electro-Physics: 3.3 volts

[William Donzelli]

> Today I started mothballing the VAX 6000 and noticed that a large part
> of its power supply is on 3.3 volts, now common, but probably not in 1988. 
> 
> Seems like something was invented, probably in chip design that made
> 3.3 so useful.  I wonder what that was, when that landmark was reached.

Not likely in the 6000, but large machines sometimes have a supply of
lesser voltage for use in the bus terminations (like the -2.0 volts found
in both 10K and 100K ECL machines).

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org