berry@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Berry Kercheval) (11/12/89)
Anyone know what *kind* of vacuum tubes ENIAC used? Were they 6SN7's? -- bERRY Kercheval :: berry@lll-crg.llnl.gov
webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (11/12/89)
In article <38193@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>, berry@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Berry Kercheval) writes: > > Anyone know what *kind* of vacuum tubes ENIAC used? Were they 6SN7's? In The ENIAC: First General-Purpose Electronic Computer Arthur W. Burks and Alice R. Burks Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 3, Number 4, October 1981, 310 -- 398 some circuit diagrams from the ENIAC are reproduced (Figures 14, 15, and 19). The labelled tubes in these diagrams are: Simplified accumulator program-control circuit: 6SN7, 6L6, 6V6, 6SA7, and 6J5. Decade counter: 6L6, 6SN7, and 6Y6 Multiplication table: 6L6 and 6L7 In: From ENIAC to UNIVAC: An Appraisal of the Eckert-Mauchly Computers Nancy Stern Digital Press, 1981 there is mention of the tubes being from RCA and on page 32 is a reproduction of the Summary of Tube Failure in ENIAC from: Tube Failures in ENIAC F. Robert Michaels Electronics, October 1947 which lists the following breakdown of tube type in the ENIAC: 6,550 6SN7 Twin Triode 4,200 6L6 Beam Power 2,600 6SA7 Pentagrid Converter 1,500 6SJ7 Triple Grid Amplifier 1,300 6V6 Beam Power 1,200 6L7 Pentagrid Mixer 500 6AC7 Television Pentode 350 807 (Enlarged 6L6) 300 6J5 Dectector Triode 300 6Y6 Beam Power [this totals to 18,800 (most articles on the ENIAC speak of there being 18,000 vacumn tubes, so this probably accounts for everything).] --- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)
andrew@dtg.nsc.com (Lord Snooty @ The Giant Poisoned Electric Head ) (11/12/89)
aaaaaah! the 6V6, the 807! cherry-red anodes in the deep night of sinful pre-adolescent piratry on the airwaves of the world in 1962! couldn't resist :-) chips are kinda dull -- ........................................................................... Andrew Palfreyman a wet bird never flies at night time sucks andrew@dtg.nsc.com there are always two sides to a broken window
kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard) (11/13/89)
In article <Nov.11.23.03.48.1989.3337@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes:
* [re types of vacuum tubes used in ENIAC]
* 4,200 6L6 Beam Power
* 1,300 6V6 Beam Power
well, for sure, neither if these is what one would call "low power consumption"
but then...
* 350 807 (Enlarged 6L6)
I dimly recall ham transmitters that used a couple of these
as final amplifier--at a plate power level of a couple hundred watts.
Do I remember correctly, or do I have an advanced case of cranial decrepitude?
What was ENIAC doing to need _that_much_ power in one stage of logic?
Or did the builders include these just so they would have a place to fry
their eggs in the morning?
------------
regardz,
Kenmbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts) (11/14/89)
From article <405@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>, by kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard): > In article <Nov.11.23.03.48.1989.3337@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: > * [re types of vacuum tubes used in ENIAC] > * 4,200 6L6 Beam Power > * 1,300 6V6 Beam Power > well, for sure, neither if these is what one would call "low power consumption" > but then... > * 350 807 (Enlarged 6L6) > I dimly recall ham transmitters that used a couple of these > as final amplifier--at a plate power level of a couple hundred watts. > Do I remember correctly, or do I have an advanced case of cranial decrepitude? > What was ENIAC doing to need _that_much_ power in one stage of logic? > Or did the builders include these just so they would have a place to fry > their eggs in the morning? Clock drivers, I'll bet. A professor of mine worked on a 50's Univac machine with 807 clock drivers. ZZZAP!!! -- Michael Butts, Research Engineer KC7IT 503-626-1302 Mentor Graphics Corp., 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, OR 97005 !{sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM Opinions are my own, not necessarily those of Mentor Graphics Corp.
mbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts) (11/14/89)
In article <Nov.11.23.03.48.1989.3337@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: > * [re types of vacuum tubes used in ENIAC] > * 4,200 6L6 Beam Power > * 1,300 6V6 Beam Power > well, for sure, neither if these is what one would call "low power consumption" > but then... > * 350 807 (Enlarged 6L6) And while we're on the subject...I wonder what's transpired since we read about a year ago about micron-scale 'vacuum tubes' fabricated in silicon. I recall that at that scale it was claimed that evacuation was not necessary. -- Michael Butts, Research Engineer KC7IT 503-626-1302 Mentor Graphics Corp., 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, OR 97005 !{sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM Opinions are my own, not necessarily those of Mentor Graphics Corp.
webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (11/14/89)
In article <405@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>, kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard) writes: > In article <Nov.11.23.03.48.1989.3337@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: > * [re types of vacuum tubes used in ENIAC] > * 4,200 6L6 Beam Power > * 1,300 6V6 Beam Power > well, for sure, neither if these is what one would call "low power consumption" > but then... > * 350 807 (Enlarged 6L6) > I dimly recall ham transmitters that used a couple of these > as final amplifier--at a plate power level of a couple hundred watts. > Do I remember correctly, or do I have an advanced case of cranial decrepitude? > What was ENIAC doing to need _that_much_ power in one stage of logic? > Or did the builders include these just so they would have a place to fry > their eggs in the morning? Referring again to the Burk & Burk article (Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 3, Number 4, October 1981, 310--398), a few comments might help clarify this: 1) We are talking about a machine that comprised 40 panels (each 3 feet deep by 2 feet wide by 8 feet high) consisting of 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, and 6,000 manual switches. The machine operated at 78 fixed (direct current) voltage levels consuming a total of 140 kilowatts. 2) Numbers and program signals were represented by a pulse of 50 volts with a sharp rise and fall and duration of 2.5 microseconds. this pulse was buried in a 10 microsecond time period. 20 such units formed the basic machine cycle (i.e., all operations started on the beginning of these 200 microsecond intervals). Incorporated in such calculations was the usage of a saftey factor of 3 to 1 in voltage and two to one in time (i.e., if 10 volts was needed within 10 microseconds, then the driving circuit was designed to do 30 volts in 5 microseconds). 3) To increase reliability, 6.3 volt filaments were operated at 5.7 volts and plate and screen power were limited to 25% of their rated value. 4) All signals were strong enough to prevent being destroyed by crosstalk from other wires. It ran its first problem in December 1945, in 1946 was moved from the Moore School at U Penn to BRL at Aberdeen Maryland where it continued to be used until late 1955. Referring to Brainerd and Sharpless (The ENIAC, Electrical Engineering, Feb 1948): There were 500,000 soldered joints in the computer. Over an 8,000 hour study, 400 tubes failed (one every 20 hours). A power shutdown results in 2 to 3 tubes failing, so as much as possible, it was left running. ---- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)
davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr) (11/15/89)
In article <405@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM>, kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard) writes: | I dimly recall ham transmitters that used a couple of these | as final amplifier--at a plate power level of a couple hundred watts. The part about transmitters sounds right, that number rings a bell. | Do I remember correctly, or do I have an advanced case of cranial decrepitude? Are these mutually exclusive? My kids say I remember correctly, but the wrong things. | What was ENIAC doing to need _that_much_ power in one stage of logic? How about driving busses with VERY high fanouts? | Or did the builders include these just so they would have a place to fry | their eggs in the morning? Assuming that I'm right about the fanout... based on nothing but an assumption that the builders DID have a reason, with the failure rates they were getting, would one tube driving 1024 other circuits make more sense than having more tubes and less fanout? They surely weren't trying to avoid a gate delay at the speeds they ran. -- bill davidsen (davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen) "The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called 'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see that the world is flat!" - anon
mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (11/15/89)
kleonard@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ken Leonard) says: > well, for sure, neither if these is what one would call "low power consumption" > but then... > * 350 807 (Enlarged 6L6) > I dimly recall ham transmitters that used a couple of these > as final amplifier--at a plate power level of a couple hundred watts. > Do I remember correctly, or do I have an advanced case of cranial decrepitude? > What was ENIAC doing to need _that_much_ power in one stage of logic? > Or did the builders include these just so they would have a place to fry > their eggs in the morning? I believe that to increase reliability, ENIAC ran their tubes well below their rated power. Whether or not that's true, a high-power device might have been used for transmitting a clock signal, or other signals global to many circuits, such as the program trunk lines, of which there were more than 100 in ENIAC. (A program trunk line is roughly equivalent to a control line from the instruction word.) The figures I have for ENIAC are: over 18,800 tubes, ten different types of tubes, about 60 different kinds of resistors, and about 30 kinds of capacitors. Speed was 5000 additions or subtractions per second, 360-500 multiplies per second, 50 divisions. Power was 150 kilowatts. "... for a typical week of actual work, ENIAC has already proved to be equal to 500 human computers working 40 hours with desk calculating machines, and it appears that soon two or three times as much work may be obtained from ENIAC."
jhallen@wpi.wpi.edu (Joseph H Allen) (11/18/89)
In article <Nov.11.23.03.48.1989.3337@porthos.rutgers.edu> webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) writes: >In article <38193@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>, berry@lll-crg.llnl.gov (Berry Kercheval) writes: >> Anyone know what *kind* of vacuum tubes ENIAC used? Were they 6SN7's? >which lists the following breakdown of tube type in the ENIAC: > 6,550 6SN7 Twin Triode > 4,200 6L6 Beam Power > 2,600 6SA7 Pentagrid Converter What in hell did they use 2600 of these for? Did they use the multiple grids as a seperate gate inputs? (or did they do a lot of messy analog multiplying...) How many radios == 1 ENIAC?