Silence on the Wire

A Marginally More Popular Computer Design

Although the computer boom of the last several decades sprang from the ingenious transistor, our reliance on it is not associated with any magical value or unique quality. Quite simply, it is the most affordable, usable, and efficient design we have at the moment.

Unlike the possibly far superior wooden gear machine, the electronic computers we use relay electrical signals using transistors, which are tiny devices that let a current flow in one direction between two of their nodes (connection points) when a voltage is applied to the third node. Transistors can be miniaturized quite efficiently, require little power, and are reliable and cheap.

Logic Gates

The transistor is simple. In fact, it alone is too ...