Lightning:Mechanical Logic Gates
| Description | A few years before WWII, an engineer named Konrad Zuse and a few of his friends designed and built a mechanical computer out of cut out sheet metal. I will attempt to explain the basic idea in his design of mechanical logic gates. |
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| Slides | https://events.ccc.de/camp/2015/wiki/File:Mechanical_gates_slides.pdf |
| Tags | zuse, z1, logic gates |
| Person organizing | User:metaplinius |
| Contact: | face@palm.net |
| Language | en - English |
| Duration | 5 |
| Desired session | Day 2 |
| Desired timeframe | 16:00/4PM, 16:30, 17:00/5PM, 17:30, 18:00/6PM |
Email: I totally didn't realize that this had put my email address completely unprotected into the web m( For email contact, I am antonius.frie at host rub.de.
The SVG source for the slides can be found at: http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/antonius.frie/slides.tar.gz .
Build your own
I have made blueprints for a NAND gate based on Zuse's design. You can download them and use them to make a gate out of cardboard, or, if you have the appropriate tools, try other materials.
The black plates are "ground", they are the outermost. The clock (green) and intermediary (red) plates are double to avoid tilting of the connector pins, the stacking schematic. The inputs can go anywhere in principle, but I recommend putting them near the middle. Black dots on ground plates are pin locations, the outer five drawn on both are fix and hold the plates together; the other two can move freely.
