Message posted by lone wolf on July 06, 2004 at 13:17:45 PST:

The bipolar transistor creation coincides with Roswell, but the bipolar transistor is based on the theories derived from silicon diodes, which date back to the late 1920s. The theories came out the quantum mechanics, though the creation of the silicon PN diode was a processing screw up that turned out to have interesting properties. Probably the most relevant theories would have been frpm Neils Bohr, which I think was also did his work in the 1920s.

Also prior to Roswell were theories and attempts to make MOSFETS, roughly in the 1940s. It wasn't until bipolar technology was perfected that the processing was clean enough to make MOSFETs.

Other than maybe Fowler-Nordheim tunneling, which lead to eeproms, very little has been invented post the Bell Labs transistor creation. It has all been applications of solid state physics theory. Perhaps we need another alien craft to crash on earth. ;-)

In Reply to: Re: Technological Jump posted by Peter Merlin on July 06, 2004 at 9:35:44 PST:

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