This reality forced Microsoft to come up with its own magnesium chassis, highly compressed touch-stack for the screen, and a host of other patents and innovations to hit 1.5 pounds with all-day battery life, while not turning the Surface into a heavy, bulky device.

CNN: Microsoft Surface tablet goes on sale for $499

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