
Manufacturing defects in graphene transistors, typically considered flaws, can serve as the basis for unforgeable wireless security keys. The atomic thinness of graphene makes each transistor...
Graphene transistors turn nanoscale flaws into unclonable digital fingerprints
Manufacturing defects in graphene transistors, typically considered flaws, can serve as the basis for unforgeable wireless security keys. The atomic thinness of graphene makes each transistor...
www.nanowerk.com
December 25, 2025 at 8:15 AM
📰 Graphene transistors turn nanoscale flaws into unclonable digital fingerprints
Manufacturing defects in graphene transistors, typically considered flaws, can serve as the basis for unforgeable wireless security keys. The atomic thinness of graphene makes each transistor...
Manufacturing defects in graphene transistors, typically considered flaws, can serve as the basis for unforgeable wireless security keys. The atomic thinness of graphene makes each transistor...
An acquaintance showed me this: a 'calculator' that uses no transistors to add two (or more) numbers from 0-15 (it's a demo). Pic: the top bank of dip switches holds the value 9 in binary and the bottom 14, with the sum of 23 mA in the ammeter.
Help me get it on front of the right sets of eyes?
Help me get it on front of the right sets of eyes?
December 25, 2025 at 4:44 AM
An acquaintance showed me this: a 'calculator' that uses no transistors to add two (or more) numbers from 0-15 (it's a demo). Pic: the top bank of dip switches holds the value 9 in binary and the bottom 14, with the sum of 23 mA in the ammeter.
Help me get it on front of the right sets of eyes?
Help me get it on front of the right sets of eyes?
From Cells to the Future of AI and Everything in Between: Entity Formation
From cells and fungi to books, transistors and GPUs, progress does not come from smarter components but from new forms of organization. This piece explores how scale creates entirely new technological orde…
#hackernews #news
From cells and fungi to books, transistors and GPUs, progress does not come from smarter components but from new forms of organization. This piece explores how scale creates entirely new technological orde…
#hackernews #news
From Cells to the Future of AI and Everything in Between: Entity Formation
From cells and fungi to books, transistors and GPUs, progress does not come from smarter components but from new forms of organization. This piece explores how scale creates entirely new technological orders, and why the future of AI will be shaped less by bigger models and more by architectures of coordination.
hackernoon.com
December 24, 2025 at 10:09 PM
From Cells to the Future of AI and Everything in Between: Entity Formation
From cells and fungi to books, transistors and GPUs, progress does not come from smarter components but from new forms of organization. This piece explores how scale creates entirely new technological orde…
#hackernews #news
From cells and fungi to books, transistors and GPUs, progress does not come from smarter components but from new forms of organization. This piece explores how scale creates entirely new technological orde…
#hackernews #news
I see it being deployed as two parts to start. Something that can melt the material in the vacuum of space that can control the interface between the molten material with the vacuum of space. The other part would be prefabricated stuff like MEMS, transistors, and lasers stuff thats low-weight
December 24, 2025 at 9:57 PM
I see it being deployed as two parts to start. Something that can melt the material in the vacuum of space that can control the interface between the molten material with the vacuum of space. The other part would be prefabricated stuff like MEMS, transistors, and lasers stuff thats low-weight
⚛️ 🧪 We took a surface technique for ultra-high Si doping from use for cool atomic precision advanced manufacturing (APAM) physics experiments to a CMOS compatible platform that could advance future transistors doi.org/10.1063/5.02... thrilled this was a Featured article in Applied Physics Reviews!
December 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
⚛️ 🧪 We took a surface technique for ultra-high Si doping from use for cool atomic precision advanced manufacturing (APAM) physics experiments to a CMOS compatible platform that could advance future transistors doi.org/10.1063/5.02... thrilled this was a Featured article in Applied Physics Reviews!
Do you simulate the NAND gates of transistors in Logic?
My point is: If you're just using an arbitrary definition of "from scratch" that isn't well defined nor make sense, then everything you think next isn't rational, it's just a wrong mental world you have.
My point is: If you're just using an arbitrary definition of "from scratch" that isn't well defined nor make sense, then everything you think next isn't rational, it's just a wrong mental world you have.
December 24, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Do you simulate the NAND gates of transistors in Logic?
My point is: If you're just using an arbitrary definition of "from scratch" that isn't well defined nor make sense, then everything you think next isn't rational, it's just a wrong mental world you have.
My point is: If you're just using an arbitrary definition of "from scratch" that isn't well defined nor make sense, then everything you think next isn't rational, it's just a wrong mental world you have.
High-powered AM/FM/TV broadcast stations need 3-phase and still use valves (not transistors) as nothing else can handle the amperage load.
December 24, 2025 at 10:39 AM
High-powered AM/FM/TV broadcast stations need 3-phase and still use valves (not transistors) as nothing else can handle the amperage load.
we peeled these transistors off of a discarded circuit board from the phone museum, wherein they were being used as switches for something or another, i think we looked up its data sheet back when we would go there, probably have a photatocopy of it somewhere.,...
December 24, 2025 at 5:51 AM
we peeled these transistors off of a discarded circuit board from the phone museum, wherein they were being used as switches for something or another, i think we looked up its data sheet back when we would go there, probably have a photatocopy of it somewhere.,...
Dec 23rd is basically the birthday of modern electronics. 🎂✨
In 1947, researchers at Bell Labs showed off the first working transistor.
That little lab prototype is why you now carry billions of transistors in your phone, laptop, game console … even your Christmas lights. 🎄⚡
In 1947, researchers at Bell Labs showed off the first working transistor.
That little lab prototype is why you now carry billions of transistors in your phone, laptop, game console … even your Christmas lights. 🎄⚡
December 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Dec 23rd is basically the birthday of modern electronics. 🎂✨
In 1947, researchers at Bell Labs showed off the first working transistor.
That little lab prototype is why you now carry billions of transistors in your phone, laptop, game console … even your Christmas lights. 🎄⚡
In 1947, researchers at Bell Labs showed off the first working transistor.
That little lab prototype is why you now carry billions of transistors in your phone, laptop, game console … even your Christmas lights. 🎄⚡
Butlerian jihad where a guy named Butler moves into the woods and learns how to make vacuum tubes to return us to computers before transistors were a thing.
December 23, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Butlerian jihad where a guy named Butler moves into the woods and learns how to make vacuum tubes to return us to computers before transistors were a thing.
Is #ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML) the most important #IT company on earth?
Only they make #extremeultraviolet (#EUV) & #deepultraviolet (#DUV) lithography printers that even #TaiwanSemiconductorManufacturing (NASDAQ:TSM) relies upon.
Their singular machine prints 10M transistors/cm²
$1062/share
Only they make #extremeultraviolet (#EUV) & #deepultraviolet (#DUV) lithography printers that even #TaiwanSemiconductorManufacturing (NASDAQ:TSM) relies upon.
Their singular machine prints 10M transistors/cm²
$1062/share
ASML allegedly offered to spy on China for the US — company proposed being 'Washington’s eyes and ears in China' after breaking gentlemen’s agreement on limiting DUV sales to country, says new book
ASML is reportedly willing to spy on its customers to make it right with the U.S.
www.tomshardware.com
December 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Is #ASML Holding NV (NASDAQ: ASML) the most important #IT company on earth?
Only they make #extremeultraviolet (#EUV) & #deepultraviolet (#DUV) lithography printers that even #TaiwanSemiconductorManufacturing (NASDAQ:TSM) relies upon.
Their singular machine prints 10M transistors/cm²
$1062/share
Only they make #extremeultraviolet (#EUV) & #deepultraviolet (#DUV) lithography printers that even #TaiwanSemiconductorManufacturing (NASDAQ:TSM) relies upon.
Their singular machine prints 10M transistors/cm²
$1062/share
That, and the ones that didn’t quite latch on. Like how Stan Lee was really impressed by transistors but it didn’t translate to a wider pop culture phenomenon.
December 23, 2025 at 3:13 PM
That, and the ones that didn’t quite latch on. Like how Stan Lee was really impressed by transistors but it didn’t translate to a wider pop culture phenomenon.
Finishing 2025 with a success story. Rebuilt a section of this Ashdown bass amp. Gonna leave it at that.
That’s me done for the year. Time to drink and eat myself to death!
That’s me done for the year. Time to drink and eat myself to death!
December 23, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Finishing 2025 with a success story. Rebuilt a section of this Ashdown bass amp. Gonna leave it at that.
That’s me done for the year. Time to drink and eat myself to death!
That’s me done for the year. Time to drink and eat myself to death!
The challenge for modern computing isn't just putting more transistors on a chip; it’s engineering progress across “the stack,” from materials & devices at the bottom to software at the top. We're working on $1B+ in projects to meet that challenge. b.gatech.edu/4j9Mo2p
December 22, 2025 at 3:37 PM
The challenge for modern computing isn't just putting more transistors on a chip; it’s engineering progress across “the stack,” from materials & devices at the bottom to software at the top. We're working on $1B+ in projects to meet that challenge. b.gatech.edu/4j9Mo2p
For all of the stories of the Apollo computers having fewer transistors than the circuitry in a novelty keychain, it takes forever for consumer hardware to catch up to the capabilities of a distributed system like a modern AI product.
December 22, 2025 at 1:35 PM
For all of the stories of the Apollo computers having fewer transistors than the circuitry in a novelty keychain, it takes forever for consumer hardware to catch up to the capabilities of a distributed system like a modern AI product.
I guess really I mean for computers and circuit-based electronics. Transistors are just way more miniaturizable and have enabled modern computing vs. the old room-sized computers. the tech hasn't "gone away" but it's not used for that purpose anymore.
December 22, 2025 at 1:48 AM
I guess really I mean for computers and circuit-based electronics. Transistors are just way more miniaturizable and have enabled modern computing vs. the old room-sized computers. the tech hasn't "gone away" but it's not used for that purpose anymore.
Woah. You got the transistors and the trans sisters all in one. I’m jealous.
December 22, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Woah. You got the transistors and the trans sisters all in one. I’m jealous.