Valve on a computer motherboard
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Location: Hill Top, NSW
Member since 18 September 2015
Member #: 1801
Postcount: 2011
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Administrator
Location: Naremburn, NSW
Member since 15 November 2005
Member #: 1
Postcount: 7290
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The inclusion of valves in the audio section of any modern gear pleases me though I do look down a bit on the habit of including blue LEDs to backlight the valves. The two go together like oil and water.
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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...
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Location: Sydney, NSW
Member since 28 January 2011
Member #: 823
Postcount: 6678
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I do look down a bit on the habit of including blue LEDs to backlight the valves.
Maybe today's youngsters think that a gassy valve is the norm?
What on earth is the fascination with blue LEDs? I know its inventors won a Nobel prize for it, but why does it need to be in everything these days?
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Administrator
Location: Naremburn, NSW
Member since 15 November 2005
Member #: 1
Postcount: 7290
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I'm not sure why but I always find the light given off by blue LEDs blurry. I once hired a car with the instruments backlit with red and blue LEDs instead of the traditional (and easier to see) white, orange and green. Everything was blurry and I could barely make out the speed I was travelling at.
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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...
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Location: Toongabbie, NSW
Member since 19 November 2015
Member #: 1828
Postcount: 1245
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Guys, there was a time when a computer ONLY had valves in them!
I remember standing in front of a computer at Sydney Uni that was built in a room in a cabinet that you walked around about 6 foot tall and 10 foot long. The "cabinet" had clear windows so you could look inside and watch the valves glow, it was chock full of twin triodes hundreds and hundreds of the buggers. The power supply was in the adjacent room with big cabinets full of transformers and rectifiers. Its so long ago ( in the 1960's?) my memory is pretty bad but I think it was the "Uniac"? or "Eniac" or something like that. The computor memory was a refresh type and used CRT tubes! Yes I have not gone senile, CRT tubes. They were long persistence types and had a matrix glued over the front of them with light sensing somethings that would then hold the bit for seconds until the next refresh cycle. There were also magnetic core memory cards with hundreds of little ring cores in a matrix on them. I remember putting a simple program into a type style keyboard you know like 2+2=? and minutes later a teletype style printer chattered and answer 3.99999999999 printed out, well something like that. I used to have old used valve boards and CRT tubes from that "PC" laying around in a box in my workshop for yonks until I threw them out.
Somebody may know a bit more about that computer.
Fred.
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Location: Hill Top, NSW
Member since 18 September 2015
Member #: 1801
Postcount: 2011
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Location: Belrose, NSW
Member since 31 December 2015
Member #: 1844
Postcount: 2363
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Yes it was Silliac. Cartoon at the time named it Silly Yack.
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Location: Toongabbie, NSW
Member since 19 November 2015
Member #: 1828
Postcount: 1245
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Thanks guys, yes it was Silliac. I have faint memories of Prof Bennet and the department. My brother in law John Mason (deceased) was a maths guru and used the thing to work out the size of the universe or something. I had no concept of maths but could follow the use of the electronic side of it. All lost in the past now. Thanks for the links.
Fred.
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