Transistors have come a long way. Like everything else electronic, they’ve become both better and cheaper. According to a recent IEEE article, a transistor cost about $8 in today’s money back ...

Many people giving talks had complained about the current germanium transistors -- they had a bad habit of not working at high temperatures. Silicon, since it's right above germanium on the ...

The first transistor was about half an inch high. That's mammoth by today's standards, when 7 million transistors can fit on a single computer chip. It was nevertheless an amazing piece of technology.