Very much On Topic: Integrated Vacuum Tubes

[Scott Stevens]

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 09:31:08 -0700 (PDT)
Tom Jennings <tomj at wps.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Apr 2005, William Donzelli wrote:
> 
> >> - What was/is the smallest tube? purpose?
> >
> > RCA's Nuvistor - a family often found in late 1960s TV tuners and
> > some test equipments. They are almost always triodes, and are really
> > small - 3/4 inch long, maybe 3/8 inch diameter, all metal. RCA made
> > a few half sized Nuvistors, but never sold them.
> 
> Listers' favorite 'scopes, the Tek 5xx series, often have them in
> the vertical plugins.
> 
The first generation Tek 453, 'the version to avoid' has nuvistors in
the front end.  The 453 and 454 are the last-generation Tek scope to not
include custom unobtanium semiconductors.