Microsoft releases Windows 95. 1 million copies are sold with the first 4 days. Intel announces the Pentium Pro processor. The processor uses 5.5 million transistors. The personal computer has developed out of the lock-step advances made in hardware and software.
Good ideas are sometimes at the mercy of the profit margin.
The materials most commonly used are silicon and germanium into which impurities have been introduced. These are generally classified as bipolar or field effect. The dividing surfaces between the conductivity types are called p-n junctions. The electrons pass through the junctions from one layer to the other. A field-effect transistor functions in a similar fashion except that the resistance to the electron flow is modulated by an external electric field.