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Vacuum Tubes > Transistors > Hybrid Circuits > Integrated Circuits


The Vacuum Tube (1942-1954)

image of a Western Electric 408A Computer Vacuum Tube
A Western Electric 408A Tube

The Vacuum Tube (also know as an Electron Tube) is a device used to amplify, switch, modify, or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure (vacuum) space.

Vacuum tubes were used extensively in early, first generation, computer systems during the mid 1940's until the Mid 1950's when they started to become replaced by Discrete Transistors. In 1954, Bell Labs built the first computer without vacuum tubes, the TRADIC.



Early Vacuum Tube computer systems:
  • ABC (1942)
  • COLOSSUS (1943)
  • ENIAC (1946)
  • UNIVAC I (1951)
  • WHIRLWIND (1951)
  • IAS (1952)
  • IBM 701 (1953)

 

 

Some Memorabilia with Vacuum Tubes in them

 


image of the IBM Vacuum tube Computer from 1950
IBM Computer 'Electronics at Work' Ad (1950)
image of the IBM Vacuum Tube Computer from 1951
IBM Computer 'Piercing the Unknown' Ad (1951)
 
 

Vacuum Tubes > Transistors > Hybrid Circuits > Integrated Circuits


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