20 Jan
2004
20 Jan
'04
9:48 a.m.
Quothe Tom Jennings, from writings of Mon, Jan 19, 2004 at 11:29:08PM -0800:
On Sun, 2004-01-18 at 18:32, ben franchuk wrote:
But with TUBE computers you just fix the broken part.:)
Oh really? :-) When was the last time that you saw someone pop open a
tube and replace or repair an open filament, repair a short between
elements or restore the vacuum in a gassy tube, etc., and then put the
tube back into use?
I have a new design (yes you read right) for a tube
computer, probably
75 envelopes, on my website. 20 bits, serial arith, drum memory but I
later realized that switched-capacitor (aka DRAM) was actually
historically acceptable since one was made (NBS "test" computer; the
diodes were too expensive in 1952 but it was basically just a DRAM).
Neat! Slow, but most interesting.
Somehow, I can't find the money to make it. But
I'm serious enough,
there's an assembler and simulator there (wps.com/projects).
What appears to be the most expensive aspect of the project thus far?
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.