Semiconductors and the Information Revolution

CHAPTER 4. Micro and Macro

The Integrated Circuit and Power Electronics

The initial take up of transistor electronics may have been a trifle sluggish but by the middle of the 1950s things were changing fast. In 1951, there were 4 companies marketing transistors, 8 in 1952, 15 in 1953 and as many as 26 by 1956. Stimulated by military contracts, silicon diffused devices were being manufactured in considerable numbers and, by 1960, there were no less than 30 US companies making transistors to a total value of some $300 million. Compared to the size of the industry today, which is of order $10¹², this may appear tiny but it nevertheless represented dramatic progress over the single decade which had elapsed since the first devices went into production. ...