fire in the valley by freiberger and swaine

The following excerpts are from the new edition of Fire In The Valley --

EXCERPT ONE * Development of the Microprocessor

EXCERPT THREE * DEC and Employee Desires

EXCERPT FOUR * The First Hobbyist Personal Computer

EXCERPT FIVE * Ed Roberts and the MITS Altair

THE TRANSISTOR AND THE NOBEL PRIZE
The transistor led to a Nobel Prize for its inventors:

William Shockley The device that consigned the vacuum tube to the back-alley bin was the transistor, a tiny, seemingly inert slice of crystal with interesting electrical properties. The transistor was immediately recognized as a revolutionary development. In fact, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the innovation.

The transistor was significant for more than merely making another bit of technology obsolete. Resulting from a series of experiments in the application of quantum physics, transistors changed the computer from a "giant electronic brain" that was the exclusive domain of engineers and scientists to a commodity that could be purchased like a television set. The transistor was the technological breakthrough that made both the minicomputers of the 1960s and the personal computer revolution of the 1970s possible. Bardeen and Brattain introduced "the major invention of the century" in 1947, two days before Christmas. To understand the real significance of the device that came into existence that winter day in Murray Hill, New Jersey, you have to look back to research done years before.

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Fire in the Valley by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine


William Shockley	The device that consigned the vacuum tube to the back-alley bin was the transistor, a tiny, seemingly inert slice of crystal with interesting electrical properties. The transistor was immediately recognized as a revolutionary development. In fact, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the innovation.
The transistor was significant for more than merely making another bit of technology obsolete. Resulting from a series of experiments in the application of quantum physics, transistors changed the computer from a "giant electronic brain" that was the exclusive domain of engineers and scientists to a commodity that could be purchased like a television set. The transistor was the technological breakthrough that made both the minicomputers of the 1960s and the personal computer revolution of the 1970s possible. Bardeen and Brattain introduced "the major invention of the century" in 1947, two days before Christmas. To understand the real significance of the device that came into existence that winter day in Murray Hill, New Jersey, you have to look back to research done years before.