21 Jul
2024
21 Jul
'24
4:49 p.m.
On Sun, 21 Jul 2024, John Herron via cctalk wrote:
Not retro but when the Goodwill Computer Museum (in
Austin) had a
knowledgeable team running it they spun off into the Museum of Computer
Culture and had created a relay computer the RC3. (They did this while at
goodwill but right before the museum got shutdown as it wasn't making the
goodwill owners enough money). Unfortunately now the MCC site is also down
but a nice reference with a running video (it was loud) but impressive can
be found here https://austin.makerfaire.com/maker/entry/709/
There's another relay computer here (I'm not as familiar with) but read
that it was a good amount of information around it, maybe it references an
early book somewhere. http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/Relay/index.html
Confusing myself as I thought about it, what category is a relay computer?
It's electric and I would say mechanical but then not sure if mechanical
can be electric. Is it still analog?
Relays are mechanical.
Relays are electric, but, are they "electronic"?
They are intrinically digital, not analog, but perhaps a hybrid could be
built, with analog registers, but digital addreessing?
In the late 1960s, I tried to build a photo enlarging/printing exposure
and color balance meter, with wheatstone bridges and relays for a crude
homemade analog to digital conversion.
I got it to work at a proof of concept level, but not well enough to
actually be of use.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com