This Day in Tech History. (Patreon)

The First Transistor Calculator

October 7, 1954

IBM researchers modify an existing model 604 vacuum tube calculator to use transistors. This experiment didn’t shrink the desk-sized machine nor make it any faster, but it did use only 5% of the power the vacuum tube-based design did. Encouraged by this successful experiment, IBM introduced the first commercial transistor calculator 4 years later, the model 608 (https://thisdayintechhistory.com/).