This year's chart contains specifications for 1714 transistor types; last year, 1088 types were submitted for publication by semiconductor makers. With close to a 60% increase in the number of available types, the design engineer is now offered a greater selection of devices, as well as increased sources of supply—but his search time is likewise increased.
The 1961 Data Chart has transistors organized into six application categories: audio, high frequency, power devices, special types, high-level switching, and low-level switching. Over 600 new types are included in this year's chart. A high percentage of last year's types are upgraded in electrical characteristics, such as power dissipation and cut-off frequency. Improvements in transistor fabrication techniques have resulted in the availability of high-power, high-frequency devices, plus fast-switching epitaxial transistors.
The increasing quantity of types, of course, presents a growing problem to the design engineer in search of a particular device. Less than two dozen former types were abandoned. The addition of types bearing new Jedec numbers, with only marginal improvements (if any) over existing types adds to the selection problem. (Electronic Design, July 5, 1961, p. 33)
The charts took up about 20 magazine pages, with transistors from 35 manufacturers, most of them long gone from the semiconductor business: Amperex, Bendix, CBS, Clevite, Crystalonics, Delco, Electromation, Fairchild, GE, General Instrument, Hoffman, Hughes, Industro, Kearfott, Minneapolis-Honeywell, Motorola, National, Philco, Pacific, RCA, Radio Development, Raytheon, Rheem, Secoa, Silicon Transistor, Sperry, Sprague, Sylvania, Texas Instruments, Transitron, Tung-Sol, U.S. Transistor, Western Electric, Western Transistor, and Westinghouse