[cctalk] Re: Experience using an Altair 8800 ("Personal computer" from 70s)

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On May 24, 2024, at 12:45 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> 
> wrote:
> 
> ...
> Just pointing out that "firsts" are very difficult.  Even though, for
> years, Shockley et al were trumpeted as the "inventors of the
> transistor", it's noteworthy that their patent application was carefully
> worded to avoid claims from work decades earlier by Julius Lilienfeld.
> In an interesting twist of history, it's the Lilienfeld model of a MOS
> transistor that prevails in our current technology, not the Shockley
> junction device.

I once ran into a pre-WW2 data sheet (or ad?) for a transistor, indeed an FET 
that used selenium as the semiconducting material.  Most likely that was the 
Lilienfeld device.

Apparently they didn't work well, not surprising given the use of selenium, 
which is a very marginal semiconductor.  Speaking of which: some early 
computers tried to use selenium diodes as circuit elements (for gates), with 
rather limited success.  The MC ARRA is an example.

        paul