Some Historical Op-amps

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,

You don't have to read much about the history of analog circuits before you come to George A. Philbrick Researches Inc. Philbrick employed some of the industry's greats like Bob Pease, Robert Dobkin and Jim Williams amongst other.

I have collected a few of the historical parts, that I would like to share with the group.

1965 SP2A

From around 1965 I have a Philbrick SP2A. This was built in a nickel-plated steel box. The box is fitted with a 15 pin edge connector. I have the matching socket. I believe the one that I have has never been used.
This op-amp made with silicon transistor was designed by George Philbrick, based on the Bob Malter P2 Design. The SP2A was fitted into a package designed by Walter Kern. With Bob Pease doing the layout.

These were not cheap. The price was $227.00 in 1965, that is about $1725.00 in today's money.

Analog computing was big business. This was equivalent to high end microprocessor.












More information can be found here:

http://www.philbrickarchive.org/news%20from%20philbrick;%20new%20philbrick%20plant%20in%20dedham,%20massachusetts.pdf

1968 Philbrick 1011

I have a few Philbrick Nexus 1011 Amplifier. These samples range from 1971 to 1977. Unfortunately, none of them work. You can see the socket. The pin pitch is 0.2 inches.





Here is a link to the 1011 datasheet:

http://www.philbrickarchive.org/1011.htm

This was $42.00 Qty 1 in 1972.

The specifications can be found here, on page 12:

http://www.philbrickarchive.org/1972%20product%20guide.pdf


Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

[BurnedResistor]

Woah! That is pretty cool

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[daqq]

Thanks! It's amazing to see the difference. But... where is the steam intake port?

[Alex Eisenhut]

http://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/O

[GK]

A clean out of ancient and obsolete crap at work netted me these. Data for the P2 can be found on the Philbrick site. Haven't been able to find data for the AD759.

[newbrain]

Haven't been able to find data for the AD759.

Log/antilog amplifiers:
http://datasheet.octopart.com/759P-Intronics-datasheet-13593.pdf,
http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/cd/vol12n1.pdf, page 20
and
http://www.analog.com/media/en/training-seminars/design-handbooks/ADI_Multiplier_Applications_Guide.pdf, page 50.

I have the vague memory of an ad for the BB S/H in a magazine when I was a child...is that ~1975 era?

[ram]

We will see Teledyne name on one of the parts I.e Teledyne lecroy is related


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[woodchips]

Some more.

No idea if they work, another job for a rainy day.

[Len]

We will see Teledyne name on one of the parts I.e Teledyne lecroy is related

Teledyne bought Philbrick in the late '60s and LeCroy in 2012.

[rob77]

Thanks! It's amazing to see the difference. But... where is the steam intake port?

i think it was left aside next to the wooden enclosure and the steam power supply

but joking apart... those "ancient" opamps are cool
btw.. are those just discrete opamps on potted PCBs or are those hybrids on some substrate ? i assume hybrids.

[TimFox]

I remember an historical article in EDN maybe 15 years ago discussing the original vacuum-tube opamp made by Julie during World War II, and its commercialization by Philbrick thereafter.  The article referred to the 6SL7 (octal) dual triode in Julie's design and the 12AX7 (9-pin miniature) in Philbrick's design as "high micron" triodes, an ignorant error for "high mu" (voltage amplification factor).
The late R Pease wrote about his days at Philbrick, including the amazing SP102 varactor-input amplifier with an input common-mode voltage of 200 V and typical 1 pA bias current.
See http://philbrickarchive.org/ for an interesting collection of articles.

[PioB]

Beautiful! I don't have anything that old, just a couple of ML709, a National Semiconductor LM741 and a gratuitous NE555...

[dom0]

The late R Pease wrote about his days at Philbrick, including the amazing SP102 varactor-input amplifier with an input common-mode voltage of 200 V and typical 1 pA bias current.

Interesting, Analog Dialogue Volume 1 No 2 (June 1967) has something about that technology. At first glance it looks a solid-state implementation of a chopper / carrier amplifier.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Some pics of my vintage opamps. Do yours come with a CRT? No? Didn't think so. 

[crispy_tofu]

Very cool. 

[Richard Crowley]

And that old 1011 form-factor is still quite popular in the audio world.
A company named Automated Processes Inc. Started making their large-scale audio mixing consoles, etc. with an audio-optimized version of that op-amp called the 2520.  They are still popular here after many decades and you can find several variations on the product including DIY kits to build your own, etc.

[Gyro]

Another one for the collection...

A Philbrick Nexus 4352 Average/RMS/Root X^2+Y^2 Vector Operator, date code 1970 wk49. Complete with socket.

http://www.philbrickarchive.org/4352_vector_magnitude.htm

[John Heath]

At an earlier time they tried to make an analog computer out of tube op amps.

[wiss]

Decoration on my work-desk:

[TimFox]

At an earlier time they tried to make an analog computer out of tube op amps.

Actually, many analog computers were built from tube op amps, back in the day.
I remember an historical photograph (ca. 1950) in a Boeing house magazine, showing an engineer (properly dressed in white shirt and tie), with a six-foot rack to his left and a blackboard to his right.  On the board were the equations he was working on, with the terms and variables indexed to the knobs on the computer.  The caption was written by a younger person, and stated that the computer ran so hot that 400 vacuum tubes were required to remove the heat.

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi group,

Here is a photograph that I found at

http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/7846/what-sort-of-analysis-was-performed-before-modern-computing-and-the-invention

The properties of the photograph indicate "computerhistory.org" which is a computer museum in Mountainview, CA.




This is a numerical, parallel processing unit. Each has its own input/output port, the wooden tray.

You can see where the terms, stack, overflow come from.

It is amazing that this type of activity could be automated, first with op-amps and then digital circuits.

Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

[Richard Crowley]

It all began by accident. There is no sensible reason that I should have been swept up into the computing business. I might have had a perfectly respectable job in used car sales or in burglary, but it was not to be. I was actually enjoying a perfectly fine job as a junior engineer; grade B, in the Airship Foundry. I was in full charge of a small group of sweaty ladies who did engineering calculations by poking at a room full of rickety Marchants.
http://www.thecorememory.com/Also_Sprach_Von_Neumann.pdf

All that's missing is the green eye-shades.

[GK]

Haven't been able to find data for the AD759.

Log/antilog amplifiers:
http://datasheet.octopart.com/759P-Intronics-datasheet-13593.pdf,
http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/cd/vol12n1.pdf, page 20
and
http://www.analog.com/media/en/training-seminars/design-handbooks/ADI_Multiplier_Applications_Guide.pdf, page 50.

I have the vague memory of an ad for the BB S/H in a magazine when I was a child...is that ~1975 era?

Given that the datasheets for those are readily available, I think I must be mixing them up with some other "black brick" op-amp/function generator IC(s) that I either do still have or did have. Just had a quick rummage but all I could additionally find was a 4356. Most of these parts are as old as or older than I.

Additionally, and related, this is also a worthwhile download (a bit under 30Mb):

Nonlinear Circuits Handbook (Analog Devices):
http://www.kelm.ftn.uns.ac.rs/literatura/mpi/pdf/Nonlinear%20Circuit%20Handbook.pdf