Counted Out Too Soon?

[MylesBAstor]

Yes according to NASA.

http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/2012/05/return-vacuum-tube

 

[rbbert]

Of course, what the article (and NASA) talks about is not quite what the high-end audio industry would call a vacuum tube. OTOH, hopefully some audio engineers/designers are paying attention?

 

[treitz3]

Thank you for sharing that with us, Myles. Very interesting.

Tom

 

[zztop7]

Back in the 70's a Russian defector flew a FoxBat MIG to Japan. It had many vacuum tubes in its systems. That way a nuclear incident would not shut down the MIG.

zz

 

[DonH50]

DARPA has had small-scale thermionic vacuum device research projects going for years. Vacuum tubes are generally much more rad-hard than SS.

 

[Shaffer]

I wonder is NASA's tube computer can be had with asynchronous USB?

 

[c1ferrari]

Perchance, this article reveals the reason why valves sound superior to solid state...radiation immunity

 

[Tom B.]

Spent the past five month updating an older-design laboratory instrument with rad-hardened devices. Anyone who has ever been set back by the price of a quality audio tube should try shopping for rad-hard op amps.

 

[Cyclotronguy]

And if you knew how many hours of beam time were spent even qualifying that op amp for space effects radiation, you'd not be surprised.

Cyclotronguy

 

[amirm]

That's a pretty neat innovation.

 

[MylesBAstor]

And if you knew how many hours of beam time were spent even qualifying that op amp for space effects radiation, you'd not be surprised.

Cyclotronguy

I'm actually quite curious what dose and type of particles they use to test for radiation hardness. As I remember, a solar flare is roughly equivalent to the LD50 for humans.

 

[Bill Hart]

Are these like nuvistors? Does that mean Carl can continue to listen to vinyl during the apocalypse?