Book Review: How to Build a Working Digital Computer

From: Derek Peschel <dpeschel_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Tue Mar 2 21:11:31 1999

Doug Yowza wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Dave Dameron wrote:

> > The drum was a metal can with contacts to 20 or so flashlight lamps.
> > Segments of the drum were covered up with tape so various lamps were lit
> > as one rotated the drum. The lamps were instructions for you to switch
> > the various knife switches, you rotated the drum to see the steps to
> > take.
>
> Ah, that must be what Derek meant. I didn't really look at the drum
> section, so I assumed it was magnetic.

Yes, that was more or less what I was thinking. My point was that IF you
could get the switches to switch automatically (and the drum to turn) you
would have a truly useful, automatic computer. Maybe with enough extra
knife switches you could pull it off? :)

> scan a pic this week. It's really an amazing coincidence: same drum, same
> simulated core, simular looking ALU, ....

Maybe the company is the same?

Maybe the brochure authors just ripped off the design? :)

-- Derek
Received on Tue Mar 02 1999 - 21:11:31 GMT