On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 9:45 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
They took us on a private tour of the old Bell Labs (now it's Nokia, which bought Alcatel-Lucent) in Murray Hill NJ today. We spent a couple of hours there. Photos were not allowed. Among many highlights, we saw the room where they perfected (not "invented") the transistor
I bet you didn't say that _while_ you were visiting there :) And I would hardly call it perfected. As most academics often overlook the technical aspects. Where the 1925 FET is a voltage operated device whereas the Bell Labs Transistor is a current operated device. Two completely different animals Also, you how many of the innovations occurred in the past A lot of it was based on popularity, just look at Edison/Telsa And the 1925 FET was hardly on anyone's "radar" otherwise why did they spend the next 30yrs with vacuum tube computers iso of researching and developing that new innovation further. But it also had mostly to do with making the planar process practical enough to mass produce. Dan