The secret six-month project: Why Texas Instruments decided to put the first transistor radio on the market by Christmas 1954 and how it was accomplished
Michael F. Wolff · IEEE Spectrum · 1985
An account is given of the project undertaken in 1954 by Texas Instruments to produce the first commercial transistor radio. The project involved (1) obtaining a transistor patent license from the Bell System; (2) establishing a project engineering group that could grow into a fully-fledged operating division to create and market semiconductor devices; and (3) establishing a solid-state research laboratory. The author relates how a manufacturer was chosen and discusses the design decisions made to meet the targeted retail price of the radio.