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Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#61

Post by irjustin »

colordrops wrote: post #57
intrasight wrote: post #54

I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.

What about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?

I'll be the first to admit this is a meaningless debate but seems fun!

I'll say no

We don't colloquial think of a HDD bit as a manufactured unit on magnetic disks. It doesn't have a direct macro connection/object.

For SSDs the macro analog of a bit storage is a register and those are like 6 nand gates which those are made of like 3 transistors?

Exact numbers are wrong I'm sure. It's been a long time.

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#62

Post by [deleted] »

irjustin wrote: post #61
colordrops wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?

I'll be the first to admit this is a meaningless debate but seems fun! I'll say no We don't colloquial think of a HDD bit as a manufactured unit on magnetic disks. It doesn't have a direct macro connection/object. For SSDs the macro analog of a bit storage is a register and those are like 6 nand gates which those are made of like 3 transistors? Exact numbers are wrong I'm sure. It's been a long time.

[deleted]

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#63

Post by djmips »

colordrops wrote: post #57
intrasight wrote: post #54

I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.

What about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?

You can still walk into a store and buy one transistor but you can't buy one storage bit. Not sure if that is an argument but interesting.

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#64

Post by djmips »

hutzlibu wrote: post #30
phkahler wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure but I think the question is more like "what if physics didn't allow transistors?" rather than if one guy didn't invent them. What's the next best thing, and how far would we have pushed it?

If transistors would not be possible, then lots of other stuff would not exist, like solar panels or digital cameras. Handy electricity conversion, etc. I think alternativly we would have miniaturized vacuum tubes much more, the ones that powered computers before transistors (and made them huge) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum-tube_computer

Surprising to me - size reduced vacuum tubes happened and it's still being worked on in as I understand it. There are some quite miniature working vacuum tubes - if you search you'll find more information.

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#65

Post by dghughes »

intrasight wrote: post #54

I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.

It's amazing to think of a thing someone has made or has helped make be so numerous. And a physical thing too not software or words or an idea an actual thing.

Transistors on a CPU are actual things. Intel or AMD CPUs having billions. One CPU the Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE) as they describe it "has 2.6 trillion transistors, which make up 850,000 AI-optimized processing units". That's one big chip!

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#66

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

woodruffw wrote: post #12
cubefox wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is interesting to think about about alternative history here: If microchip technology had never been invented for some reason, what would we have developed instead? What is the next best computing technology?

I think we would have ended up here anyways: to assume that the silicon transistor would not have been invented without Morris Tanenbaum is to succumb to the Great Man theory[1]. The reality is that Morris was a brilliant man whose life intersected in the right place and time with the arc of history; we should celebrate his life and contributions for that, and not because we think that we'd be stuck in 1950 without t…

You are correct. If I recollect the electric bulb had at least 10 inventors. In fact one of them was an Englishman who had patented it 2 years in England before Thomas Edison had patented it in America.

The radio transmission/reception had two other inventors other than Marconi.

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#67

Post by throwaway173738 »

djmips wrote: post #63
colordrops wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about bits on drive platters? Do they count as individually manufactured units?

You can still walk into a store and buy one transistor but you can't buy one storage bit. Not sure if that is an argument but interesting.

A toggle switch is one bit.

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#68

Post by hovden »

intrasight wrote: post #54

I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.

Interesting. Do you have a source?

How does it compare to other tech, like nails? Or cups? Shoes?

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#69

Post by devsda »

intrasight wrote: post #54

I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.

Interesting numbers.

How does it fare if we compare against those that are measured by weight ?

Edit:typo

Re: Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died

#70

Post by Fatnino »

hovden wrote: post #68
intrasight wrote: post #54

I went looking for a recent estimate of the number of transistors that have been manufactured. It appears to be in the range of 10^23. I'm pretty sure there in nothing else anyone has invented that has been replicated in such volume.

Interesting. Do you have a source? How does it compare to other tech, like nails? Or cups? Shoes?

Letters?
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