Zusie – My Relay Computer

http://www.nablaman.com/relay/story.php

by new299 • 12 years ago

160 21 12 years ago

nablaman.com

jmartinpetersen• 12 years ago

A very fascinating project, one I would never have the perseverance to see through. Thanks for posting it.

It does, however, end with the machine being "not quite finished" in 2011, can anyone find an update?

hazz• 12 years ago

The last update on the News page[0] is dated "June 13, 2011", so it seems not. A shame, it's such an interesting project.

[0] http://www.nablaman.com/relay/progress.php

kiiski• 12 years ago

If you go to the downloads page[1], all the files have last modified date of 21-nov-2013. I don't know if that's due to actual changes, or something else. I tried sending him a message through the contact form.

[1] http://www.nablaman.com/relay/software/

new2993• 12 years ago

no, unfortunately I don't think he ever finished it. Though as he notes Zuse built complete relay computers in the early 1940s (using discarded telephone switching relays!). It's interesting that this development in computing has kind of been overlooked (I'd guess because it took place in 1940s Germany).

I came across his work again as I was putting together a relay based oscillator this weekend [1]. I wonder if I have enough relays to put together a half adder. :)

[1] http://41j.com/blog/2014/12/electromechanical-oscillator/

onli2• 12 years ago

To qualify the "overlooked" part: In Germany, his work is part of basic computing history every Computer Scientist should have at University. So his general work is far from forgotten.

jhallenworld2• 12 years ago

I made one of these, to sell: http://relaysbc.sourceforge.net/

I need to make some more of them..

sbierwagen• 12 years ago

What's the price per unit?

sitkack• 12 years ago

These look gorgeous, I searched ebay for the boards, ;)

Drum memory might be a nice touch.

jhallenworld2• 12 years ago

This one is cool, almost no semiconductors: http://www.northdownfarm.co.uk/rory/tim/tim-8.htm

new2993• 12 years ago

That capacitor memory array is very neat!

bashinator2• 12 years ago

It blows my mind to think that, with the invention of the relay in 1835[0] and the invention of boolean logic in 1847[1], a binary computer like this could have been built almost a hundred years before it actually happened. There was just never the right person looking at both parts of the puzzle.

This is my go-to answer for the old "if you could go back in time, what present technology would you invent" dinner party question.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay#History [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boole#Symbolic_logic

pavel_lishin• 12 years ago

I wonder what it would and could have been used for. Seems like it would have been too large and expensive to be cost effective for most things, wouldn't it?

bainsfather• 12 years ago

His 'Zusie Simulator' is also interesting to play with - watch the bits change as the program runs.

http://www.nablaman.com/relay/sim/zusie.html

StephenFalken• 12 years ago

"The movie Tron: Legacy [1], which revolves around a world inside a computer system, features a character named Zuse [2], presumably in honour of Konrad Zuse."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse#Zuse_Year_2010

[2] http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0209988/

nablaman• 12 years ago

Hi everyone, I am the author of Zusie. I was alerted by a friend about this thread. Thanks for all the interest!

The machine is actually more or less finished, even though the web page doesn't say so. The only thing I was going to add, but haven't gotten around to yet, is a mechanical master oscillator instead of the current solid-state one. I might also add a proper relay based memory someday (I still have thousands of relays in boxes.. :)

Zusie – My Relay Computer

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