The transistor: The most important invention of the 20th century?

SOME FACT:
The first transistor was about the size of the palm of a hand, with a depth of two matchbooks stacked on top of each other.

The first commercial device to use a transistor was the Sonotone 1010 hearing aid, created in 1953.

The first transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, went on the market for $49.99 in 1954. The radio contains four transistors.

Sony Corp. introduced the first portable, transistorized TV, the TV8-301, in 1960. It had a 5-in. screen and used 23 silicon and germanium transistors.

Intel Corp.'s Gordon Moore in 1965 came up with what came to be known as Moore's Law, which stated that the number of transistors on a chip will double about every two years. Forty-two years later, Moore's Law still holds true.

Busicom introduced the first single-chip, pocket-size calculator, the LE-120A HANDY, in 1971.
In 1983, Motorola Inc. introduced the first commercial mobile phone, the DynaTAC 800X. It was powered by transistors and cost $3,995.

Today, a 45-nanometer Penryn chip from Intel holds 820 million transistors.

Intel estimates that about 10 quintillion (or a 1 followed by 19 zeros) transistors ship each year. That 10,000 times the number of ants on Earth

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