h a l f b a k e r yKeep out of reach of children.
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
In physics classes, we are often told to think about electrical circuits as analogous to plumbing circuits; pressure ~ voltage and volume flow rate ~ amperage.
However, I have yet to see anyone create a processor made entirely out of plumbing and fluid gates and valves, outside of the hydraulics
used inside an automatic transmission to control shift points, I suppose. I could imagine all sorts of hydraulic switches and valves which could replace transistors in a large-scale, horribly complex, and quite slow computational machine. Why? For the sake of art I guess.
Binary optional.
Fluidics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluidics
background info [csea, Mar 12 2008]
Fluid memory
http://en.wikipedia...coustic_delay_lines
In this generation, temporary or working storage was provided by acoustic delay lines, which used the propagation time of sound through a medium such as liquid mercury (or through a wire) to briefly store data. [BunsenHoneydew, Mar 12 2008]
BINAC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BINAC
An early project for the U.S. Air Force, BINAC attempted to make a lightweight, simple computer by using binary arithmetic. [BunsenHoneydew, Mar 12 2008]
Please log in.
If you're not logged in,
you can see what this page
looks like, but you will
not be able to add anything.
Annotation:
|
| |
Back in the 1960s, my dad brought home a kit for modelling something called "fluidics." [link] Now it seems there's a branch of this called "microfluidics," similar to what has been discussed here recently. |
|
| |
Back in the 1970s, my dad was designing hydraulically-operated car washes. He tried to explain "fluid logic" to me. It had ANDs, NOTs and ORs in it, IIRC. I don't know if he used it, or instead made up his own system. |
|
| |
I do remember he made a widget with a water jet at ankle level. If you blocked that, another nozzle let loose a blast of water that would knock you over. He said it was for cleaning hubcaps, but I never saw it do that. |
|
| |
The Phillips machine is the example I was thinking of as well. My impression is that [RayfordSteele] has a general purpose Turing machine in mind, rather than a single-purpose analog computer. Am I correct? |
|
| |
If not a useful processor it would at least make a worthwhile educational display of the workings of a CPU. |
|
| |
The great wiki tells me that the Intel 4004 was constructed of 2,300 transistors. BINAC [link] used 700 vacuum tubes and 32 acoustic delay lines (literally fluid memory) [link]. Perhaps a largish shed would be sufficient. |
|
| |
Fluidics was part of my computer science degree in the late 70s. The elements were about an inch square, and a bistable took a couple of elements. I think they may have been made by Honeywell |
|
| |