https://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-radio-invented
Imagine if your boss called a meeting in May to announce that he's committing 10 percent of the company's revenue to the development of a brand-new mass-market consumer product, made with a not-yet-ready-for-mass-production component. Oh, and he wants it on store shelves in less than six months, in time for the holiday shopping season. Ambitious, yes. Kind of nuts, also yes.
But that's pretty much what Pat Haggerty, vice president of Texas Instruments, did in 1954. The result was the Regency TR-1, the world's first commercial transistor radio, which debuted 70 years ago this month. The engineers delivered on Haggerty's audacious goal, and I certainly hope they received a substantial year-end bonus.
[...] TI was still a small company, with not much in the way of R&D capacity. But Haggerty and the other founders wanted it to become a big and profitable company. And so they established research labs to focus on semiconductor materials and a project-engineering group to develop marketable products.
Haggerty made a good investment when he hired Gordon Teal, a 22-year veteran of Bell Labs. Although Teal wasn't part of the team that invented the germanium transistor, he recognized that it could be improved by using a single grown crystal, such as silicon. Haggerty was familiar with Teal's work from a 1951 Bell Labs symposium on transistor technology. Teal happened to be homesick for his native Texas, so when TI advertised for a research director in the New York Times, he applied, and Haggerty offered him the job of assistant vice president instead. Teal started at TI on 1 January 1953.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday October 08, @11:27AM (2 children)
So kind of like Facebook betting a sizeable portion of the farm [theinformation.com] on the Metaverse with immersive 3D gear nowhere near ready for prime time, only with engineering talent and TI actually delivered.
(Score: 5, Funny) by turgid on Tuesday October 08, @11:59AM (1 child)
Yes but Marketing and Focus Groups, and just a few lawyers, can innovate anything. I hear interstellar travel is just three conferences at posh hotels away.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @04:22PM
Almost all problems are 3 conferences in the Seychelles away. 4 at most.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rich on Tuesday October 08, @01:30PM
TFA is an interesting bit on early TI analog developments, but there's hardly anything from later days. The web is full of anecdotes of development at other companies, culminating in Bob Widlar's sheep.
The TL072 (and its siblings) was groundbreaking when it was released, and it's still a mainstay with anything analog, yet there's zero history on it to be found. I'd be curious to read about that.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday October 08, @02:59PM (1 child)
TFA leads to . . .
This video shows how each radio was assembled by hand [youtube.com]
Electrical wiring literally printed on boards!
Santa maintains a database and does double verification of it.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @11:21PM
> If you don't like grocery prices now, wait until Trump deports the 'lazy' people who pick it, process it and package it.
I used to work in a food processing and packaging factory in the USA. Most of the workers were from Mexico and other countries south of the US. We technicians observed and proved that many (most) of them did not wash their hands after using the bathroom, including doing #2. Sometimes they didn't bother to flush the toilet, and sometimes within that scenario there was no toilet paper having been used.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @03:04PM (1 child)
Like HP, TI is just a name now.
Buy up the competition, kill all their products and cater to just a handful of the biggest customers.
Eventually, Rochester Electronics will be the on domestic IC supplier left.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday October 09, @03:46AM
It's a real shame. In the '80s, I was working with an OCR co-processor board based on the TMS34010. I wrote TI (actual snail mail, which was the style at the time) hoping for a data sheet or pretty much any documentation. They sent me 8 thick softback books containing full documentation of every aspect of the chip!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday October 08, @04:13PM (4 children)
> advertised for a research director in the New York Times, he applied, and Haggerty offered him the job of assistant vice president instead
Can't see that happening too often nowadays with all the HR in the way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @04:25PM (3 children)
Leadership has crept all the way down into every level. You don't hire anybody for anything unless they demonstrate Leadership. It filters for anyone who doesn't look upwards for inspiration - never look down, or ask yourself WTF?! - always look up and wait for instruction. Leadership.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Tuesday October 08, @09:07PM (2 children)
Doesn't looking upwards for inspiration indicate followership, not leadership?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @10:53PM
Sir, you do not appear to be demonstrating Leadership. Perhaps some morale boosting is required?
(Score: 3, Funny) by sjames on Tuesday October 08, @11:24PM
It looks like we'll have to PIP you. Please study your corporatespeak handbook for the test.