100 million transistors on the head of a pin

SeilerBird · Apr 23, 2012

http://www.pcworld.com/article/254261/13_quadcore_intel_ivy_bridge_chips_expected.html

Try and wrap your head around the numbers being thrown about in the video at the end of the article. Moore's Law is alive and well.

shakenbake · Apr 23, 2012

That made my brain hurt.

Molaker · Apr 23, 2012

The hard part is soldering the wires to the little rascal.

Wizard46 · Apr 23, 2012

Remember when a transistor was in a can with 3 leads 3/4" long hanging out the bottom. I soldered a lot of those in.

Clay L · Apr 23, 2012

Back in the late 60s the University of Texas at Arlington was given outdated equipment by Texas Instruments for our labs.
I remember how thrilled I was when I constructed A (as in one) diode using gas diffusion.
My how things have changed!!!

Ned · Apr 23, 2012

This was my first transistor, ca. 1953.

SeilerBird · Apr 23, 2012

I got me first transistor in 1959 when I pestered my parents into getting me a 6 transistor radio for Christmas. The next Christmas I pestered them into getting me a 9 transistor radio since my 6 transistor radio was now obsolete. That started a trend that continues to this day, gotta have the latest and the best.

Molaker · Apr 23, 2012

zzyzx said:
I got me first transistor in 1959 when I pestered my parents into getting me a 6 transistor radio for Christmas. The next Christmas I pestered them into getting me a 9 transistor radio since my 6-transistor radio was now obsolete. That started a trend that continues to this day, gotta have the latest and the best.

I got my 1st 6 transistor radio about then, too. It cost me $20. Even as things progressed, they progressed rather slowly. I joined the Navy in '60 and went to electronics school. At that time transistors were only mentioned as "new technology coming soon to a radar near you". A co-worker at a Zenith color TV plant where I worked in the early 70's, bought and built a Heath Kit 4-function calculator with mostly discrete transistors and a single IC (I think). It cost $100, but it did have a leather carrying case. The televisions we were building then only had 3 or 4 transistors in them - hybrids they were called.

If the days of "discrete" components has about come to an end, will the new stuff be "indiscrete"?

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100 million transistors on the head of a pin

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