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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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25th Nov 2020, 4:48 pm | #81 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
In the early-1980s one of my clients used quite a few GEC4080 computers, and I spent some time at their production-facility in Elstree Way, Borehamwood. The original 4080 took up several 5-foot-high 19-inch equipment-racks; however at the same site they had developed the 4080M version - not much bigger than a shoebox - that was to be part of the Nimrod AEW aircraft's electronics.
We were shown the 4080M and were truly amazed, both at its small size and - when we were told it - the cost! [Alas the 4080M was not up to the task and was a significant part in the decades-late delivery/final cancellation of the entire Nimrod project]. I'm sure that sustained effort could have developed low-power Nuvistor-type valves - it's worth remembering that even in the early-1950s there were subminiature wire-ended valves using 0.625V heaters consuming a mere 20 Milliamps and 22.5V HT. There was also the multiple-valves-in-one-envelope 'Compactron' range - which were not all that small but showed an interesting though obviously-doomed direction. Desk calculators [the ANITA range] used cold-cathode thyratrons for digital logic in the early-'sixties. Also the German 1920s "Loewe' multiple-valve-elements-and-associated-resistors-and-capacitors-in-one envelope technology is worth remembering: part of me wonders if it wouldn't have been possible to combine these technologies to produce a 'single-valve' equivalent of basic circuit-elements like flip-flops, dividers, counters, op-amps etc just as we did a decade later with the first ICs? |
25th Nov 2020, 5:01 pm | #82 | |
Tetrode
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
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There was also the story of how the Americans spent a fortune developing the Papermate pen which would write in zero gravity , while the cosmonauts got pencils . |
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25th Nov 2020, 5:06 pm | #83 | |
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
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25th Nov 2020, 6:32 pm | #84 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex.
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
I'm reminded of the film The Year We Make Contact [1984] the sequel to 2001 A Space Odyssey and set nine years later! The Soviets and the Americans have to join up their capsules-something that happened later in real life. When the Americans leave their shiny computerised domain they find that the Russian cabin is a cross between an Edwardian Gents Toilet and an old fashioned submarine ie all beautiful brass and copper piping plus "valves" that aren't at all electronic-back to future eh
I've always believed that story re the Americans laughing about radio valves in a downed Mig Fighter until someone says "Nuclear EMF Pulse". In the savage Nuclear Winter film THREADS [coincidentally also released in the highly significant year of 1984 and about an attack on Britain] the first thing to fail, in the Control Centre under Sheffield Town Hall, is the solid State Radio Equipment! Dave W Last edited by dave walsh; 25th Nov 2020 at 6:40 pm. |
25th Nov 2020, 6:58 pm | #85 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
I listened to part of a radio programme on World Service recently which discussed the possible use of a bomb optimised for its EMP effect. It was claimed that the long-distance, linear nature of the US power grid system made it very vulnerable, compared with a smaller country like the UK, where the grid was described as "like a spider's web".
B
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25th Nov 2020, 7:39 pm | #86 | ||
Heptode
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
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25th Nov 2020, 8:03 pm | #87 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Would we have got to the moon with no semiconductors?
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Later became Elliott Automation, then GEC-Elliott Process Control. Their real-time/military computing stuff was spun-out as a separate company (Marconi-Elliott) after Elliott was swallowed-up by ICT [which then became ICL] Elliott had its own semiconductor manufacturing facility in Scotland at one time. |
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