[time-nuts] tube GPS receivers

Kenton A. Hoover kenton at nemersonhoover.org
Sun Jun 23 22:06:23 UTC 2013


Weren't the original TRANSIT computer (AN/UYK-1) proofed out in vacuum tubes before they were able to build it with transistors?

--  
Kenton A. Hoover
kenton at nemersonhoover.org
+1.415.830.5843


On Sunday 23 June 2013 at 14:50, Paul Berger wrote:

> Hi:
>  
> The SAGE computers, which I had the pleasure of seeing the last two  
> operating, had an all vacuum tube array of core that consisted of 33  
> planes of 64 x64 cores for about 16K worth of memory. These where all  
> vacuum tube computers. IBM offered a 4K all vacuum tube core storage  
> unit for the 701 and 702, the same unit was built into the 704 and the  
> 705 had a larger core storage with 35 planes of 50 x 80 cores. The  
> Remington Rand Corp. and the RAND Corp. also shipped computers that used  
> core for main storage in the mid 50s which likely used vacuum tube  
> drivers. At that time there where apparently no transistors available  
> that could supply the drive current required for core memory.
>  
> On 6/23/13 5:29 PM, Bob Camp wrote:
> > Hi
> >  
> > I've both used and worked on core memory machines. They ones I have seen all used solid state devices in the core memory sections of the machine. I've never heard of a pure tube machine with more than "register sized" core.
> >  
> > Bob
> >  
> > On Jun 23, 2013, at 1:47 PM, Chris Albertson <albertson.chris at gmail.com (mailto:albertson.chris at gmail.com)> wrote:
> >  
> > > Magnetic cores were not invented until the 1950's and realy cam into use as
> > > tubes were beibg replaced by SS. But there isnot reason yu can't build a
> > > tube computer with core memory. I have actually seen and used a computer
> > > that had one megabyte of core memory. The stuff was still in use in the
> > > late 1970s 1MB was a lot of RAM in 1975.
> > >  
> > > You can have very good reliability with tube circuits. It was just that
> > > few people wanted to pay for it. Down time was cheaper. It is not hard to
> > > add redundancy to a circuit but it does have a huge cost multiplier effect.
> > > 4x or 5x the price. One simple way is to use 3 or 4 tubes with their
> > > output tied to a resistive adder. If one tube fails the result (because it
> > > is binary) is still the same. With computers no one would pay for fault
> > > tolerant design until it was reasonably affordable. Even today we mainly
> > > just put up with failure except for airplane controllers, huge web sites
> > > like Amazon and the like.
> > >  
> > >  
> > > On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 9:53 AM, Brian Alsop <alsopb at nc.rr.com (mailto:alsopb at nc.rr.com)> wrote:
> > >  
> > > > On 6/23/2013 14:40, Bob Camp wrote:
> > > >  
> > > > > Hi
> > > > >  
> > > > > AC137 doesn't ring any bells. True tube core (no solid state at all)
> > > > > isn't something that was dimensioned in K words. A couple hundred words was
> > > > > pretty big stuff. "Quite a bit" of core done that way is a lot of tubes. As
> > > > > the number of tubes goes up, the time to failure comes down….. hours …
> > > > > minutes … who knows.
> > > > >  
> > > > > Bob
> > > > Yeah, it gets to be like the cross country aircraft races in the 20's. The
> > > > mechanic had to fly with the pilot. (The MTBF of many of the engines used
> > > > was measured in hours.) If necessary he had to climb out on the cowling
> > > > while in flight to change plugs and fix whatever possible without landing.
> > > > What would OSHA say about that?
> > > >  
> > > > Needless to say future generations will probably find lots of aircraft
> > > > spark plug artifacts in their digs.
> > > >  
> > > > Brian/K3KO
> > > >  
> > > >  
> > > >  
> > > > -----
> > > > No virus found in this message.
> > > > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com (http://www.avg.com)
> > > > Version: 2012.0.2242 / Virus Database: 3199/5932 - Release Date: 06/22/13
> > > >  
> > > >  
> > > > ______________________________**_________________
> > > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com (mailto:time-nuts at febo.com)
> > > > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/**
> > > > mailman/listinfo/time-nuts<https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts>
> > > > and follow the instructions there.
> > >  
> > >  
> > >  
> > >  
> > > --  
> > >  
> > > Chris Albertson
> > > Redondo Beach, California
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com (mailto:time-nuts at febo.com)
> > > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > > and follow the instructions there.
> >  
> >  
> > _______________________________________________
> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com (mailto:time-nuts at febo.com)
> > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> > and follow the instructions there.
>  
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com (mailto:time-nuts at febo.com)
> To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there.






More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com mailing list