20 Dec
2007
20 Dec
'07
12:49 a.m.
On Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 02:11 Jim Battle said:
Rather than a magnetic drum, I think a much more
achievable
contraption
is a drum that uses capacitance for storage. ...
Ha! Just like the Atanasoff-Berry machine.
Someone else mentioned using a toner drum, but as a smooth surface on
which to put an oxide coating to make it into a magnetic drum. I
wonder how fast one could optically write charge to a toner drum?
Readout could be through capacitive coupling, no contact at all.
I 'spose the antecedent to a disc version of the above would be,
what, a Wimshurst machine? :)
...
It sure isn't going to do 3000 RPM, but perhaps 1/10 of that speed,
and
it will make a nice clatter I suppose. But since you are setting a
limit of 256 transistors, you shouldn't really be aiming for high
performance anyway.
No, no! The drum is the limiting factor on speed. Fast drum ==
slow computer; slow drum == intolerably slow computer.
-B