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> They can switch several hundred million times a second, and in the 1950s they were combined with germanium diodes as the basis for many incredible computer designs.

Whoa, I didn't know they could switch that fast! Because afaik vacuum tube computers were measured in thousands of mathematical operations per second



I guess it’s highly dependent on the type of the tube. The documentation [1] for the 6N3P (the one Mike uses) talks about input resistance at 100 MHz, so the tube must handle at least as much.

[1]: https://www.istok2.com/data/575/


Keep in mind that's in relation to amplifying analogue frequencies around 100MHz. It doesn't necessarily mean you can make digital logic that runs at 100MHz




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