October 7, 1954: Goodbye to Vacuum Tube, Hello Transistor

1954 – IBM created the first calculating machine to use solid-state transistors. This was the first nail in the coffin for vacuum tubes.  The end result was a 2,000 transistor calculator no smaller in size and no faster in speed.However, the transistor counterpart was cheaper, took less power and created less heat. IBM went on to make the IBM 608 calculator

[stock IBM]

2002– Palm – one of the leaders in handheld electronics – announces the first Zire handheld computer. This was called the “consumer grade” brand of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). They were meant to be low-cost ($99) and something everyone could use. Other versions were the Zire 21, Zire 31, Z22, 71 and Zire 72.

The Zire featured a 16MHz Motorola Dragonball EZ processor, 2MB RAM / 2MB ROM and the Palm OS 4.1. The Zire also had a monochrome display and 160 x 160 resolution (Zire 71 and 72 models had 320 x 320).

This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for October 7

• Edgar Allen Poe passes awayin 1849 (born January 19, 1809)
• The Computer Bowl
• Verisign sells Jamba

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