Re:Throbac: THrifty Roman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer
by schlauerfox on Friday November 01, 2024 @11:48AM
(#42018156)
How can they only have one low resolution picture and only pictures of the outside?? What display tech does it use? I can't imagine there are Roman Numeral Nixie tubes. https://www.kuenzigbooks.com/pages/books/28672/claude-e-shan...
I see Clear Lower, Clear KBD, Clear Upper. 7 'digits' display, but wow if anything needed a manual...
Re:Throbac: THrifty Roman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer
by schlauerfox on Friday November 01, 2024 @12:57PM
(#42019005)
Amazing, thank you for the link! There's an entire 'collected papers' on the IEEE website. I'm going to miss my college library accounts now i'm graduated!
Re:Throbac: THrifty Roman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer
by wolfgang42 on Friday November 01, 2024 @01:44PM
(#42019555)
After staring at the linked PDF for a while, I think the display was a collection of lightbulbs (presumably behind a mask plate), probably arranged something like this:
Upper dial V XV
(Quotient) III
Lower dial LLLVV
(Accumulator) XXX X
IIII
Re:Throbac: THrifty Roman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer
by schlauerfox on Friday November 01, 2024 @03:13PM
(#42020504)
Yeah, it's a relay counter like a score motor in a pinball machine, but each rotor is different since the I is mod 5, the V is mod2 and the LX is mod 80, directly connected to the lights. The principles discussion is well done. Wow I love old tech documentation!
I still don't have a good visualization of what the display 'dial' looks like
Re:Throbac: THrifty Roman numeral BAckwards-looking Computer
by Sesse__ on Friday November 01, 2024 @12:29PM
(#42018658)
One of my lecturers at university (in information theory) once talked about the conference where he had met Shannon. Shannon was already a legend, and didn't show himself much, so there was a lot of whispering, and someone figured out it would be nice to have him deliver a speech at the dinner. The room was buzzing with anticipation when Shannon got up from his chair; what wisdom would he impart upon the crowd?
“I haven't prepared anything to say. But I could always juggle a bit.” So he took out five balls and showed off his juggling. And that was that :-)
(Interestingly, said lecturer also mentioned this Roman numeral computer; this is the only time I've seen an actual picture of it!)
I've reproduced here: https://pdfupload.io/docs/13f78f9d
I am curious to know if there's a gene for these incredibly driven, very intelligent people that also _finish projects_.
“I haven't prepared anything to say. But I could always juggle a bit.” So he took out five balls and showed off his juggling. And that was that :-)
(Interestingly, said lecturer also mentioned this Roman numeral computer; this is the only time I've seen an actual picture of it!)