Grains of Transistors
A sobering statistic:
"Last year, human beings produced more transistors (and at lower cost) than they did grains of rice." - IBM CEO Sam Palmisano.
According to the Z+ Blog, there were 10 Quintillion (10 to the 18th power) of them produced in 2003 - more than 100 times the number of ants on the planet (although I think that there are about 2 quintillion ants in St Cloud alone).
Transistors are the "guts" of electronic devices, and have become, apparently, a staple of human existance. I can't even imagine how many I'm surrounded with right now....cell phone, computer, amplifier, CD player, monitor, phone, synthesizers....not to mention the pile of parts that I've accumulated for various low-tech projects!
"Last year, human beings produced more transistors (and at lower cost) than they did grains of rice." - IBM CEO Sam Palmisano.
According to the Z+ Blog, there were 10 Quintillion (10 to the 18th power) of them produced in 2003 - more than 100 times the number of ants on the planet (although I think that there are about 2 quintillion ants in St Cloud alone).
Transistors are the "guts" of electronic devices, and have become, apparently, a staple of human existance. I can't even imagine how many I'm surrounded with right now....cell phone, computer, amplifier, CD player, monitor, phone, synthesizers....not to mention the pile of parts that I've accumulated for various low-tech projects!
posted by Kristian Twombly at 5/05/2006 12:00:00 PM
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