Talk:7AK7

There were many types of computer architectures in use in the 1950's, and many types of special computer tubes were used in those machines. Condensed descriptions of over 250 first generation computers are given in the 1961 edition of the Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems. In several entries on tube based computers, the total number of types and tubes in a given machine are listed in the statistics. A cursory review of the total number of types vs. total quantity of tubes used in any arbitrary sample of machine entries would indicate that neither the 7AK7 nor any other single type could have been "the computer tube", and there was certainly no "standard tube for all computers into the late 1950s" as the article claims. [The reader will notice that by 1961 the proportion of tube based machines was in rapid decline compared to growth in transistorized computers.]

https://archive.org/details/DTIC_AD0253212/page/n1001/mode/2up?q=tube+types

A THIRD SURVEY OF DOMESTIC ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTING SYSTEMS Department of the Army BALLISTIC RESEARCH LABORATORIES Report 1115, March 1961 (1085 pages)

The 1955 edition of the same report mentions Whirlwind before it was decommissioned. An OCR-to-html version of the report is at http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/BRL.html It states that the Whirlwind used around 7200 tubes of 40 types.

Claim it was the standard tube for computer in the 1950s

Dubious claim, source says this but IBM use miniature tubes (much smaller than the 7AK7) throughout the 1950s, starting with the IBM 604.--agr (talk) 15:27, 15 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Per my comment and others above, I have removed the claim.--agr (talk) 15:35, 15 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]