Logic Board with Transistors (Elliott 803) (2)

Efficient and reliable, a transistor is a tiny electronic switch and amplifier – this means that it can make a weak input signal into a much stronger output signal. A computer is able to process information by switching transistors on or off in a specific sequence. Significantly smaller in comparison to its predecessors, the transistor, invented in 1947, allowed more components to be integrated onto a single circuit board. Commercial transistors entered productions in the early 1950s, a change which paved the way for the Third Generation of computing. Pictured is a circuit board from an Elliott 803 computer, containing a total of sixteen cylindrical silver transistors. The CPU of a fully equipped Elliott 803B computer contained 74 of these circuit boards.