To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) - Softcover

Bassett, Ross Knox

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801886392 ISBN 13: 9780801886393

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007

Synopsis

The metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor is the fundamental element of digital electronics. The tens of millions of transistors in a typical home―in personal computers, automobiles, appliances, and toys―are almost all derive from MOS transistors. To the Digital Age examines for the first time the history of this remarkable device, which overthrew the previously dominant bipolar transistor and made digital electronics ubiquitous. Combining technological with corporate history, To the Digital Age examines the breakthroughs of individual innovators as well as the research and development power (and problems) of large companies such as IBM, Intel, and Fairchild.

Bassett discusses how the MOS transistor was invented but spurned at Bell Labs, and then how, in the early 1960s, spurred on by the possibilities of integrated circuits, RCA, Fairchild, and IBM all launched substantial MOS R & D programs. The development of the MOS transistor involved an industry-wide effort, and Bassett emphasizes how communication among researchers from different firms played a critical role in advancing the new technology. Bassett sheds substantial new light on the development of the integrated circuit, Moore's Law, the success of Silicon Valley start-ups as compared to vertically integrated East Coast firms, the development of the microprocessor, and IBM's multi-billion-dollar losses in the early 1990s. To the Digital Age offers a captivating account of the intricate R & D process behind a technological device that transformed modern society.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"To the Digital Age is an elegant narrative about IBM's, Intel's, and Fairchild's involvement with metal oxide semiconductor development. The story is tightly told using contemporary literature and the results of interviews done by the author."—Arthur L. Norberg, director of the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota

About the Author:

Ross Knox Bassett is an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0801886392
• ISBN 13: 9780801886393
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 440