>The 'cascode' configuration has other goals like
>improved bandwidth and lower noise figure as contrasted
>to simply increasing the gain, verily, voltage (and even
>current) gain in a cascode configuration is _lower_
>than other configurations ...

Not sure why you perceive it as having low voltage gain, one of my memories
of the use of this configuration is to have a low voltage swing input drive
a high voltage transistor in the output stages of oscilloscopes for
deflection plate drive.

The original configuration was designed for RF use when the devices
available had high miller feedback effects. The use of two devices in the
cascode configuration resulted in much better output to input isolation,
allowing much higher gain. Originally used quite widely in the RF stages of
TV tuners, back in the days when these were built with vacuum tubes, but I
imagine the configuration was used long before that.

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