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Geek Culture / Would it be possible to make a hydraulic computer??

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 26th Jan 2012 08:50 Edited at: 26th Jan 2012 08:50
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Some of you may remember one of my previous posts a while back about that hydraulic analogy where electricity going through a wire can be analogized to water flowing through a pipe and how a constriction in the pipe is like a resistor and so forth, and i was thinking that it should be possible to build some sort of an extremely low power, slow, and large but otherwise awesome hydraulic computer! What do you guys think about that?

For example, a NOT logic gate may look something like this:



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Benjamin
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Posted: 26th Jan 2012 08:57 Edited at: 26th Jan 2012 08:57
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Apparently it is possible:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogue_computer

Would be a pretty cool project.



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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 26th Jan 2012 09:04 Edited at: 26th Jan 2012 09:05
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Ahh very cool! Yes, that would be pretty sweet to build hydraulic circuits. As for an entire CPU, even if it was a simple CPU it would still be quite the undertaking to build one... But, very cool indeed!

I shalst buildeth a super computer out of hydraulics one day!!

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Zotoaster
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Posted: 26th Jan 2012 14:56
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I saw a CPU on TV (or possibly NewScientist's youtube channel) that worked only with air. It was pretty impressive.

"everyone forgets a semi-colon sometimes." - Phaelax
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zenassem
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Posted: 26th Jan 2012 22:41 Edited at: 26th Jan 2012 23:52
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Zotoaster is right imho. Pneumatic is the way to go. I built a some AND, OR, NAND, & XOR etc.. gates with Lego technic pneumatic cylinders, compressor, actuators; to make a simple calculator. Gears and micro motors from the Technic line are also awesome components to have. If you want to go truly mechanical old school look up some ideas behind turing machines, turing computers... Charles Babbage is a good resource,, especially "Difference Engine". As well as Alan Turing!

Lego Technic Pneumatic Adding Machine (I built mine off of this design)



Difference Engine


Lego Difference Engine


Turing Machine


Lego Technic Turing Machine/Computer


Elctro-mechanical Turing-Welchman Bombe


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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 27th Jan 2012 00:15
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Ah, very nice! Now one thing i have noticed is that all of the hydraulic and pneumatic computers have been based on some sort of analog logic, i want to build one with binary logic!

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zenassem
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Posted: 27th Jan 2012 01:28 Edited at: 27th Jan 2012 01:33
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most of what I've done or have seen done including the calculator IS binary logic. The gates (or the inputs to the logic gates) are either on or off, stored or not stored... It's digital! Even if the components have analog behavior. A gear for example is analog by nature; but... you don't measure or calculate all of the gears motion,, rather you sample key points of the gear (digital)... Pneumatics or hydraulics are also analog in nature,, to read it digitally is a matter of semantics. You have the pressure push a rod... open vs. closed, 1 vs 0, that again IS binary - IS Digital... are you sure you mean what you say above????

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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 27th Jan 2012 02:20
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Actually i guess i wasnt paying enough attention haha!! Good point there

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