Word: transistors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...miniaturization of technology, having made extraordinary progress in the 40 years since the invention of the transistor, is about to make another shrinking leap. Adapting the chipmaking equipment used to squeeze millions of electrical circuits onto slivers of silicon, researchers are creating a lilliputian tool chest of tiny moving parts: valves, gears, springs, levers, lenses and ball bearings. One team at the University of California, Berkeley, has already built a silicon motor not much wider than an eyelash that can rotate 500 times a minute...
...shrink the electronics necessary to guide missiles, creating lightweight devices for easy launch into space. It was the Japanese, though, who saw the value of applying miniature technology to the consumer market. In his book Made in Japan, Akio Morita tells how he proudly showed Sony's $29.95 transistor radio to U.S. retailers in 1955 and was repeatedly asked, as he made the rounds of New York City's electronics outlets, "Who needs these tiny things...
Michael's Pub, where the band finally landed a regular gig in 1971, has been the scene of more than a few light moments. When the Mets were in the 1986 World Series, sports-junkie Woody showed up with a tiny transistor television and propped it up on his music stand so he could watch the game while he played. Trombonist Dick Dreiwitz and his wife Barbara, the tuba player, tell of a surprise visit by Groucho Marx. "After one of Woody's solos," says Barbara, "Groucho reached up and handed him a few pennies as a tip." Psychiatrist...
Oblivious to any danger, the woman stands stiffly and stares at the matching coffins. The silence puts on a little weight and becomes fat before she stoops to her handbag and takes out a small transistor radio. She carefully places it on the pine box of her daughter-in-law, in the grave that is the dead bride's new home. "What can it hurt?" she says, looking daggers at the stiff-burner. "Maybe they'll want to listen to some music...
...caused by the difficulty of producing a lightweight Mac with a graphics display as vivid as the larger models'. To achieve that clarity, insiders say, the new machine has an active- matrix screen, in which each of its thousands of picture elements will be controlled by an individual transistor. Instead of Apple's famous mouse, the new Mac has a cursor-control device called a trackball mounted on the keyboard...