William Shockley led the Bell Telephone Laboratories solid-state physics group that produced the transistor, and separately developed the junction transistor design that became the commercially dominant form of the device. He shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for the transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, and later founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, whose staff went on to found several of Silicon Valley's founding chip companies.
Facts
FAQs
Why did Shockley's best researchers leave to found Fairchild Semiconductor?
They resigned in 1957 when he declined to pursue silicon semiconductor research.
In late 1957 eight of Shockley's best researchers, later known as the "traitorous eight", resigned after Shockley decided not to continue research into silicon-based semiconductors. They went on to form Fairchild Semiconductor. Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory never recovered from the loss and was sold twice before it closed. The departures are a main reason his company, though short-lived, seeded so many later chip firms in Silicon Valley.
Connections
Associated With
Co-invented the transistor.
In Field
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors
Invented
Source Technology: A World HistoryDaniel R. Headrick
Source Transistor (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In the Other Atlases
Same As
Also in Science Atlas: the same subject.
Influenced
Also in Computing Atlas: which this subject influenced.
Source A History of TechnologyCharles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editorstier 1
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954View the Source Technology: A World History
William Shockley (Wikipedia)
In Group: Semiconductor and Computer Pioneers, lead paragraph: semiconductor or foundational computing advance stated in own articleView the Source Transistor (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationInvented: Transistor, Lead sectionQuote, Invented: Transistor, Lead section
The first working device was a point-contact transistor invented in 1947 by physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley at Bell Labs who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement.
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