There were a few bit-serial economy designs going into the transistor era -- the latest I'm aware of is the PDP-8/S (S for Serial) from 1967. If you want to bui

There were a few bit-serial economy designs going into the transistor era -- the latest I'm aware of is the PDP-8/S (S for Serial) from 1967. If you want to build a really cheap machine and transistors are $1 each (closer to $8 current dollars after inflation), this is how you do it. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/devices/how-much-did-early-transistors-cost https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/devices/h...