One of my spur of the moment musings.)

As time passes, new things are found, and others grow old. But, things
always seems to come full circle after everything is said and done.

A little over hundred years ago, a man noted an odd occurrence, when he was
working on something he made, to fix a problem with another one of his
inventions. He didn't really understand what was going on, but he patented
the new device anyway. People found that his device improved the
performance of wireless equipment many fold, and it was used by people all
over the world.

A few years later, another person changed the design a bit on this new
technology, and made a new device that would do the same things the old one
did, and so much more. But his patent conflicted with the first one, and
many legal battles ensued. The result was a more comprehensive understanding
of the world around us.. But most people concluded that the true basses for
operation of new technology, and the promises that it offered the future
world, was beyond the pitiful grasp of anyone at that point in time.

The new technology changed the world. The power of radio was spread across
the earth, it anyone that wanted to listen. Not relegated to a few people
that was able to use the old methods of radio transmission . Distance was no
longer an impassible barrier to the every day person. Stations were able to
talk to the world with a single voice. And anyone could hear it with a
modest amount of help from the technology that made it happen. Other places
around the world no longer appeared so distant, and isolated, as they use
to.

As with everything, time passed on. The new technology was now old tech.
After a certain point, it became ubiquitous. Just another thing you deal
with in every day life. Things that it made possible, were just accepted as
basics of life. People even grew tired of it's little intricacies after
time. They would no long feel grateful for the technology's existence, but
they would cuss it's weaknesses when it failed.

The companies that controlled the technology tried to improve it, to meet
the needs of the world around them, and to correct the problems that still
plagued the technology. But the primary problem that complicated matters was
the fact that they still didn't really understand the basics of it's
operation. They had thousands of books covering the subject, but all of them
were just guesses based on guesses. They threw out the guesses that didn't
fit, and built upon the guesses that fit better. All of that, but 50 years
after the invention of the technology, the understanding of how the
technology actually worked, was unknown.

That is how it almost ended. There was a new technology that come about. It
offered almost all the capabilities that the old technology offered at that
time, but it had none of the problems. The old technology was labeled
obsolete. The new technology was now desirable. People dumped the old, and
bought up the new. They said that the old technology would be relegated to
museums in 20 years. That was 50 years ago. There was many other new
technologies that joined the fight to relegated the old technology to the
history books. They almost succeeded .

But a couple of the old manufactures stood by their old friend. Some of them
paid dearly for it too. Their name can only be found in those history books.
The surviving companies worked hard hours back in the labs to improve the
capabilities of their old friend to give it the capability to fight the new
technologies on their own turf, and to expand beyond that. They was not even
close to the point of giving up the fight. Some of the things that they
found that the old technology could do, was amazing. While the new
technologies was still trying to finish filling the hole that the old
technology had left, the old technology was spreading into fields that was
leaps and bounds beyond the wildest dreams of the new technology. The new
evolution of the old tech was not documented in news papers, or on TV. It
happened in the background. Most people thought the old technology was dead.
When they heard people mention it, they would say.. "ow, you still play
around with that old stuff, don't you?"

With all the new stuff that the old technology could do, people was still
hesitant at the thought of using it. The people in the business found that
the name was just as important as the capabilities of the product. The old
name was baggage. It brought up discussions of obsolesce, unreliability and
old clunky equipment that weighed as much as a small truck. Those thoughts
would cloud any judgment that the person had, with respect to the
capabilities and uses of the old technology. So, the companies made up new
code names with abbreviations like SED, VED, and the like. They found that
system to be very effective in regaining a foothold in the market. The
people that understood that the code words were just new fangled names for
the old technology were quaintly amused at the effectiveness of the
strategy. But, to them, it made sense. They have learnt that the public is
just looking for the newest thing. The don't care that it's just something
old, that has a new sticker on it. Most of them are not even able to
understand the difference. When you would mention that the new fancy thing
is based on the same operating principles as the old devices built on the
old technology, they would just look at you like you lost your mind.

Most of the people that work heavily in the new technologies are unique
specimens. The ones that had abandoned the old technologies years ago, and
never kept track of them afterwards. And the younger ones, the ones that
were told that the old technology is obsolete, and they shouldn't worry
about it. Knowing it's name, and that it once existed, was good enough.
Their ignorance is almost amusing at times. When you tell them what the old
technology can do, the responses are wide and varied. From amazement, to
disbelief. The ones that abandoned it are the most varied. You mention a
device, it's capabilities, and that it is based on the old tech. They will
sometimes take it as a joke. some will laugh out loud. Some will think that
you are trying to glorify dreams that never existed. Others will dismiss it
as stupid tinkering with an old technology that should be forgotten. When
you show them the capabilities of the old tech in person, for their own eyes
to see. When they see the perfection, the power, and the utter might that
the old tech can bring to bear, they just sit there speechless. Their mind
is paralyzed by the force of years of assumptions crashing to the ground.
Once they realize the promise that the old tech still offers, they grow sick
to the stomach. The thought that they walked away from it, is almost to much
the bear.

The people that have never abandoned the old tech, and the people that are
reacquainted with it realize one thing. The old tech still has the
capability to change the world in so many ways, to such utterly
incomprehensible levels, that it will make the first time look like child's
play. The only thing that is slowing it down, is that we still, to this
point, are at a loss to fully understand the capabilities, and methods of
operation of the old tech. How did they declare it obsolete, when they still
didn't even know the basics of It's operation? The more we have found out,
the greater it's capabilities have grown. At a time where the new
technologies have finally hit the limit of the materials that make up this
universe, the old tech is just getting started.

The revelations and, capabilities that it has provided since it was declared
obsolete, have changed are concept of the universe it's self.

It offers the capability to propel us across the depths of space, to unknown
worlds, and at speeds we can only dream about. It already holds the speed
record for the fastest man made spacecraft ever built.

It offers the capability to manipulating power on a scale which has only
been dreamed of. It already has allowed us to manipulate and control power
at such densities and levels that can only be dreamed of by people that use
the new technologies..

It makes possible, the capability of generating that power in the first
place. It is the only technology that will give us the power to control the
very energy source that powers the sun it's self.

It will bring are level of computational power to unheard of levels, far
beyond the capabilities that are only theorized by the new technology. The
speeds that it promises, are levels of magnitude above the fastest speeds of
the new technology.

It will bring to us, a the capability of building electronic equipment with
unheard of endurance, and range of operation. It will be able to operate,
unprotected, in environments as far ranging as the surface of mars, the
lonely planet of Pluto, and to the farthest, radiation washed, frozen depths
of space. From temperatures that will melt lead, to almost absolute zero, it
will not be affected in the slightest.

The oddest thing about it, is the fact that the new technology has told us
more about the old technology, than we have ever found out by directly
studying the old tech. The new tech is surprisingly more interrelated with
the old tech than many would even guess. That is underscored by that fact
that people working on making new versions of devices based on the old tech,
is using formulas, and knowledge that is normally reserved for the most
advanced new tech devices. The most advanced new tech, is just getting
advanced enough to start grasping the true, fundamental, basis for the
operation for the old technology. Thus, when we finally look back at the old
equipment, and the old tech that we have had around for over a hundred
years, we look at it with aww, because we are truly seeing it for the very
first time.

We are finally reaching the point that we can solve the problems with the
old tech, because we finally understand what the old tech really is. We are
finally working with it on a direct level, instead of relying on other
devices to indirectly produce the effect that makes the old tech possible.

With the knowledge we are gaining, are mistakes are becoming obvious. It
almost appears like we discovered them in the wrong order. If we had
discovered the new tech first, and then discovered the old tech afterwards,
then we would have been able to leverage the old tech to a far greater
extent, and a lot quicker pace than we did. The new tech relies on
manipulating power by a second hand method. The old tech manipulates power
at the root level. A technology that is far more powerful than the new
tech. The old tech was never obsolete. It was just misplaced. It was like
using a spaceship engine to turn a light off and on. It's like using a
fusion engine starter in a radio.

When people joke about the old tech making a comeback, and talk about the
old geezers that hang on to the past. They just don't understand the
enormity of the situation. The people that are gravitating to the old
technology, are like the Indians that has just found out the black stick
they have been beating people over the head with, are actually rifles. The
other Indians question why anyone would want those black sticks that they
found laying around, but the Indians that want them, know different. It's a
paradigm shift so massive that it's incomprehensible by outsiders.

I guess it's time to describe the old tech, and give it a name. The old tech
is directly working with, and manipulating electrons, in a vacuum. To
interact with the basic substance that we use to deliver power. To control
it on a basic level. Not on a second hand level by manipulating atoms on
which they are carried, but controlling electrons themselves. To manipulate
power over a distance without intrinsic loss, and with current densities
that are almost unaffected by heating of the current path, is things
relegated to superconductors. But they are properties that the old tech has
shown from day one. The power injection into that medium, and extraction
from it has a fair amount of loss at this time, but that is slowly being
corrected with the knowledge that has been gained. The old tech carries many
names. Some of the newest ones are "vacuum electron device" (VED), which the
industry likes using now. "Ion engines" which is just and old piece of
equipment (thyratron) that is opened up to space to produce propulsion.
"surface emissive displays" (SEDs) which is just bunches of old tech
devices imbedded into a plate with cold cathodes. "Vacuum micro electronics",
which is sometimes called "vacuum transistors". It is just an old triode
made really small with a cold cathode. But the common name that all those
try to avoid is the one which most people know. That is the common old
"vacuum tube" or as the people across the pond like to say. The "valve"

The true cold cathode is the greatest advance that comes from the true
understanding of the vacuum tube. There will no longer be a need for heated
cathodes to inject electrons into the working space. The connection between
the vacuum space and the conducting wires will be like the connection
between two different pieces of wire. It will operate at any temperature
and require no power to maintain the connection. That will mean that tubes
will no longer burn out. There reliability will be on a par with the new
tech. We will finally be able to interface with the vacuum environment with
no barriers. You will be able to put current into, and pull current out of
the vacuum space, with the same ease as you connect to the core of a silicon
transistor. And you will not have the current limitations in the operating
space that you have with solid state transistors.

That, coupled with the already wide and varied abilities of the vacuum
electronic devices, will cause amazing advances in the state of the
technology art. Heck, look at a vacuum device that already exist. A single
unit that can control same amount of power as 1000 homes consume, and turn
it into a 120 billion cycle a second radio beam, in one step. A beam that
can be used to start a fusion reactor. That is something that I would
classify as an amazing device.

Thus, the table will be turned again. The vacuum electronic device will able
to do anything the transistor will do, and suffer none of the limitations
that the transistor does.

Operating frequencies for vacuum microelectronic units will easily be in the
THz range. Component densities will be levels of magnitude more dense than
transistor based units. Power densities will be levels of magnitude greater
than any solid state unit in existence. Space probes will no longer have to
worry about radiation shielding, or temperature protection to keep the
electronics warm. Vacuum devices are intrinsically rad hard, and the new
cold cathode technologies will not be affecting by temperatures that can be
hundreds of degrees below zero. Electronics can be built into an engine,
instead of bolted on the outside of it to keep it away from the heat.

Some people will point to the field of vacuum microelectronics, and say.
"That idea got started over five years ago. They haven't turned anything
out, worth talking about, yet." Well, the old vacuum tube has been around
for over a 100 years. What's another five years? Point of example. A lot of
people gave up on SED's when companies didn't turn out a production model
within a few years. But, long after the ruckus has died down, and most of
the gold digging companies that were just trying to get rich quick, faded
away, the technology is finally ready to make it's presence known. This
month, in Japan, the joint venture between two Japanese companies, is going
start production runs of SED displays. Each panel will contain over three
million cold cathode vacuum triodes, with phosphorus coated plates.

Some have made the joke that, the SED panels are over 50 inches in size
because you can't pack three million tubes into a space any smaller. On the
contrary, some test have shown that they could can pack one billion of those
tubes in a space no large than one centimeter square. They will have a
maximum operating frequency of over one THz. People are working on it as we
speak. It won't be easy, but it's doable.

If you ever hear about a new computer shipping with something know as a
"vacuum state" processor, or something of the like. Just remember, it's the
vacuum tube coming back to bite the solid state transistor in the ass.

In the end, we have come full circle. When we look at the old vacuum tube,
we are actually looking at it for the very first time.

Philo Farnsworth rides again and this time he is ****ed!!!

N9WOS wrote:

One of my spur of the moment musings.)

As time passes, new things are found, and others grow old. But, things
always seems to come full circle after everything is said and done.

A little over hundred years ago, a man noted an odd occurrence, when he was
working on something he made, to fix a problem with another one of his
inventions. He didn't re
snip


If you ever hear about a new computer shipping with something know as a
"vacuum state" processor, or something of the like. Just remember, it's the
vacuum tube coming back to bite the solid state transistor in the ass.

In the end, we have come full circle. When we look at the old vacuum tube,
we are actually looking at it for the very first time.


Of the many ways of controlling the flow of electrons, this is one of
them...

_-_-bear