Subject:
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Re: Mechanical Memory for Computing
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 25 Jun 2003 14:17:59 GMT
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Viewed:
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955 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net> wrote:
> Brian H. Nielsen wrote:
>
> > The red #12 axle functions as a write-protect mechanism. In the position
> > shown, the black axles are prevented from sliding and the byte is
> > write-protected.
>
> Ah! Very clever! That way we can unlock the memory when it's in the "write"
> mechanism and lock it when it's being read or moved around inside the machine.
>
> That cleanly solves my 'friction' problem.
>
> > The 4-bit byte is a function of #12 axles being the longest available, but
> > the design is extendable to link multiple bytes together into longer length
> > words.
>
> The problem is that the spacing between the bits will need to be kept exactly
> constant in order for the *serial* reading and writing of a byte to be do-able.
>
> We talked a bit about this a couple of posts ago - but essentially, the machine
> is proposed to be a 1 bit wide machine internally (at least inside the adder unit),
> so the bits of one byte of RAM will need to be shuffled in front of the write
> head one at a time.
>
> However, maybe we can figure a way to unprotect each bit one at a time as it
> enters the write mechanism...or better still, *AS IT IS BEING WRITTEN*.
>
> That would eliminate your length restriction - and also resolve the problem of
> the spacing because each bit would now be identical.
Since the design is scalable, you could scale it *down* from a 4-bit byte to
a 1-bit byte. Now each bit is individually write-protectable.
I believe a better way would be to keep the 4-bit byte length for main
storage and transfer the value to a register which has the 1-bit write-protect
level. The adder unit can then work with the value(s) in the register(s). This
keeps main storage simpler with fewer parts and has a higher information storage
capacity for the same number of addressable bytes.
Brian
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Mechanical Memory for Computing
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| (...) Ah! Very clever! That way we can unlock the memory when it's in the "write" mechanism and lock it when it's being read or moved around inside the machine. That cleanly solves my 'friction' problem. (...) The problem is that the spacing between (...) (21 years ago, 25-Jun-03, to lugnet.robotics)
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