A Vacuum Tube Single Board 1-Bit Computer [video]

Post by TheCleric » Tue, Dec 05, 2023, 1:15 AM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #30

TheCleric wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you really need tubes for guitar distortion? Technically no. But most professional guitarists still swear by tube driven amps. Solid state is getting better every day, but I think we're still a long way out before most guitar players give up their tube amps. I am perfectly happy with my Line6 Helix, but a few friends still turn their noses up at it.

Solid state per se isn't getting better¹. Software simulation of tubes ("software state"?) is getting better, or has been (it may have plateaued). Tubes are still the reference model. All the DSP cores in a modern amp are just a cover band playing tube tones. --- 1. I mean other than digital solid-state getting more highly integrated and faster, to run more complex software. The necessary analog audio paths in a DSP…

Yeah, the transistors themselves aren’t changing. Just how many and how well we can throw them at the simulation.

It’s more “tube virtualization” is getting better every day.

Post by osigurdson » Tue, Dec 05, 2023, 7:08 PM UTC

JKCalhoun wrote: post #20

osigurdson wrote: post #3

I always thought it would be fun to create a vacuum tube computer in which the primary computation is performed by a couple of vacuum tubes (i.e. forming a single NAND gate). All of the intermediate results, would be handled by a regular microprocessor but the vacuum tubes are employed to perform the computation. It would glow and look cool (maybe).

Interesting. Also, maybe: build some op-amp analog adders, multipliers, and wire them into a digital computer via ADCs and DACs for your math functions. (Could also do log, antilog, maybe other functions as well.)

That would be cool as well as the results would have some inherent noise.

Re: A Vacuum Tube Single Board 1-Bit Computer [video]

Re: A Vacuum Tube Single Board 1-Bit Computer [video]