20 Oct
2013
20 Oct
'13
3:53 p.m.
On 10/20/2013 02:01 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/about/images/mus_024.jpg
says that this is
"similar to power tubes used on the early computers". I very much
doubt that. The tube in question looks like an Eimac 4-125A (if so,
it would be a tetrode). That tube is used in transmitters, in the
driver or final amplifier stage when several hundred watts are
required. I can think of no place in a computer that would use this,
except perhaps a large CRT display with electrostatic deflection.
The CDC 6000 console (DD60) is the only beast of that kind I know,
and it uses a similar tube but smaller and very different in
construction, the 3CX100A5.
If this were Wikipedia, that entry would earn a {{citation
required}}.
The closest I've seen is the late 50s Univac Solid State machines, that
used a battery of 6146's to provide the master clock signal. Clock
frequencies in those days were pretty low.
--Chuck
