Talk Of Building A Computer...

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Thu Nov 20 10:52:58 1997

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk

<So how about making our own. A tube containing, say, a 4-bit D-type
<latch? Make a few in that range and a valve computer becomes almost
<manageable! Besides, the smaller it is, the faster you can make it...

A four bit latch using valves would require not less than 8 triodes plus
buffers. Very hard to do in one envelope...

Also tubes had some characteristics that made it very hard to design fast
enough logic that distance(size) was a factor.

I have a few 7586 and 6ds4/6cw4 nuvistors and they are 0.8" tall and 0.45
dia and make really good rf amplifiers but slow switches.

Allison
Received on Thu Nov 20 1997 - 10:52:58 GMT