Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2

privateworldofwarft Says:

Mar 12, 2009 - Well i was just theoyizing . It would be cool if they could make mechanical computer that is powerfull. Think how complex it would be.

hamsterhelgrind Says:

Mar 20, 2009 - clock freq. is measured in Hertz, which is cycles per second.4 cycles per calc., I imagine it would take about 2 seconds to turn the handle and its 1 cyc per turn : 2 x 4 = 8Hz = 0.000008Mhz "RAM" wise it wud only have enough to contain the 31 digits required plus any carry bits - too tired to work out but it would be no more than 62 digits. As 1 digit is 1 bit then u have at most 62 bits which is nearly 64 bits which is nearly 8 bytes (8 bits in a byte). This is just under 0.00006MB.

privateworldofwarft Says:

Mar 20, 2009 - Thanks man. Thats i wanted to know. Thats pretty crazy how slow that is 8hz. 62 bits of ram lol that must habe been a charm to work with.

TnseWlms Says:

Apr 21, 2009 - Babbage defined the analytical engine class, but he made it an abstract class which could not be instantiated until someone overrode his definition with a subclass containing methods for creating precise mechanical parts.

Apollo2366 Says:

May 9, 2009 - Oh my god, I love you.

vexellent Says:

May 16, 2009 - no one cares

ariesorbiter Says:

May 28, 2009 - LOL He blind you with Science!

DCkr Says:

May 31, 2009 - Can you do something like Charles' invention?. I assumed you can't do it, so, no one cares. Really.

rbwannasee Says:

Jun 6, 2009 - I built one of those from rubber bands, plywood, and meccano. I calculated pi to the googillionth place (10 e100) in 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 15.92 seconds. Spooky huh? Yes, I am a genius - thank you for wondering.

jtkirk2000 Says:

Jun 7, 2009 - sweet

TnseWlms Says:

Jun 11, 2009 - If you're a genius, can you settle a longtime dispute- How do you pronounce "Meccano"?

rbwannasee Says:

Jun 11, 2009 - I pronounce the syllables as "Mu" as in murder, "Car" as in cart, and "no" as in nose So Mu-Car-No. This of course would be in the Queens English. As for the rest of my prior comment, it's been said I am prone to hyperbole - or maybe "Hyperbola!" - LOL - that was a very good pun, what with the polynomials and what not! No? Oh well, nevermind.

rbwannasee Says:

Jun 11, 2009 - Check this vid out... KL_wy-CxBP8

sspoke Says:

Jul 31, 2009 - wow.. built a whole computer just to print tables in a math book perfectly.. wow these mathematician's don't like mistakes!

BlueNight134 Says:

Aug 2, 2009 - I wonder what the specs are, in bytes and flops. I wonder what programs a modern compiler could write. I wonder if this is how to defeat Skynet.

TGOW11 Says:

Aug 12, 2009 - I wonder what charlse would make of modern computers.

sspoke Says:

Aug 22, 2009 - he might of created self compiling logic operators who knows. Plus i hate modem computers too.. why don't people make more clockwork computers. I would like to have a calculator like this.

sspoke Says:

Aug 22, 2009 - today charles babbage might of been the pioneer of the best mathematical compression for computers.. right now these type of compressions already exist but they are soo crap.. either they do primitive function such as replace long exact variables with keys or they try to squish numbers in binary using last nibble as a flag key lol all modem compressions blow.. if someone can compress a self replicating single digit for well 1024 bytes into 1 byte+flag(s) for how much to re-assemble. millionaire

MisterHougy Says:

Sep 4, 2009 - Probably what type of gear configuration we are using inside the case :D

2029AD Says:

Sep 15, 2009 - yeah, but will it be able to support starcraft II?

rollininoldstyle Says:

Sep 16, 2009 - wow, this is an amazing engineering feat back in the day

quidproquo2004 Says:

Sep 18, 2009 - Buy a curta! It's a handheld mechanical calculator.

sutchsteve Says:

Sep 22, 2009 - it doesn't have either bytes or flops - a byte is a group of binary bits, and this machine didn't encode data in binary code. a flop is the number of FLoating-point OPerations, and the difference engine works only with fixed-point numbers. The actual program, or what would nowadays be called microcode, is in the arrangement of cams which controls the order in which the levers operate on each rotation of the handle, and conceivably you could make the machine do something else by changing them

sundhaug92 Says:

Oct 27, 2009 - No probably not, it isn't a turing machine

sundhaug92 Says:

Oct 27, 2009 - You can however measure IPS (Instructions Per Second), however both IPS, and FLOPs (if doable) would have been an stupid way of measuring the performance, as you can increase it by increasing the input RPM.