After dissecting a whole batch of 555 timer ICs I thought it would be an interesting project to make a working copy of the 555’s internal circuit out of discrete components, in the same physical space as the original IC. I’ve done this before with the 741 opamp, and the steps are similar. First, I drew the schematic in KiCAD:

I used the original circuit as designed by Hans Camenzind, as a tribute to his design but also because it uses the smallest number of transistors among all different designs I found while dissecting the various 555 ICs. Discrete transistors are larger than discrete resistors, so the original design saves space compared to newer versions that include several more transistors. Note that it’s the opposite situation when you’re designing an actual IC: integrated resistors are usually the largest parts in your layout.