Transistors delayed or not yet discovered/invented

I am not a tech buff but is something like this possible?

If so what are the consequences. We still have TVs and radios. I guess that Computers are bigger and more expensive but can still happen.

Does it reduce the West's chance in the Space race?
 
Without transistors, most technology we use is nearly impossible. Since speed is in large part a factor of size, no vacuum-tube computer can go anywhere near the speed of a printed-microchip computer.
 
I suppose, vacuum tubes would get smaller and smaller, analog technology would be more important as memory sizes stay extremely limited (no transistor, no IC). After some time, arrays of anodes and cathodes are printed on circuit boards and covered with heat resistant paint. Further miniaturization leads to a technology similar to the transistor, but 10-20 years later, and directly including ICs.
 
Some of The Deceased...

-First, you would certainly have a lot of people dead in the ATL, due to the need of a computer-regulated pacemaker. Some of the politicians include V.P. Dick Ceney, Sen. Jesse Helms, former-Sen. Bob Dole, Sen. George Voinovich, former-Mayor Ed Koch,President Carlo A. Ciampi (Italy), former-President Suharto (Indonesia), and former-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (Germany)...

-Second, you certainly have a poorer ATL. You don't have online banking, ATMs, online trading, NASDAQ, and Nikko Stock Exchanges. In the ATL, expect the stock echange to be roughly 3,000-5,000 points compared with OTL's 10,000 points. As such, you can expect a financial situation similar to the late 1970s and early 1980s. Also, you can expect the "tiger economies" of Asia to be smaller paced (e.g. South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, et al.)

-Third, you would also see a longer Gulf War in 1991. Consider that the military technology that made "Desert Storm" (1991) and "War on Terror" (2002) dazzling and lopsided victories would not be in existence. As such, you will have more casualties, civilian and military, rather than the pristine scenes we are accustomed to. Odds are things would resemble the scenes of Somalia and Vietnam....

-Fourth, no George Lucas, no matter how you cut it, the special effects that he created post 1978 would be non-existent. On the good side you have no Jar-Jar Binks in the ATL. The bad part is that you have more Muppets.....
 
There's also a chance that some transistor analogue would be developed... perhaps even faster (or rather smaller) than it. It is certainly possible that the breakthrough we call the transistor actually cut short the R & D that in an ATL led to an even better technology.
 
Oh, and most of those walking dead guys mentioned may have been butterflied away, at least in terms of their political clout.
 
I suppose, vacuum tubes would get smaller and smaller, analog technology would be more important as memory sizes stay extremely limited (no transistor, no IC). After some time, arrays of anodes and cathodes are printed on circuit boards and covered with heat resistant paint. Further miniaturization leads to a technology similar to the transistor, but 10-20 years later, and directly including ICs.

That seems likely. In an early Arthur C Clarke short story, actually, he talks about one side trying to develop various superweapons to use against their enemy (in an interstellar war). One of them is essentially a revolutionary tactical computer. The way its described really shows up the limitations of vacuum tube technology, but in a way also shows where people thought the technology would be going. I can't remember the exact quote - I don't have the book now - but its something along the lines of
"the computer was far faster than any human tactician could be, and contained over a million midget valves [vacuum tubes]. Due to the army of technicians required to maintain it, however, the computer could be mounted only in the largest capital ships of the fleet."
Wow, a million valves... about the speed of, what, a 386? :D

I don't know how far vacuum tube / valve technology could be minaturised, but I would think it could be taken fairly far with the improvement of fabrication techniques and general minaturisation.
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
I read somewhere that the average "modern" computer has 10 million transistors. This makes them much smaller (and less expensive) than a grain of sand. I think there are theoretical limitations on the size of a vacuum tube much larger than this.

Another one who had a microcomputer was Harry Harrison in Deathworld 3 (or 2) It was about the size of R2D2 and cost over a million credits but was capable of storing an entire library
 
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