Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ; -))

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004, David V. Corbin wrote: Wow, two "resounding" yesses ;) This is more of what I'm getting at. Does it matter that some knowledge is lost as generations go on? Are we ever going to need to go back to tubes to design electronic circuits? As long as the basics are retained and learned and taught--i.e. not specifically HOW a tube or transistor works but WHY and WHEN we need or want to use a device that provides a similar functionality--then teaching people about tubes (and eventually transistors) is pretty useless (unless, in the case of tubes, you are training someone to fix decades old electronic equipment). At some point, transistors will be as irrelevant as tubes. When tubes became irrelevant, they were replaced by transistors, and so everyone learned how to use, design with, or even build, transistors. Now, transistors (for logic operations at least) have been supplanted by ICs, and are fast becoming irrelevant (at least for logic designs, not necessarily power or signal designs). Again, the basics are what's key here: math, physics, chemistry. That will never change. Everything else is irrelevant ;) -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]