On This Day - 16th December

The first working point-contact transistor was demonstrated at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, with William Shockley playing a key role in its development. The device demonstrated that a small solid-state component could amplify an electrical signal, providing a practical alternative to bulky and fragile vacuum tubes.

The achievement marked the beginning of the transistor age and ultimately made possible the development of smaller, cheaper and more reliable electronic equipment. Transistors became fundamental to computers and eventually to integrated circuits and microprocessors — the technology that would decades later make machines such as the ZX Spectrum possible.

In December 1990, Amstrad discontinued production of the ZX Spectrum +3, bringing the production run of its disk-based Spectrum to an end after just over three years. The +3 had been introduced in 1987 as the most advanced member of the Spectrum family, combining 128K of RAM with a built-in 3-inch floppy disk drive and support for CP/M.

The decision to discontinue the +3 was reportedly connected with Amstrad's relaunch of its own CPC range. The Spectrum +3 was effectively competing within Amstrad's own home-computer product line, while the simpler +2B was allowed to remain in production because it was considered less of a direct competitor to the CPC machines.

The end of +3 production did not immediately mean the end of the ZX Spectrum. Other Amstrad Spectrum models continued to be produced, with the +2B remaining available until 1992. Nevertheless, the discontinuation of the +3 marked the end of the final disk-based Spectrum model and the beginning of the final chapter of the Spectrum's commercial life.