Quote:
Originally Posted by scottmandue
I heard somewhere that the old MIG fighter jets had tube electronics... can anyone confirm?
Zeke, the first computers WERE all tube powered!
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probably did. the main problem with tubes as a computer is 1. they are big and heavy 2. they generate lots of heat and most importantly 3. they break a lot. the first computers had 10s of thousands of tubes, and had run times measured in hours, because the likelihood that one tube, somewhere, in the building of tubes was broken, was pretty good.
in a world where we can put a transistor every 80 nm, its hard to justify tubes in almost any sense other then if you love how not mathematically perfect they are (audio)