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

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

Tags: transistor, form, credit, corporation

By Nick Heath

Published: 29 January 2008 10:00 GMT

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They don't make them like this anymore - silicon.com casts an eye back over the ever-shrinking transistor, the invention that became the cornerstone of computing and the modern world.

This is one of the first transistors, a replica of which has been donated to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View in California by LSI Corporation to mark the device's 60th birthday. This hulking forefather was shrunk down to become the brains of integrated circuits in everything from computers and mobile phones to guided missiles and heart pacemakers.

Photo credit: LSI Corporation

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