Subscribe to our newsletter. The transistor is an influential invention that changed the course of history for computers. The vacuum tube, used to amplify music and voice, made long-distance calling practical, but the tubes consumed power, created heat and burned out rapidly, requiring high maintenance. In 1956, the team received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the transistor.
Transistors switch and modulate electronic current.
Before transistors, digital circuits were composed of vacuum tubes. The transistor was the first device designed to act as both a transmitter, converting sound waves into electronic waves, and resistor, controlling electronic current. The name transistor comes from the 'trans' of transmitter and 'sistor' of resistor. Bardeen and Brattain took out a patent for their transistor. Shockley applied for a patent for the transistor effect and a transistor amplifier.