14 Jul
2007
14 Jul
'07
11:35 a.m.
It's a good example of the limits of vacuum-tube
technology which applied to
the computers of the day (at least with typical tubes in the 50s). Going
beyond a few MHz became infeasible.
Without going to the old industry rags (I am not home now anyway), I
would bet that the upper limit on computer tube operation is due to
the interelectrode capacitance and spacing issues (the actual distance
between the cathode and plate - it become criticals when you see that
the electron transit speed is actually not that fast). I would also
bet that the speed could have been increased if the tubes shrank -
using subminis instead of minis. Speed would probably go up, but cost
would also skyrocket.I doubt any commercial maker would have wanted to
pay that price.
--
Will