29 Jun
2007
29 Jun
'07
1:55 a.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Fred Cisin wrote:
Indeed - oblate spheroids don't count :-)
I was just looking at some mainframe and supercomputer type stuff the
other day and it got me thinking how weirdly-shaped some of them were
(hence the sarcastic sphere comment!)
There was one system in which the basic building blocks were cabinets in
either an 'X' or 'Y' configuration, and different sizes of system could
be made by bolting these basic blocks together in various topologies. I
don't recall the manufacturer now (although I think they were US-based),
but it sure was more interesting than rows of rectangular cabs :-)
I thing it would probably be interesting to make a computer where the
building blocks would be tetrahedra, and you would bolt them together in
3D configurations. Can you make an icosahedron out of tetrahedra?
Peace... Sridhar
Has
anyone ever built a spherical computer? That'd be interesting...
dead easy to move around, too :-)
"Give me a place to stand, and I'll move the world." - Archimedes
'course the system designed by Deep Thought is not truly spherical.