Transistors (3, p64)

1947, First transistor at AT&T, story and photo (5)
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William B. Shockley

Early 50s, lab versions

1956-58, Philco is making "surface-barrier" transistors in quantity
Builds SOLO, a general purpose transistorized computer, for NSA.

Late 50's, reliable enough for commercial use

1. William Aspray, ed., Computing Before Computers (Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1990 ). Also available online at http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/DocumentArchive/Documents/Books/Computing Before Computers/CBC.html (Computer History Museum, accessed 2004 Aug 11).

2. Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray. Computer: A History of the Information Machine (Basic Books, 1996).

3. Paul E. Ceruzzi. A History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 2000).

4. Paul E. Ceruzzi, Reckoners, the Prehistory of the Digital Computer, from Relays to the Stored Program Concept, 1935-1945 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983). Also available online at http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/DocumentArchive/Documents/Books/Reckoners/Reckoners.html (Computer History Museum, accessed 2003 Sep 27).

5. David Massey, "Bell System Memorial: The Transistor," http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/belllabs_transistor.html (David Massey, 2004, accessed 2004 Nov 1).

Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson, Crystal Fire (W. W. Norton & Co., 1997).