9 Nov
2005
9 Nov
'05
5:35 a.m.
On 11/8/05, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 11/8/2005 at 5:36 PM woodelf wrote:
It is funny that I am a tube fan too.
The 12.6 volt tubes won't save you any power; On the contrary, they
sucks much more power than normal tubes. Because they need a lot of
current to heat the cathode to emit more electrons; and they have a
positive first grill to 'pull' electrons out from cathode.
Nuvistors are not good to use for homebrew computers either, because
they are expensive. Months ago I saw a board with 10+ nuvistors. I
didn't buy it ($9.99) because I was not small-tube fan. I checked the
second hand price at that time and it was significantly higher than
those sub $1 tubes.
vax, 9000
Well everybody likes 12 bits...
http://www.cray-cyber.org/hardware/Hardware.php
Forget TTL, go tubes!
Wow, now that's ambitious!
Makes me wonder, though. Around the time the transistor was in its
ascendancy, the vacuum-tube business came up with a couple of innovations.
One was the nuvistor--an almost transistor-sized tube; and the other was a
low-voltage tube used in automobile receivers that were specified for 12.6
volts on the plate (e.g. 12AE7 dual triode). These would be coupled with a
solid-state driver and power amplifier for a auto radio with no vibrator
supply.
The first would seem to make the scale of a digital computer more
attractive; the second would seem to substantially reduce the power
requirements. To anyone's knowledge were either of these two components
ever used in digital applications?