What if the transistor was never invented?
Maybe miniaturizing of energy sources took priority over material miniaturization. Lets just assume no transistors in 1953.
How would technological process be effected?
Would there be comparable substitutes? Would Moore's Law be stunted? Would desktop computers exist?
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>Would there be comparable substitutes? Would Moore's Law be stunted? Would desktop computers exist?
very counterfactual, but the answer is no.
vacuum tubes were around. and anything like the modern "computer" would be basically impossible with tubes.
but the transistor was a direct consequence of the quantum revolution in physics. if bardeen, brattain, and shockley hadn't done it, somebody else would have. thanks physics.
hypothetically what would a work-around look like?
>hypothetically what would a work-around look like?
ever seen the "tube amp" fetish that goes on among audiophiles? much much larger machines to do the same job, just with tubes instead of solid-state devices...
basically they're the only community who hangs onto the "i hate transistors" idea, and i guess in their case it makes a bit of sense. but in computing, where you want totally predictable and reproducible performance, transistors >> tubes
>tube amp
damn that looks unwieldly
Actual mechanical "computers". Basically mems
mems?
Inagine a mechanical calculator, but on microscopic scale.
Mems was just getting more attention in around the 90s or so
>if bardeen, brattain, and shockley hadn't done it, somebody else would have.
Look up Oleg Losev.
obviously back-to-back diodes
Maybe photonic computing or something else would have been adopted. There's always biological computing, trying to build something out of rat brains might seem worthwhile in a world without transistors.
I have exactly 1 transistor in a vintage laptop that wont power up.
Could 1 transistor prevent it from powering up or am i barking up the wrong tree in thinking about replacing it
>Would there be comparable substitutes?
There are a lot of ways to build a computer. Gears, tubes and relays would all work but would also need replacing from time to time. My money would be on inductor core memory and rope logic taking over. Its the most miniturizable and probably also the easiest to mass produce.
if it's a blown mosfet that supplies vcore, no shit
>implying I'm supposed to know what you just said
Yeah but it does give a different, often preferable sound.
Especially when it comes to tube amp distortion in guitar amps. Tubes have hugely different distortion characteristics than transistors. Just can't get that with solid state. Though to be fair, the huge bulky tube is pretty outdated now that these are around.
Have these been used in anything other than in that one overpriced Tube Screamer?
I've seen some Vox amps with them. They're still pretty new, so I expect them so become more prevalent in the future.
>What if the transistor was never invented?
TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUBES!
The answer is TUUUUUUUUUUBES.
Damn straight
>2% of the power and 30% of space used compared to equivalent stand alone lamp setup
I'm not a lampfag, but this thing is pretty neat. I bet it could be miniaturised even more if optimised for digital signals instead of audiophile memes.
Then the internet would really be a series of tubes
So thanks to the invention of the transistor the internet is a big truck.
Military uses tubes quite a but still, not due to hate but for EMP resistance.
Haven't you heard of SQUID??
Which military I may ask?
Soviet military in the 80s used tubes because they didn't have access to military-grade ICs until their scientist figured out and reverse-engineered smuggled Z80 chips.
US military had phased out vacuum-tube electronics in vietnam war (unless you meant the cathode tube which was used as display for radar and stuff)
USDOD
Still used in lots of radar and comms applications above 15ghz (something like 170,000 devices still have tubes) though Solid-State is slowly replacing it.
F22 was the testbed for 100% Solid State radar.
A YouTube amp repair guy named "the guitologist" played around with some of these on a testbed designed by the manufacturer. Seems the main downside is that they can be pretty microphonic and ring out like a spring reverb if they encounter vibrations.
transistor was not invented, was discovered.
Going to need some sources on that, are you sure you are not mistaking electronic scanning with tubes somehow?
>transistor was not invented, was discovered.
Going to need a source on that.
Surely this is bait.
>What if the transistor was never invented?
Then you would still have diode logic. It isn't as efficient as transistors but it does work.
No, he is correct.
As in pic related. Quite popular in its time.
>What if the transistor was never invented?
You know, portable computer is only 1000 miniature electric lamps, and only 3200W.
MEMS = Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. Essentially mechanical parts that are extremely small but not nano tech, but often made using semiconductor fabrication technologies such as photo lithography and dry etching. Pic. related.
what is this, a machine for ticks?
Anything beyond core memory was a mistake. You shouldn't trust anything where the individual bit storage points can't be seen with a naked eye.
It is a way of fitting Babbage's Analytical Engine into a wrist watch.
>imblying
But what if the laws of (quantum) physics were a little different, making transistors impossible?
I think our world would have been very different if everything followed Newtonian physics.
The first transistors were naturally occurring crystals.
>basically they're the only community who hangs onto the "i hate transistors" idea
Film /p/hags are the same.
Even hating on advanced metering and auto focus.
Has someone ever made a tube based 16/32-bit general CPU?
Imagine running ucLinux on it.
i hope you have;
- a lot of money
- a lot of space
- a lot of power
Cite? Or did you think of whiskers diodes?
idk what its is even good for lol
... that Swiss watch brands will face a new disaster with cheap 3D printed MEMS based watches.
Based physicians
