Digi-Comp II
   HOME
*



picture info

Digi-Comp II
The Digi-Comp II was a toy computer invented by John "Jack" Thomas Godfrey (1924–2009) in 1965 and manufactured by E.S.R., Inc. in the late 1960s that used marbles rolling down a ramp to perform basic calculations. A two-level masonite platform with blue plastic guides served as the medium for a supply of marbles that rolled down an inclined plane moving plastic cams as they went. The red plastic cams played the part of flip-flops in an electronic computer - as a marble passed one of the cams, it would flip the cam around - in one position, the cam would allow the marble to pass in one direction, in the other position, it would cause the marble to drop through a hole and roll to the bottom of the ramp. The Digi-Comp II platform measures . The Digi-Comp II was not programmable, unlike the Digi-Comp I, an earlier offering in the E.S.R. product line that used an assortment of plastic slides, tubes, and bent metal wires to solve simple logic problems. Computational power Compu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Digi-Comp II
The Digi-Comp II was a toy computer invented by John "Jack" Thomas Godfrey (1924–2009) in 1965 and manufactured by E.S.R., Inc. in the late 1960s that used marbles rolling down a ramp to perform basic calculations. A two-level masonite platform with blue plastic guides served as the medium for a supply of marbles that rolled down an inclined plane moving plastic cams as they went. The red plastic cams played the part of flip-flops in an electronic computer - as a marble passed one of the cams, it would flip the cam around - in one position, the cam would allow the marble to pass in one direction, in the other position, it would cause the marble to drop through a hole and roll to the bottom of the ramp. The Digi-Comp II platform measures . The Digi-Comp II was not programmable, unlike the Digi-Comp I, an earlier offering in the E.S.R. product line that used an assortment of plastic slides, tubes, and bent metal wires to solve simple logic problems. Computational power Compu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Binary Number
A binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method of mathematical expression which uses only two symbols: typically "0" (zero) and "1" ( one). The base-2 numeral system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Each digit is referred to as a bit, or binary digit. Because of its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used by almost all modern computers and computer-based devices, as a preferred system of use, over various other human techniques of communication, because of the simplicity of the language and the noise immunity in physical implementation. History The modern binary number system was studied in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries by Thomas Harriot, Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, and Gottfried Leibniz. However, systems related to binary numbers have appeared earlier in multiple cultures including ancient Egypt, China, and India. Leibniz was specifica ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

System Source Computer Museum
The System Source Computer Museum, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, exhibits notable computing devices from ancient times until the present. Over 5,000 objects are on display, and many of the computation devices are operational. STEM activities are offered to organized tour groups. As of 2022 admission is free. The museum is open weekdays from 9:00AM until 6:00PM, and other times by appointment. Docents are available to lead tours. History The museum's origins date to 1981 when a Baltimore ComputerLand franchise had computers in inventory that instantly became historic artifacts with the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer. The museum was incorporated as a non-profit 501c3 in 2018 as the Maryland Technology Museum d/b/a the System Source Computer Museum. In 2021, the museum became the new home of the DigiBarn Computer Museum. Exhibits * Apples: Apple 1, Apple II, Apple ///, Apple Lisa, and most other Apple products * Cray Computer: Cray 1, Cray 2, Cray T90 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lansing State Journal
The ''Lansing State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Lansing, Michigan, owned by Gannett. Overview The ''Lansing State Journal'' is the sole daily newspaper published in Greater Lansing. The newspaper had an average Monday through Friday readership of 41,330, a Saturday readership of 43,885, and a Sunday readership of 65,904 from October 2011 to March 2012. History The paper was started as the ''Lansing Republican'' on April 28, 1855, to advance the causes of the newly founded Republican Party in Michigan.Justin L. Kestenbaum (1981) ''Out of a Wilderness, An Illustrated History of Greater Lansing'', Woodland Hills, CA: Windsor Publications, p.10-11. Founder and publisher Henry Barnes completed only two issues of the weekly abolitionist publication before selling it and returning to Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of governme ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




CARDboard Illustrative Aid To Computation
CARDIAC (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation) is a learning aid developed by David Hagelbarger and Saul Fingerman for Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1968 to teach high school students how computers work. The kit consists of an instruction manual and a die-cut cardboard "computer". The computer "operates" by means of pencil and sliding cards. Any arithmetic is done in the head of the person operating the computer. The computer operates in base 10 and has 100 memory cells which can hold signed numbers from 0 to ±999. It has an instruction set of 10 instructions which allows CARDIAC to add, subtract, test, shift, input, output and jump. Hardware The “ CPU” of the computer consists of 4 slides that move various numbers and arrows to have the flow of the real CPU (the user's brain) move the right way. They have one flag (+/-), affected by the result in the accumulator. Memory consists of the other half of the cardboard cutout. There are 100 cells. Cell 0 is “ROM”, ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

WDR Paper Computer
The WDR paper computer or Know-how Computer is an educational model of a computer consisting only of a pen, a sheet of paper, and individual matches in the most simple case. This allows anyone interested to learn how to program without having an electronic computer at their disposal. The paper computer was created in the early 1980s when computer access was not yet widespread in Germany, to allow people to familiarize themselves with basic computer operation and assembly-like programming languages. It was distributed in over copies and at its time belonged to the computers with the widest circulation. The Know-how Computer was developed by and Ulrich Rohde and was first presented in the television program WDR Computerclub in 1983. It was also published in German computer magazines mc and . The original printed version of the paper computer has up to 21 lines of code on the left and eight registers on the right, which are represented as boxes that contain as many matches as ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Turing Tumble
''Turing Tumble'' is a game and demonstration of logic gates via mechanical computer. Named after Alan Turing, the game itself could (abstractly) duplicate the processes of any computer whatsoever if the game field itself were sufficiently large. This follows because the game is P-complete by the circuit value problem and PSPACE-complete if an exponential number of marbles are allowed. The device has implications for nanotechnology. The game is advertised as Turing complete; an extension of the game that allows an infinitely large board and infinitely many pieces has been shown to be Turing complete via simulations of both Rule 110 for cellular automata, as well as of Turing machines. Although it resembles a pachinko machine in its aesthetic use of gravity-fed metal balls, it is primarily a teaching device in the fundamentals of logic-computer programming, and as such is an example of gamification. The framing device in the included comic book features an astronaut who must solve ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Geniac
Geniac was an educational toy billed as a " computer" designed and marketed by Edmund Berkeley, with Oliver Garfield from 1955 to 1958, but with Garfield continuing without Berkeley through the 1960s. The name stood for "Genius Almost-automatic Computer" but suggests a portmanteau of genius and ENIAC (the first fully electronic general-purpose computer). Operation Basically a rotary switch construction set, the Geniac contained six perforated masonite disks, into the back of which brass jumpers could be inserted. The jumpers made electrical connections between slotted brass bolt heads sitting out from the similarly perforated masonite back panel. To the bolts were attached wires behind the panel. The circuit comprised a battery, such wires from it to, and between, switch positions, wires from the switches to indicator flashlight bulbs set along the panel's middle, and return wires to the battery to complete the circuit. With this basic setup Geniac could use combinational logic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the most prestigious and highly ranked academic institutions in the world. Founded in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. MIT is one of three private land grant universities in the United States, the others being Cornell University and Tuskegee University. The institute has an urban campus that extends more than a mile (1.6 km) alongside the Charles River, and encompasses a number of major off-campus facilities such as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Bates Center, and the Haystack Observatory, as well as affiliated laboratories such as the Broad and Whitehead Institutes. , 98 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Billiard Ball
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient, and resilience are important to accuracy. History Early balls were made of various materials, including wood and clay (the latter remaining in use well into the 20th century). Although affordable ox-bone balls were in common use in Europe, elephant ivory was favored since at least 1627 until the early 20th century; the earliest known written reference to ivory billiard balls is in the 1588 inventory of the Duke of Norfolk. Dyed and numbered balls appeared around the early 1770s. By the mid-19th century, elephants were being slaughtered for their ivory at an alarming rate, just to keep up with the demand for high-end billiard balls – no more than eight balls could be made from a single ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which include medium-density fibreboard (MDF), oriented strand board (OSB) and particle board (chipboard). All plywoods bind resin and wood fibre sheets (cellulose cells are long, strong and thin) to form a composite material. This alternation of the grain is called ''cross-graining'' and has several important benefits: it reduces the tendency of wood to split when nailed at the edges; it reduces expansion and shrinkage, providing improved dimensional stability; and it makes the strength of the panel consistent across all directions. There is usually an odd number of plies, so that the sheet is balanced—this reduces warping. Because plywood is bonded with grains running against one another and with an odd number of composite part ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Digi-Comp II - 01 (5741902149)
Digi-Comp may refer to: * Digi-Comp I, a mechanical toy computer without marbles * Digi-Comp II The Digi-Comp II was a toy computer invented by John "Jack" Thomas Godfrey (1924–2009) in 1965 and manufactured by E.S.R., Inc. in the late 1960s that used marbles rolling down a ramp to perform basic calculations. A two-level masonite platfor ..., a marble-based mechanical toy computer * Dr. NIM, a game of Nim based on the Digi-Comp mechanism {{disambig ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]