The transistor, more than any other single development, made possible the marriage of computers and communication. Three AT&T Labs researchers - John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain - shared the Nobel Prize for their 1947 invention of this tiny, reliable, electronic component.

In the years following its creation, the transistor gradually replaced the bulky, fragile vacuum tubes that had been used to amplify and switch signals. The transistor - and the eventual creation of integrated circuits that contained millions of transistors - served as the foundation for the development of modern electronics.