Classic Computer Rescue Squad

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Sat Nov 8 21:01:33 1997

> I know, personally, of a chap in Germany who is, at this moment,
> putting the finishing touches on a modern-day vacuum-tube computer.
> I'm looking forward to seeing the designs and writing a simulator for
> it so we may all have fun.

I would certainly like to find out how he is doing this - his life depends
on this...

While it may be a very interesting experiment, finding out what could have
been done at some point in history (like that Thor Heyerdal (sp?) guy), it
could also be a bit damaging to other fields. Some vintage parts are
really drying up and make accurate restorations VERY difficult and/or
expensive. This is very evident in the old tube (valve, bottle, etc.)
field. Some of the tubes I need for restorations are next to impossible to
find these days, unless I pay large amounts from the audio people (I have
little love for them). While some of the tube types are not suitable for
computers, some are. I certainly hope he is using some of the more common
types that can be purchased by the bushell.

> Computers aren't all _that_ hard to design and build! Just remember
> that you don't _need_ all the instruction-set bloat that's so common
> nowadays. Think RISC. Of course, before there was CISC/RISC there
> was... well "RISC". The first time I heard of RISC the though that
> popped into my mind was: "Finally! Back to basics!".
 
Of course, once you start playing with tubes - lots of them - problems
come up that are not usually found when using TTL.

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Sat Nov 08 1997 - 21:01:33 GMT