<warning ... historical computer musings> Gosh, the Russians were doing base 3 in the 1970's (better because it was closer to the base e, and they figured out how to do tri-state devices with discrete transistor technology), and it worked, and bi-quinary was even used on the console displays some old IBM boxen. I think it was the 1620, and it ONLY did decimal math. Kind of the 'scientific' cousin of the IBM 1401. ...At least it wasn't a punch card only machine. One of the versions of the IBM 360 used air bags pushing against aluminum foil with punch cards between that and other metal strips, and used that as its 'changeable microcode. .... And it was Burrows that brought out magneto constrictive delay lines as memory. ... In college we had a CDC machine we had to repair, using discrete germanium transistors on 2x2" printed circuit cards. 4 transistors and two flip-flops on each. Yea, it took up a room and used 7 track, 256bpi tape drives, and had 8 of them and no disk. It paged off of tape. It ran FORTRAN 2 pretty well. But the COBOL compiler was REALLY slow. Assembler on it was fun though. You should have seen it run a big balanced sort using the tape rives! It did a cameo in the movie "Colossus: the Forbin Project". </end history> To bad you all missed all the advanced technology!
andrew mcelroy wrote: > > > On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 6:27 AM, Andrew Farnsworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > Wow, quick update here. Intel i7 Processor has 731 Million > transistors... doubled already so knock 18 months off the > deadline... call it 2190 now!!! > > > Bah, binary processing is for the old fashioned! > > http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/40.918000 > Title: "Toward Quantum Computation: A Five-Qubit Quantum Processor" > > Now we are talking about some computing power. > > Andrew > > > Andy > > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 3:15 PM, Jack Coats <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > > Only if you install the Flux Capacitor in your Tardis ;) > > ... Even Einstein didn't call E=MC**@ a law, just a good > approximation > of what he could determine. > And to that extent the string theorists have proven that > Einstein was > wright, in that his statement was wrong, > at least around the 'edges', but it, likes Newton's 'laws', > are good > within their defined domain. Things tend > to brake down at the 'edges' and when boundry conditions that > need new > understandings happen. > > I am guessing we will find the same with Moore's Law. Do we > really need > transistors? Yep, flux capacitors > could be the next 'big thing' so we can re-start discussing > Moore's law, > Global Warming, Global Cooling and all the > 'important topics' of the day! > > Time to go back to my hobbit hole and drink some KoolAide > > andrew mcelroy wrote: > > > > > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:04 AM, Andrew Farnsworth > <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>> wrote: > > > > Nope, it means that to continue Moore's law we will need > to start > > making our computer chips out of denser and denser > matter. It > > won't be long[*] before we need to start using Neurton > stars as > > source material and not long after that before we will > need to use > > the collapsed matter at the core of black holes. > > > > Not long galactically speaking... we are currently at > appoximately > > 2^28 transistors. If we assume Moore's Law will continue > > indefinetely, we find that by 2150 we have reached 1.5E51 > > transistors. Now working backwards and assuming we will be > > running 1 Thz chips, we find that by the year 2100 we > will need to > > be using material denser than water (Water has a density of > > approximately 1Kg / Liter) to surpas this limit. Wait! We > > already are using materials that are denser than water! Ok, > > Copper is about 9 times denser than water, lead is about > 11 times > > denser than water. Ok, we will work with 10 as an easy > number... > > hmm, this only gives us an extra 4 years. Ok, on to other > > materials. Iridium is 22x as dense. Another 18 months > or so... > > Ahh, here we go, the core of the sun! 150x as dense as > water... > > shoot, that is just another 4 years on top of iridium. > Ok, lets > > go really dense... 100,000,000,000,000x as dense (10^14) > which > > gives us to 2148. Better but not good enough. Black > holes are > > next! 10^27 x as dense takes us to 2192.. Only another > 50 years! > > So if we manage to continue Moore's law for the next 200 > years we > > will all have a small black hole in our computer as the > CPU.. > > Somehow I think that Moore's law will break down before > then. > > > > > > ..but but what about a flux capacitor, surely we can some > how right > > those things with duct tape and the moon's gravity to build > full adders? > > > > > > Did I mention that I love math :-) > > > > nope :-) > > > > > > Andy > > > > Andrew > > > > > > On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:29 AM, Jack Coats > <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>> wrote: > > > > > > That means: turn off all computers and cell phones > and global > > warming > > goes away? ;) > > > > Andrew Farnsworth wrote: > > > I found the following quote on the wikipedia page > for the > > ZFS file > > > system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) > > > > > > Quoting Jeff Bonwick > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bonwick) > > > > > > Although we'd all like Moore's Law > > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_Law> to > continue > > forever, > > > quantum mechanics > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics> > > > imposes some fundamental limits on the computation > rate and > > > information capacity of any physical device. In > particular, > > it has > > > been shown that 1 kilogram > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram> of > > > matter confined to 1 litre > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litre> of > > > space can perform at most 10^51 operations per > second on at > > most 10^31 > > > bits of information.^[10] > > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS#cite_note-9> A > fully populated > > > 128-bit storage pool would contain 2^128 blocks = > 2^137 > > bytes = 2^140 > > > bits; therefore the minimum mass required to hold > the bits > > would be > > > (2^140 bits) / (10^31 bits/kg) = 136 billion kg. To > > operate at the > > > 10^31 bits/kg limit, however, the entire mass of the > > computer must be > > > in the form of pure energy. By E=mc², the rest > energy of 136 > > billion > > > kg is 1.2x10^28 J > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule>. The > > mass of > > > the oceans is about 1.4x10^21 kg. It takes about > 4,000 J to > > raise the > > > temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 degree Celsius > > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_Celsius>, and > thus about > > > 400,000 J to heat 1 kg of water from freezing to > boiling. > > The latent > > > heat of vaporization adds another 2 million J/kg. > Thus the > > energy > > > required to boil the oceans is about 2.4x10^6 J/kg * > > 1.4x10^21 kg = > > > 3.4x10^27 J. Thus, fully populating a 128-bit > storage pool > > would, > > > literally, require more energy than boiling the > oceans.^[11] > > > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS#cite_note-10> > > > > > > > > > Nothing like imposing some hard limits on a system :-) > > > > > > Andy^ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. 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