Monday, December 17, 2007

Happy Birthday Mr. Transistor

It has aged very well, and is helping pay a lot of our paychecks. We truly stand on the shoulders of the giants who invented and advanced such a seemingly simple yet amazingly versatile and powerful device: The transistor turns 60 | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Along the same lines, Fairchild, the first big semiconductor company and training ground for countless startup founders, recently celebrated its 50th birthday.

I've often thought that if you really, really grokked the transistor, you'd be all set to contribute to large swaths of electrical engineering. I'm certainly not as facile with all its behaviors as I'd like. How long would it take to really understand, thoroughly and intuitively? A year? Four years? A career?

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