3 ms·

A Do-It-Yourself paper digital computer (1959)

59 points by ColinWright 6y ago

hanslub42 6y ago
This kind of computer might be just what we need for a Venus rover https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6933 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6933
- avian 6y ago
  Electronics are still more likely I think. Some sources claim [1] that even in the 1980s the Venera program had developed circuits capable of working outside of the probe's pressure hull, at Venus temperatures. I don't remember ever seeing any details on that. If I would have to guess, it was vacuum tube technology. For future probes, silicon-carbide semiconductors seem promising. Some proof-of-concept electronic instruments working at 500 C have been published in recent times [2]. [1] http://mentallandscape.com/V_Venera11.htm http://mentallandscape.com/V_Venera11.htm [2] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012LPI....43.1259H/abstract https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012LPI....43.1259H/abstra...
smlckz 6y ago
wow!
spicybright 6y ago
Reminds me of the Digicomp 1! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I
bregma 6y ago
If I had found one of those when I was a kid I would have been in heaven. What I did have was a CARDIAC [0] computer. I found it when I was 10 (this would have been in the early 1970s) and it turned me on to programming. I still have it, although some memory cells are burned out (too many erasures) and I tried building larger, more complicated variants with extended instruction sets. [0] https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html
- raphlinus 6y ago
  I also had a CARDIAC, but on top of that I had a series of computers starting with KIM-1 (6502) and SDK-85 (8085, which was Intel's answer to the Z80 at the time). Fun times, and I think we've lost something since then.
shakna 6y ago
Reminds me a lot of the marble calculator [0], though with far more moving (and fragile) parts. [0] https://lapinozz.github.io/learning/2016/11/19/calculator-with-caordboard-and-marbles.html https://lapinozz.github.io/learning/2016/11/19/calculator-wi...
dmead 6y ago
looks like the octave key mechanism on a woodwind.

59 points by ColinWright 6y ago

This kind of computer might be just what we need for a Venus rover https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6933 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6933

avian 6y ago
Electronics are still more likely I think. Some sources claim [1] that even in the 1980s the Venera program had developed circuits capable of working outside of the probe's pressure hull, at Venus temperatures. I don't remember ever seeing any details on that. If I would have to guess, it was vacuum tube technology. For future probes, silicon-carbide semiconductors seem promising. Some proof-of-concept electronic instruments working at 500 C have been published in recent times [2]. [1] http://mentallandscape.com/V_Venera11.htm http://mentallandscape.com/V_Venera11.htm [2] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012LPI....43.1259H/abstract https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012LPI....43.1259H/abstra...

smlckz 6y ago

wow!

spicybright 6y ago

Reminds me of the Digicomp 1! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I

bregma 6y ago

If I had found one of those when I was a kid I would have been in heaven. What I did have was a CARDIAC [0] computer. I found it when I was 10 (this would have been in the early 1970s) and it turned me on to programming. I still have it, although some memory cells are burned out (too many erasures) and I tried building larger, more complicated variants with extended instruction sets. [0] https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html

raphlinus 6y ago
I also had a CARDIAC, but on top of that I had a series of computers starting with KIM-1 (6502) and SDK-85 (8085, which was Intel's answer to the Z80 at the time). Fun times, and I think we've lost something since then.

shakna 6y ago

Reminds me a lot of the marble calculator [0], though with far more moving (and fragile) parts. [0] https://lapinozz.github.io/learning/2016/11/19/calculator-with-caordboard-and-marbles.html https://lapinozz.github.io/learning/2016/11/19/calculator-wi...

dmead 6y ago

looks like the octave key mechanism on a woodwind.