Transistor Computers

Transistor Computers

• The property of the transistor, being able to switch between two different states (on-off) is very important for a computer's function.
• In a computer the transistor can be made to switch between two binary states called 0 and 1.

• The transistor is used by the computer to do calculations, etc.
• In today's complex computers there are several thousands, even millions of transistors. In a computer it is not present as a single isolated item, instead it is part of something that is called an integrated circuit.
• Transistors are the fundamental building blocks of a computer, just as cells are the buildin blocks of any living organism.
• It is rare to find any individual transistors in a modern computer but every integrated circuit contains vast number of them.
• For example, every memory location will have a pair of trasistors, so there are 16 of them for each byte, so 16 million of them for each megabyte of memory.
• The central processor which carries out all the calculations and other processes also contains millions of transistors.
• As integrated circuits are developed, the size of each transistor gets smaller, so more can be packed into single chips but they are still doing the same job as the individual transistors that were used to build the very first solid state computers.
• To learn more about the way transistors operate in a computer, it is worth looking the way they are used to make simple logic gates.
• The basic gates such as OR, NOR, AND, NAND and various latches are used to create the powerful computers we take for granted today.
• A study of these gates will offer some insight into the way computers store, move and manipulate data using transistor technology.