The Long-lived Transistor
By Robert W. Keyes
The basic unit of the computer revolution has changed in form, material and fabrication, but nothing has come along in half a century to displace it
This Article From Issue
March-April 2009
Volume 97, Number 2
Page 134
DOI: 10.1511/2009.77.134
On October 22, 1985, the “Science Times” section of the New York Times ran an article titled “Light, Not Electricity, Key to New Computers.” No progress in computing with light was announced for several years, but in 1990 a report of an optical computer put together by AT&T’s research laboratory inspired the headline “Is Optical Computing The Next Frontier Or Just a Nutty Idea?” in the January 30 Wall Street Journal.
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