Comments on: The Chronicles of Gas-Plasma https://retropaq.com/the-miracle-of-gas-plasma/ Retro & Vintage Compaq Computers & Other Vintage Technology Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:35:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 By: Leo Smith https://retropaq.com/the-miracle-of-gas-plasma/#comment-8967 Mon, 28 Oct 2024 07:31:10 +0000 https://retropaq.com/?p=908#comment-8967 Gas plasma has one serious advantage in military applications.
EMP resistance – the technology has INHERENT advantages at resisting EMP.
It’s also fairly easy to make it qualify for TEMPEST EMF standards – SAI technology was building plasma terminals in the 1980s (I worked there for a while) that were TEMPEST qualified.

They’re also more physically rugged than CRT by a very wide margin, and quite a bit more rugged on the screen than an LCD.

]]> By: Retropaq https://retropaq.com/the-miracle-of-gas-plasma/#comment-565 Tue, 18 May 2021 05:34:00 +0000 https://retropaq.com/?p=908#comment-565 In reply to C Daniels.

Hi there, the plasma display unit is not really serviceable for a few reasons, namely, the driver ICs are very small and hard to source and also the display is sealed in glass and is in a vacuum. Your best bet is to salvage another display from another unit. There are disassembly instructions on how to remove the display panel available online. Good luck!

]]> By: C Daniels https://retropaq.com/the-miracle-of-gas-plasma/#comment-564 Tue, 18 May 2021 02:00:26 +0000 https://retropaq.com/?p=908#comment-564 This is great information, but I am personally interested in possibilities for replacement and/or repair, and this didn’t address that at all! 🙁 I would love to buy any one of these PCs, but… I’m aware of CRT’s limitations. To be honest, it is perhaps its easier to buy an entire Compaq Portable; CP Plus, or CP 386 rather than replace just the CRT tube, I worry that I couldn’t even do this with plasma screens. Are they inevitably deteriorating at roughly the same rate? Could I find an otherwise non-functioning model and exchange screens?

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