Transistors (Changing Bits)
The most important invention in the history of computers is (arguably) the transistor. A transistor can serve two purposes:
It can amplify a signal (transistor radio).
It can switch on and off ridiculously fast. This fast switching is what allows a computer to make decisions very fast.
Think of a transistor like a gate
which either allows electricity through (1) or blocks it (0). If a small amount of electricity is applied to the base
pin, whatever is on the collector
pin is permitted through the emitter
pin.
Controlling electricity like this gives us the ability to create boolean logic
or logic gates
.
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