When we first saw [DiPDoT’s] homebrew computer, we thought it was an Altair 8800. But, no. While it has a very familiar front panel, the working parts are all based on relays. While it isn’t finished, the machine can already do some simple calculations as you can see in the video below.
Turns out, the Altair front panel isn’t a coincidence. He wants to put the device in an Altair-style case. This limits him to two backplane cards, but he’s running out of space, so part of what he does in the video is redesign the backplanes.
We need to watch some more of these videos to figure out how he’s making his logic gates. A common approach is to wire and gates as series relays and or gates as parallel relays. However, there are some advantages to using relays as two-to-one multiplexers, which can create any logic gate you want.
If you just want to see the computer run, you can watch it generate a Fibonacci sequence around the 14:30 mark. Glorious sound from a beautiful bunch of relays. Not exactly a speed demon, mind you, but not half bad for a bunch of electromechanical relays.
There was a time when computers like this were state-of-the-art. In a way, we miss those days. But then again, in some ways, we don’t.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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