Transistor computer

IBM 1620, a transistor computer used in 1960s

A transistor computer, now often called a second generation computer, is a computer which uses individual transistors instead of vacuum tubes. The first generation of electronic computers used vacuum tubes, which were big, unreliable, and generated large amounts of heat. A second generation of computers, through the late 1950s and 1960s contained circuit boards filled with individual transistors and magnetic core memory. These machines were in use up to the late 1960s, when integrated circuits became available.

Transistor Computer Media

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  TRADIC (for TRAnsistor DIgital Computer or TRansistorized Airborne DIgital Computer), the first transistorized computer in the USA, completed in 1954. The computer was built by Jean Howard Felker (visible at left) at Bell Labs for the United States Air Force, intended as a prototype for aircraft navigation and bomb targeting computers.*Alterations to image: a small piece is torn out of the paper original along lower left edge.