| Timeline |
| 1904 |
Sir John Ambrose
Fleming invents the vacuum tube and diode. |
| 1906 |
Lee De Forest
develops the triode. |
| 1934 |
Electronic
hearing aid invented |
| 1947 |
John Bardeen,
Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley of Bell Telephone
Laboratories invent the transistor. |
| 1950s |
Germanium is used
to make semiconductors in transistors. Late in the 1950s, silicon
begins to replace germanium as a semiconductor material.
|
| 1954 |
The transistor
radio is introduced and becomes the largest selling item of the
time |
| 1958 |
Jack Kilby of
Texas Instruments invents the integrated circuit (IC).
|
| 1958 |
Robert Noyce
develops an integrated circuit that can be miniaturized and reliably
manufactured |
| 1958 |
Seymour Cray at
Control Data Corp. develops a transistorized computer |
| 1961 |
Silicon chips
first appear |
| 1967 |
First handheld
calculator using an integrated circuit is made by Texas Instruments.
|
| 1968 |
Robert Noyce
cofounds Intel. |
| 1970 |
The bar code
system is created. |
| 1971 |
Intel introduces
its popular 4004 4-bit microprocessor, starting the evolution of
Intel's famous line of 386, 486, and Pentium processors |
| 1971 |
First video game
and video disc introduced. |
| 1979 | Mattel Toy Company receives
1 millionth chip for electronic games |
| 1980s |
Integrated
circuits applied to computers |
| 1981 |
32-bit silicon
chips developed. |
| 1984 |
Compact disc (CD)
player introduced. |
| 1984 |
CD-ROM
(compact-disc read-only memory) is available |
