[foobar__]

These articles don't say that regular tubes are faster than transistors, only that "vacuum-channel transistors" (nano-scale devices inspired by tubes but different) could possibly eventually be faster than semiconductors.

But these articles are from 2014 and 2012 and they contradict easily looked up facts. The 2012 article claims that this technology promises speeds of up to 460GHz, which seems to have already been topped by regular semiconductor transistors, even by 2003: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Feng#World.27s_fastest_... for a really old example.

So to me it seems that this research is in a very early stage and no one knows whether the finished product (if it is ever finished) will be faster than semiconductors. Of course the researchers working on this must make big promises or they wouldn't get grants, but that's how the grant system works today, and it doesn't tell you anything about how viable the product is.

edit: Not to sound to negative here, I am really looking forward to this new technology and hope it will turn out alright. But it looks very much like fundamental research, so I take issue with broad claims like "by their nature, tubes are much faster than semiconductors, which has its uses", when apparently nothing has left the laboratory yet.

[Baeocystin]

I appreciate the links.

Here's a more recent link, specifically regarding terahertz research, you might find interesting.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6463/50/4/043...

I want to emphasize an important distinction: that vacuum-based amps have higher potential switching speeds than semiconductors is not a novel thing, nor is it early stage research. It is part and parcel of the nature of semiconductors. What is cutting-edge is miniaturization of vacuum-based systems using conventional fab processes. That's the exciting stuff!