The very first transistor was the point-contact transistor, and that was Bardeen and Brattain.

NPR: Electronics Pioneer William Shockley's Legacy

There's the junction transistor and a point-contact transistor.

NPR: Electronics Pioneer William Shockley's Legacy

The oldest ancestor of the point-contact transistor was the crystal detector, used in early wireless sets.

ECONOMIST: The middle age of the transistor

To create the point-contact transistor, Shockley's team modified the cat's whisker by placing two fine metal wires close together on the surface of a germanium crystal, turning it from a diode into a triode.

ECONOMIST: The middle age of the transistor

He was that point-contact transistor type.

NPR: Electronics Pioneer William Shockley's Legacy

One final piece of the competitive puzzle for TSMC is the economic inflection point that the chip business is approaching as transistor shrinkage increasingly encounters the limitations of physics.

FORBES: 2013 Looks Like A Banner Year For TSMC But Threats Are On The Horizon