What invention of the last century would you reckon to be the most used, in the most numbers, by the most people, the most often? The telephone? Nah. How about wheeled transportation? Perhaps, but not in sheer numbers. To find the “most” invention, we need to get much, much closer – down to the microscopic levels in today’s technologies.

                                              Only half of the "core" consist of transistors, the other half is the cache. 300+ million transistors right there.

The transistor is the “most” invention I’m referring to – the computer you’re using right now may weigh in at billions of transistors by its lonesome, and that’s not counting the transistors in the peripheral devices like CD-Drives and power supplies. It’s amazing to think that the casual technological prowess exhibited by the commonplace appliances today owe its abilities to a humble on-off switch that’s been shrunk to microscopic levels.

                                             The first transistor, now mounted on a display stand.

Sixty years have passed since the first transistor was invented by a trio of forward-looking scientists, namely William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain. Their invention consisted of a crazy collection of wires and soldering that looked similar to an abstract art piece. Nevertheless, this invention signaled the end of the cogs, wheels, shafts and vacuum tubes of the old “computers”, adding machines and difference engines that served as “electronics” – pre-transistor.

                                             The as yet unreleased 45nm process chips.

Today scientists are finding ever more creative uses of exotic and not-so-exotic materials to cram even more transistors into smaller packages, so much so that the area occupied by the first transistor invented would comfortable house around 700 million of today’s transistors. Such is progress.

                                             As it says. Vacumm tubes served the same function as the transistor.

So next time you hold up a cellphone, or type on your home PC, or start up your car – remember that these are barely deserving of the name “invention” – the transistor is either the main ingredient or somehow enhances other inventions to the extent that we can all refer to the transistor as the “Most Invention Of The Century”.