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Old September 23rd 19, 04:31 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.intel,alt.comp.hardware.amd.x86-64
Rene Lamontagne
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Posts: 187
Default What is the absolute smallest instruction set do you need to makea working computer?

On 2019-09-22 8:36 p.m., pyotr filipivich wrote:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" on Sun, 22 Sep 2019
21:15:45 +0100 typed in alt.windows7.general the following:
In message , pyotr
filipivich writes:
[]
Martin Gardner had an article about a "theoretical" 'primitive
computer using pulleys and ropes in place of transistors (or tubes).
In theory it would work, in practice there would be too much
imprecision from the slack/stretch in the ropes for it to work.

Babbage (arguably only with modern materials) made a mechanical machine
work. There are the mechanical equivalents of squaring circuits,
thresholds etcetera. Electronic computers could be made to work with
three or four voltage levels rather than two - it just reduces the noise
margin, which puts limits on speed and distances. Presumably a
pulleys/ropes machine could be made, as long as there were thresholds,
and the mechanical equivalents of amplifiers (a rope-operated clutch
perhaps? I'm not really a mechanical engineer).


It is funny in a way. Garden was reporting a supposed "discovery"
of a "computer" discovered on a south pacific island. Yes, one could
probably be made to work. Wintergatan - Marble Machine has made what
was originally a CGI video into a working machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q A fascinating study in
its own right.


Absolutely wonderful machine and a brilliant inventor/builder. I didn't
know it existed.

Rene