Subsidizing Silicon: NASA and the Computer
“I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be […]
Why AT&T Invented and Shared the Transistor that Started the Digital Revolution
The transistor emerged from the research efforts of AT&T, the corporate behemoth that was formed by JP Morgan and guided by US policy to become the nation’s primary telecommunications provider. Fed by AT&T’s monopoly profits, Bell Labs became a virtual “patent factory”, producing thousands of technical innovations and patents a year by the 1930s. One of its major challenges was to find a more efficient successor to the vacuum tube.
How IT Came to Rule the World, 2.5: Intel and the PC
After twenty years of government backing, the microprocessing industry was about to crawl out on its own. And it was the microcomputer that would give the semiconductor industry the legs to become viable in the commercial arena.
how IT came to rule the world, 1.8: Bell Labs and the Transistor
Three licensees in particular, Motorola, Texas Instruments and Fairchild took advantage of AT&T’s transistor technology.