[HN Gopher] Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor...
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Morris Tanenbaum, inventor of the silicon transistor, has died
Author : furcyd
Score : 282 points
Date : 2023-05-12 18:32 UTC (4 hours ago)
HTML web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
TEXT w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| jchallis wrote:
| It's incredibly humbling to think that his #2 and #3 life
| achievements were building practical high field superconducting
| magnets (making MRI machines possible a decade later) and being
| CEO of AT&T.
| woodruffw wrote:
| It's incredibly humbling to be reminded how young this field of
| our is: this site and everything its presence implies (about the
| Internet, global communication, computers) would not exist were
| it not for the work of a very-recently-deceased engineer.
|
| Very few other fields (aerospace and modern pharmacology, among
| them) can say the same thing.
| cubefox wrote:
| 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?
| piersj225 wrote:
| This is something the Russians worked on,
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_integrator
|
| I've been told analogue computers got pretty far too,
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
| zdw wrote:
| The Computer History Museum has a surprisingly large
| exhibit on these if you ever get to visit:
|
| https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/analog-
| computers/...
|
| It's pretty fascinating, and a great example of working
| within the limitations of hardware at the time.
| sawyna wrote:
| I don't think anyone has ever explored an alternative here.
| Transistors came out of exploratory research that Bell Labs
| funded and as the other comments say, this indeed happened
| very recently! I suppose the silicon industry and the digital
| age built up so fast that we didn't really have the incentive
| to explore the alternative?
| kens wrote:
| Nowadays, people think of just vacuum tubes and then
| transistors, but in the 1960s there were a lot of different
| technologies being used. For example, superconducting
| cryotrons, magnetic core logic, parametric-phase-locked-
| oscillator logic, microwave logic, electroluminescent-
| photoconductor logic, and tunnel diodes. If transistors
| didn't pan out, there were lots of other technologies that
| could have taken over. Magnetic core logic (not to be
| confused with magnetic core storage) in particular was used
| in several computers and seemed poised for success until
| advances in transistors killed it off.
|
| More: https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-vacuum-tubes-forgotten-
| rival
| petra wrote:
| Possibilities:
|
| Mems vacuum tubes.
|
| Nano electromechanical relays:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanoelectromechanical_relay
| woodruffw wrote:
| 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 them.
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory
| [deleted]
| phkahler wrote:
| 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?
| hutzlibu wrote:
| 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
| [deleted]
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Vacuum tubes was the thing, I'd imagine there would be more
| of that.
|
| That, or mentats.
| mdiesel wrote:
| Mentats would be cool, but don't think it's possible until
| after the butlerian revolution. Before then computers are
| just easier
| cubefox wrote:
| I'm embarrassed to admit that this is the first time I hear of
| him.
| irrational wrote:
| You are one of the lucky 10,000 today.
| supernova87a wrote:
| Agreed, odd that the name just is not in the same group of
| people as Moore, Fairchild, Noyce, etc? This is the first I had
| heard the name.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Fame is never fair and balanced, it seems. I would think
| there are lots of other engineers, who don't even have a
| wikipedia article, who made important contributions as well.
| rchiang wrote:
| Even prior to those guys, Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain
| have the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Kilby
| received the same in 2000 (Noyce passed away in 1990).
| dakial1 wrote:
| "Despite Tanenbaum's early work on silicon transistors, AT&T did
| not support further research or advancement of the technology. At
| the time, Bell Labs was the research arm of AT&T. Although Bell
| Labs had "a significant technological lead in silicon transistor
| technology, it stopped doing proper research in the field--partly
| because it just wasn't immediately relevant to AT&T's business--
| so silicon transistor technology, including the integrated
| circuit, was done by Intel and Texas Instruments instead,"
| Tanenbaum said in a 1999 oral history conducted by the IEEE
| History Center."
|
| Good call AT&T! /s
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| > so silicon transistor technology, including the integrated
| circuit, was done by Intel and Texas Instruments instead
|
| Right. Tanenbaum invented the silicon _transistor_ (which of
| course was a major accomplishment -- definitely worthy of
| honor), but what most people think of as a "microchip" (i.e.,
| an integrated circuit with multiple components on the same
| piece of semiconductor) was invented almost simultaneously by
| Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce (then at
| Fairchild, later a cofounder of Intel).
| allturtles wrote:
| Here's another source that disagrees (BTL = Bell Telephone
| Laboratories):
|
| "In spite of its secondary role as a semiconductor supplier,
| the course of semiconductor research was shaped by the
| scientific and engineering achievements at BTL during the
| 1950s. While most of the semiconductor industry concentrated on
| manufacturing germanium transistors and diodes during this
| decade, BTL spent most of its research dollars on silicon
| devices... Of the ten major events instrumental in the demise
| of germanium as the preeminent starting material, seven
| originated at BTL while the other three were derived from BTL
| research activities. "[0]
|
| [0]: https://ethw.org/w/images/3/3a/Seidenberg%2C_1997.pdf
| mlyle wrote:
| That -agrees-. AT&T built a substantial lead in silicon
| devices during the 1950s, like your source says.
|
| TI and Fairchild pulled firmly ahead in the 1960s; Intel
| became hugely relevant in the 70s and 80s. AT&T had mostly
| abandoned silicon research by this time.
| lordfrito wrote:
| This is a bit late, article (and wikipedia) says he died on
| February 26. [1]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Tanenbaum
| solar_warehouse wrote:
| Morris Tanenbaum (American, physical chemist / transistor
| researcher) [1], not to be confused with Andrew Tanenbaum
| (American-Dutch, CS professor who was responsible for MINIX) [2].
| Both had great significance in what we call "computers" today, in
| their respective fields.
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Tanenbaum
|
| [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum
| shever73 wrote:
| Thanks for the clarification, I was wondering if they were
| related.
| jakjak123 wrote:
| Hah, I read many books by Andrew Tanenbaum. I remember him
| putting in dry comments like 'It is not known whether CPUs have
| dreams during their deepest sleep states.'
| kkarakk wrote:
| i loved those comments, felt like a mentor talking to you
| instead of a person passing on info
| FeistySkink wrote:
| Andrew Tanenbaum is in a no way Dutch. States as much in his
| Wikipedia article. There are plenty of Dutch scientists,
| including in CS, so no need to gekoloniseren another one.
| marcodiego wrote:
| Sorry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lamest_edit_wa
| rs#Eth...
| FeistySkink wrote:
| You're right, this was unnecessary.
| tgv wrote:
| He's lived and worked in The Netherlands since over 35 years,
| possibly 40.
| FeistySkink wrote:
| Does that make him Dutch?
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| "Tanenbaum! You SOB"
|
| _[handshake sound]_
| tgv wrote:
| It's 52 years: https://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/home/cv.pdf, but
| he's still an American citizen. You be the judge, but
| it's certainly not unfair to call him American-Dutch.
| helloooooooo wrote:
| Is calling any permanent resident who is not a citizen
| Dutch reasonable?
| 13of40 wrote:
| If he was born there but lived in the US for 50 years,
| would it be fair to call him a Dutch-American?
| bee_rider wrote:
| Why is everyone just responding with further rhetorical
| questions in this thread? It is annoying.
| rvz wrote:
| Exactly. and deserves a black bar.
|
| Can we please have a black bar for respect and recognising his
| great contributions?
| reasonabl_human wrote:
| Black bar?
| woodruffw wrote:
| HN will sometimes render a black bar on the tops of pages
| when a prominent person has died.
| mjburgess wrote:
| I always assumed that was a rendering error
| woodruffw wrote:
| That would require HN to be modified regularly enough to
| induce rendering regressions :-)
| joshxyz wrote:
| rest in peace sir, wishing you well in your journey.
| andyjohnson0 wrote:
| The tree of technological and scientific developments that enable
| almost all of us - on this site - to do what we do, narrows back
| to just a few people and their work. It seems that this man was
| one of them. Thank you Mr Tannenbaum.
|
| Black bar.
| MichaelZuo wrote:
| It seems the headline is a bit editorialized with 'Microchip' as
| he does not seem to have been involved with subsequent
| developments of the integrated circuit, what microchips commonly
| refer to.
|
| Though, after checking, there apparently are no clear cut
| 'inventors' of the integrated circuit, which strikes me as a bit
| odd.
| dang wrote:
| The article seems to imply that "silicon transistor" would be
| more precise than "microchip" so I've put that in the title
| now, at least until someone explains how it's wrong.
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(page generated 2023-05-12 23:00 UTC)