diff --git a/_static/biodigitaljazz.css b/_static/biodigitaljazz.css index 5f18413..743c9c5 100644 --- a/_static/biodigitaljazz.css +++ b/_static/biodigitaljazz.css @@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ footer p { padding: 0; } +img { + max-width: 100%; +} + nav { margin: 0; } diff --git a/blog/index.rst b/blog/index.rst index 3cec4be..35217bf 100644 --- a/blog/index.rst +++ b/blog/index.rst @@ -8,5 +8,6 @@ Read yourself a thing .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 + littlebraincell picam asm diff --git a/blog/littlebraincell.png b/blog/littlebraincell.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1af3ca8 Binary files /dev/null and b/blog/littlebraincell.png differ diff --git a/blog/littlebraincell.rst b/blog/littlebraincell.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e6cf0d --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/littlebraincell.rst @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +.. _littlebraincell: + +Transistor first reported as "Little Brain Cell" +================================================ + +*2023 Nov 28* + +.. _interview: https://www.latent.space/p/semianalysis + +.. _Chip War: https://www.christophermiller.net/semiconductors-1 + +Last week I listened to the Latent Space `interview`_ with "That +SemiAnalysis Guy". His name is Dylan Patel but I'm going to keep calling him +That SemiAnalysis Guy because it tickles my brain for some reason. +The interview was great! It motivated me to finally learn more about the +hardware industry. At the end of the interview That SemiAnalysis Guy +recommends `Chip War`_ by Chris Miller, who will hereby be called "That Chip War +Guy". The book was on my radar but I never got around to reading it because I +was pretty turned off by the clickbaity title. I'm only 50 pages in but it +seems like the book is just a well-researched history of the semiconductor +industry...? + +I love it when historians mention their primary sources. That Chip War Guy +mentions some of the earliest reporting on the transistor, back in 1948: + + When Bell Labs held a press conference in June 1948 to announce that + its scientists had invented the transistor, it wasn't easy to + understand why these wired blocks of germanium merited a special + announcement. The New York Times buried the story on page 46. Time + magazine did better, reporting the invention under the headline + "Little Brain Cell." + +.. _full text: https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,804759,00.html + +I dug around a little bit and found the `full text`_. It's pretty short so I'll +save you a click and reproduce it here in full: + + Vacuum tubes are the brain cells of modern technology. Each year, as + machines take on more complex jobs, more & more vacuum tubes are needed. + But they are tricky to manufacture: they are usually both bulky and + fragile. They have to warm up before they can start operating, and they + need a continuous current to keep their filaments hot. The men who + design electronic nervous systems would like a vacuum tube without these + faults. + + Last week Bell Telephone Laboratories demonstrated a small, simple + device that can do many of the jobs now done by vacuum tubes. Called a + "Transistor," it has no vacuum, no glass envelope. It requires no + heating current and can start working immediately without a warmup. + + The Transistor is a slim metal cylinder about an inch long. Inside are + two hair-thin wires whose points press, two-thousandths of an inch + apart, on a pinhead of germanium. A feeble current in the "input" wire + controls a much larger current flowing from the "output" wire. Such + "amplification" is the essential property of vacuum tubes. The + Transistor works on a different principle (by changing the conductivity + of the germanium), but it amplifies the input current as much as 100 + times. + + Transistors are not in production yet, but Bell scientists, to show what + their little brain cells can do, demonstrated a radio receiver with + vacuum tubes replaced by Transistors. Though not very powerful, it + worked fine. Probably the Transistor's first practical assignment will + be to amplify currents in telephone circuits, a job now done by vacuum + tubes. + +.. _git-go: https://www.deseret.com/1996/11/24/19278907/from-the-get-go-phrase-came-from-american-blacks + +It's fascinating to me that we were thinking of this stuff as "electronic +nervous systems" and "little brain cells" from the `git-go`_. + +(I just looked up the etymology of "get-go" and found that original "git-go" +spelling. Someone in the git community should totally create some kind of git +tool in Go and call it git-go.) + +.. _scan: https://time.com/vault/issue/1948-07-12/page/56/ + +I was also able to find a `scan`_ of the magazine. The web is a vast treasure +trove of historical content. + +.. image:: littlebraincell.png + +P.S. I also learned from That Chip War Guy that vacuum-tube-powered missiles +and bombs were comically inaccurate. "Comical" isn't the right word because +we're talking about war, but you get the idea. A post for another day, perhaps. diff --git a/rss.xml b/rss.xml index f12d678..bcf1a53 100644 --- a/rss.xml +++ b/rss.xml @@ -18,6 +18,15 @@ Sat, 25 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 + + Transistor first reported as "Little Brain Cell" + https://www.biodigitaljazz.net/blog/littlebraincell.html + + Time magazine's first report on the transistor, back in 1948. + + Tues, 28 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000 + https://www.biodigitaljazz.net/blog/littlebraincell.html + The eleventh circle of hell: setting up an RPi camera module https://www.biodigitaljazz.net/blog/picam.html