Word: transistorized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Jersey, when two Bell Labs scientists demonstrated a tiny contraption they had concocted from some strips of gold foil, a chip of semiconducting material and a bent paper clip. As their colleagues watched with a mix of wonder and envy, they showed how their gizmo, which was dubbed a transistor, could take an electric current, amplify it and switch...
...grandest measure we have of human time--permits us to think big about history. We can pause to notice what Grove calls, somewhat inelegantly, "strategic inflection points," those moments when new circumstances alter the way the world works, as if the current of history goes through a transistor and our oscilloscopes blip. It can happen because of an invention (Gutenberg's printing press in the 15th century), or an idea (individual liberty in the 18th century), or a technology (electricity in the 19th century) or a process (the assembly line early in this century...
...decentralizes power. As the transistor was being invented, George Orwell, in his book 1984, was making one of the worst predictions in a century filled with them: that technology would be a centralizing, totalitarian influence. Instead, technology became a force for democracy and individual empowerment. The Internet allows anyone to be a publisher or pundit, E-mail subverts rigid hierarchies, and the tumult of digital innovation rewards wildcats who risk battle with monolithic phone companies. The symbol of the atomic age, which tended to centralize power, was a nucleus with electrons held in tight orbit; the symbol of the digital...
...logical solution was to replace the tubes: build a device that performed the same role--storing electrical charges--but that was less temperamental. The device was an electrical "switch" called a transistor, essentially a tiny electrical gate that controlled the flow of electrons that computers needed to do their math. Yet wrangling infinitesimally small electrons into place demanded phenomenally pure chemical surfaces. In the 1950s and '60s this was an act of near alchemy, certainly beyond the capabilities of most scientists. What the world needed was a reliable base for these circuits. What would...
...overhaul of this $45.67 billion company, which by the way is America's most respected brand, according to a Harris poll. Strategically, Sony is taking the plunge into the digital, wired world. It had little choice. Sony got rich and famous by building a series of great gadgets--the transistor radio, the Walkman, Trinitrons--that took advantage of unique technical advances, like those in miniaturization. Although Sony still makes a ton of money on Walkmans, its competitive edge in such stand-alone products is fading in a world where music and video are increasingly being rendered in the digital language...