BEFORE AI / ELECTRONICS · EDITORIAL FEATURE
The Tiny Switch Behind the Digital Revolution
Why the transistor changed electronics and made modern computing possible.
Modern phones contain billions of transistors. Their story began with a breakthrough in semiconductor electronics.
From bulky components to solid-state devices
In 1947, researchers at Bell Labs demonstrated the first working point-contact transistor. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their research on semiconductors and the transistor effect.
Why scale changed everything
Transistors can act as electronic switches and amplifiers. Combined into integrated circuits, they enabled smaller, more reliable and increasingly powerful electronic systems.
From switches to AI
Today's AI systems depend on specialized chips made from enormous numbers of transistors. The algorithms may be new, but the hardware has deep historical roots.
Further reading: Nobel Prize in Physics 1956; Computer History Museum.