[sdiy] Tube on a Chip from early 80s

[Terry Michaels]

Message text written by INTERNET:xyzzy at sysabend.org
>I remember reading in the early 80s an artical in IEEE Spectrum about a 
company developing, if I remember correctly, plastic incased miniature
vacuum tubes.  These were housed in multiples in packages that looked
like bulky ICs or hybrids.  In order to find the artical again I would
have to pull 30+ years of Spectrum out of my parents attic and read 
every one from the 80s so I figured I'd ask here first.  I'm betting
they had applications in military equipment, but I'm also a little
curious if they ever made production and if so could they be used in
interesting audio circuits.

Anyway... is my brain fried from all those things I did in the
mid 80s or does someone else remember this artical?

Wouldnt a complete/complex modular that was all tube be kinda cool? :-)<

The smallest vacuum tube that was in commercial production was RCA's
Nuvistor, AFAIK.  It's not a whole lot bigger than some of the early metal
cased transistors.  Example: 6CW4.

Terry Michaels