When the IEEE Computer Society was founded twentyfive years ago, the transistor was a laboratory curiosity, and operating computers were assembled from relays or vacuum tubes. Today, a single integrated circuit far surpasses the capability of those early computers, and further progress seems inevitable. The development of semiconductor devices has depended upon a synergism with computers. This is particularly true for integrated circuits, whose development was motivated by the computer applications. With each advance in components, the computers resulting from their use reached a wider market, motivating further advances in the semiconductor technology.