Comment by Hilift

"Unpacking the reasons for this increase goes beyond the extent of this essay, and it certainly wasn’t just because of AT&T and Bell Labs. But Bell Labs’ achievements, particularly the invention of the transistor in 1947, seem to have prompted the decisions of many companies to start their own R&D labs, and influenced how those labs were structured."

1947 was a magical year. That announcement had profound implications. They effectively invented something that would replace the huge existing base of vacuum tube components with miniaturized transistors. This miniaturization phase significantly influenced Von Nuemann's recommendation for the ballistic missile program. Many of the discrete component systems manufactured during this time remained in service into the 1980's.

This is a photo of a D-17B guidance computer that deployed on the Minuteman Missile in 1962, 15 years after creating the transistor, and was typical of military printed circuitry at the time for general purpose computers, disk/drum storage drives, and printers.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Autoneti...

"The D-17B weighed approximately 62 pounds (28 kg), contained 1,521 transistors, 6,282 diodes, 1,116 capacitors, and 5094 resistors. These components were mounted on double copper-clad, engraved, gold-plated, glass fiber laminate circuit boards. There were 75 of these circuit boards and each one was coated with a flexible polyurethane compound for moisture and vibration protection."