IBM Inc. is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the transistor – a semiconductor device crucial to the circuitry in computers, cell phones and other electronics – and touting its achievements in the space.
The Armonk, NY-based computer maker said it’s been a driving force in semiconductor research technologies with its development of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) as well as its work in creating the Cell microprocessor.
On December 17, 1947, scientists at Bell labs succeeded in building the transistor, considered by many to be the greatest invention of the twentieth century and the key component to virtually every modern electronic.
Big Blue cited more of its advances in the semiconductor field including the introduction of the first chips wired with copper, enhancements to transistor performance through the use of silicon-on-insulator (SOI), strained silicon and silicon germanium (SiGe) technologies.
In 2005, the U.S. Government awarded IBM with a National Medal of Technology for its work in this field.