Photos: Modern computing balancing on the head of a pin?

What keeps hearts ticking, missiles on track and mobiles ringing?

By Nick Heath, 29 January 2008 10:00

The transistor's smaller size, higher reliability, lower power consumption and lower cost revolutionised both the form factor and economics of electronic devices.

Since its invention, the size of transistors has continued to shrink to the point that today more than six billion transistors - about one for every human alive today - could fit easily in an area the size of a credit card.

Photo credit: LSI Corporation

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