3 ms·
For the last couple years I've been toying with a relay computer design. Only a few prototype circuits have been built, but I do have (several) completed desig
by retrac 7y ago
For the last couple years I've been toying with a relay computer design. Only a few prototype circuits have been built, but I do have (several) completed designs. I'm cautiously optimistic... it should be the fastest relay computer ever built, if I actually do build it. I have a whole bunch of reed relays on hand but the boards (and construction time!) are still expensive for a project of that size.
What fascinates me is that, even with a full design under my belt which works in simulation, computation remains somewhat magical to me.
- fernly 7y agoFor historical background, read up on Konrad Zuse[1], who built possibly the first programmable digital computer, using relays, the Z3[2], in 1941. (Neither ENIAC nor Colossus were operational for another couple of years.) There is a much later Zuse design, from discrete transistors, the Z23, in the collection of the Computer History Museum[3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z3_(computer) [3] https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102669947 https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10266994...