4 ms·

While I was watching that some time ago I was wondering what it would take to optimize this and make it still work with the same underlying principles. It occu

While I was watching that some time ago I was wondering what it would take to optimize this and make it still work with the same underlying principles. It occurred to me that falling dominoes are just transmitting a mechanical signal, that is ultimately "sound", thus phonons. So I thought : can you make a computer that would use phonons inside tiny metal wires instead of electrons?

DanBC 11y ago
See, for example, this form of memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory > Delay line memory is a form of computer memory, now obsolete, that was used on some of the earliest digital computers. Like many modern forms of electronic computer memory, delay line memory was a refreshable memory, but as opposed to modern random-access memory, delay line memory was sequential-access. > Analog delay line technology had been used since the 1920s to delay the propagation of analog signals. When a delay line is used as a memory device, an amplifier and a pulse shaper are connected between the output of the delay line and the input. The memory capacity is determined by dividing the time taken to transmit one bit into the time it takes for data to circulate through the delay line. Early delay-line memory systems had capacities of a few thousand bits, with recirculation times measured in microseconds. To read or write a particular bit stored in such a memory, it is necessary to wait for that bit to circulate through the delay line into the electronics. The delay to read or write any particular bit is no longer than the recirculation time.
- evanb 11y ago
  I recently stumbled upon a good video showing some old delay line memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUbYII5RY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUbYII5RY
  - TrevorJ 11y ago
    good explanation of earlier version https://youtu.be/Yc945sNB0uA?t=102 https://youtu.be/Yc945sNB0uA?t=102
- IanCal 11y ago
  Mercury was something used for this, but I have always liked this little tidbit of information: > (Alan Turing proposed the use of gin as an ultrasonic delay medium, claiming that it had the necessary acoustic properties.[3])

DanBC 11y ago

See, for example, this form of memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory > Delay line memory is a form of computer memory, now obsolete, that was used on some of the earliest digital computers. Like many modern forms of electronic computer memory, delay line memory was a refreshable memory, but as opposed to modern random-access memory, delay line memory was sequential-access. > Analog delay line technology had been used since the 1920s to delay the propagation of analog signals. When a delay line is used as a memory device, an amplifier and a pulse shaper are connected between the output of the delay line and the input. The memory capacity is determined by dividing the time taken to transmit one bit into the time it takes for data to circulate through the delay line. Early delay-line memory systems had capacities of a few thousand bits, with recirculation times measured in microseconds. To read or write a particular bit stored in such a memory, it is necessary to wait for that bit to circulate through the delay line into the electronics. The delay to read or write any particular bit is no longer than the recirculation time.

evanb 11y ago
I recently stumbled upon a good video showing some old delay line memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUbYII5RY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUbYII5RY
- TrevorJ 11y ago
  good explanation of earlier version https://youtu.be/Yc945sNB0uA?t=102 https://youtu.be/Yc945sNB0uA?t=102
IanCal 11y ago
Mercury was something used for this, but I have always liked this little tidbit of information: > (Alan Turing proposed the use of gin as an ultrasonic delay medium, claiming that it had the necessary acoustic properties.[3])