DMCC- Digital Marble Computing Collab
Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:25 pm
The ultimate goal of this collab is to build a computer that, in theory, is ENTIRELY MECHANICAL.
More specifically, the Intel 8080. Then, maybe an 8086.
Yes, this is styled from Conundrumer's Digital Laser Computing Collab.
I have built this Accumulator using the beamsplitters I based off of Matthias Wandel's Marble Adding Machine.
I also included a "punchcard" that will store marbles in the RAM array that I have not built yet. Push the button on the right to release the marbles. It collides on C.
This collab WILL NOT consider onCollide scripts that change the collideSet of the marbles "scripting". Why? It's the only way to "simulate" stuff moving in the third dimension. If you want a marble to roll down a ramp, then bounce off a box and roll down another ramp, past the first, it is easy in real life. Just put the second ramp behind the first. But, onCollide collideSet changes are the only way to do this in Algodoo.
We need:
Mechanics -
Thymechanics -
Phundamentalists - Me
Thymers -
Not programmers yet- we need a computer first!
And you Thymers- DO NOT THYME ANYTHING UNTIL WE HAVE BUILT IT WITHOUT ADDING ANY MORE THYME!!
Phundamentalists, you know what I mean.
Please go ahead and Thyme the accumulator and punchcard- I have built those without Thyme, but PLEASE make it phunlet-friendly. If you use scene.my in the punchcard, we WILL NOT me able to use a bunch of them at once.
And when you do, we can add mechanical stuff to it.
Stuff we need to build-
Accumulator - Me (DONE)
Punchcard - Me (DONE)
RAM - Me (DONE)
Accumulator that can do Subtraction -
Multiplier - Me, after the RAM array and somebody Thymes the accumulator.
Improved Marble Dispenser (with app.mousepos) -
We also need to get plans for the 8080. Probably available for free at Intel's website. I hope. If not, we can reach for the theoretical relay computer in CODE: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold.
I will not teach you binary unless I really need to.
Needless to say, this computer will use 8bit bytes, which just happens to be the bandwidth of my cards, my accumulator, the 8080 and Petzold's relay computer.
Hmm, I will edit the accumulator scene so the marbles have more thyme-friendly colors. You know, so they are easier to spawn.