bohcay LLC
The 20th century's tech boom was hampered by critical bottlenecks in transistors, radio spectrum, and bandwidth, each shaping innovation's pace.
Early transistors, faced yield issues with instability and low efficiency, stalling scalability until silicon refinements in the 1950s-60s enabled mass production [1][2]. Radio spectrum allocation was complicated by regulation, as demands from broadcasting and telecom sparked conflicts and inefficient use, limiting wireless growth [3][4]. Bandwidth constraints held back communications, from radio to early internet, where scarce spectrum capped speeds and access under "spectrum scarcity" policies [5][6].
These hurdles didn't halt progress—they drove regulatory and engineering leaps, much like today's AI compute limits will drive its own related innovations.
References.
[1] History of the Transistor. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_transistor
[2] How the First Transistor Worked. IEEE Spectrum, Nov 20, 2022. https://spectrum.ieee.org/transistor-history
[3] Problems of Radio Frequency Allocation. RAND. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/drafts/2008/DRU1219.pdf
[4] History and Current Issues Related to Radio Spectrum Management. DTIC, Jun 11, 2002. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA402790.pdf
[5] The End of Spectrum Scarcity. IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-end-of-spectrum-scarcity