Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 398: Hand rubbing computer

With the help provided by Wei'er, the vacuum diode, which was the most basic computing unit of the first generation of computers in the original world, immediately had a replacement in this world.

Moreover, this thing is really more awesome than the diodes in the original world, because even in the 21st century, it is difficult to make a vacuum diode the size of a grain of wheat with human processing technology.

As for those miniaturized diodes, they are already transistors, not vacuum tubes.

This is also the reason why the first generation of computers were so huge. After all, it is basically impossible to install 18,000 vacuum tubes the size of light bulbs together without a space of hundreds of square meters.

Although the first generation of computers was designed with 18,000 vacuum tubes, it never reached its maximum designed computing speed because the vacuum tubes would always break down and a lot of heat would be generated during the calculation process.

Therefore, this original world's first computer in human history not only could not run at full power, but also had to release waste heat every once in a while, shut down for cooling and replace damaged vacuum tubes.

But with Wei'er's puppet technology, these are no longer a problem.

The wheat-grain-sized puppet computing unit uses a completely different technology from the vacuum diode, but it can achieve the same function, which is to identify both positive and negative signals.

This also constitutes the most basic principle of computer operation in the original world, that is, identifying 0 and 1 and realizing the most basic binary operation.

With this, Perfect can refer to the computer design principles of the original world and create a real computer by hand.

And one advantage of the puppet computing unit is that Perfectoct does not need to convert it into an electrical system and can still use steam to power it.

After all, the core architecture of this thing is based on magic and alchemy. It can send mechanical signals or magic signals, but not electrical signals.

At Perfect's insistence, Wei'er designed two signal transmission modes for the puppet computing unit, one is the mechanical signal generated by steam power, and the other is a more advanced and convenient magic signal.

According to Wei'er's idea, it would be enough to use magic signals directly, but Perfect chose mechanical signals. Although the calculation speed would be much slower and the structure would be more complicated, mechanical signals were relatively more reliable than magic.

Just like in the original world, as the degree of electrification increases, more traditional mechanical structures are considered to be a safer and more reliable way.

Therefore, in some critical things, especially in military industry and some key fields, a set of the most primitive mechanical systems must be retained in addition to the electronic system.

What we want is that if something goes wrong, we can still use machinery to solve the problem.

Wei'er actually listened to what Perfectcot said. After carefully listening to his suggestions and explanations, she indeed modified the design of the puppet computing unit according to Perfectcot's requirements.

She also designed a puppet computing unit that can perform more complex multi-digit calculations. Of course, its size has also been upgraded from a grain of wheat to the size of a quail egg.

However, this is not a problem for Perfect and Wei'er. Such a large computing unit is equivalent to a grain-level computing unit of more than twice the same size.

Therefore, Perfect did not stop Wei'er from continuing to work hard in this regard. Instead, she encouraged her to work harder on improving the performance of the computing unit and compressing its size. However, she also explained to Wei'er that the current wheat-sized puppet computing unit was enough. As for Perfect herself, when Wei'er began to rub the puppet computing unit repeatedly with reluctance on her face, she began to use these computing units to build the most primitive circuit board, so that it could receive and transmit signals and realize the most basic computing functions.

And this is the most basic structure of a computer.

With the joint efforts of Perfect and Wei'er, the two finally completed a computer composed of two thousand micro-puppet computing units before the second snow fell in the north.

The computing speed it can achieve is one thousand operations per second.

This is a very astonishing number. You should know that the first computer built by humans in the original world used more than 18,000 vacuum tubes and its computing speed could only reach 5,000 times per second.

And the computing speed is not enough.

Not to mention that Wei'er's puppet computing unit does not have the same problems as vacuum tubes, such as being fragile and generating heat, so the computer can be made very small.

At least compared to the world's first electronic computer, it is very small, about the size of a box.

"It's amazing, I never thought that the puppet could be used in this way! I have to say that you are indeed the empire's leading alchemist. Your skills and knowledge may not be the strongest, but your imagination allows you to exert more than 120% of what you have learned, which is enough for you to create miracles!" Wei'er looked at the computer in front of her that she and Perfectok had worked together to create, and she sincerely admired Perfectok's imagination.

At this point, she also truly understood why Perfecto emphasized in his public theory of utopian alchemy that imagination is the primary productive force of alchemy.

Indeed, having technology without imagination is fatal to an alchemist and a manifestation of his incompetence.

After all, no matter how powerful alchemy is, it is still essentially just a tool. What humans need to do is to learn how to use it and apply it to wider fields.

If there is no imagination to give wings to technology, then no matter how good the technology is, it will still not be able to fly.

She had felt this deeply.

Puppet technology is a fairly mature and traditional technology. It is so traditional that even today's alchemists are no longer willing to use this clumsy and crude thing.

But in the hands of Perfecto, this ancient art has taken on new glory.

It doesn't matter if the puppet is stupid. It only needs to identify the positive and negative signals and then transmit them out. Such a simple requirement is enough even if the puppet is dumber than an ant.

Such a simple thing was made by Perfect into the supercomputer in front of us that can perform a thousand calculations per second, which has completely exceeded the computing speed limit that normal humans can achieve.

"It's a little too big to fit in my alchemy doll, otherwise I could upgrade it." Perfect was a bit pretentious, but she didn't say much about it. She just asked Wei'er, "Based on our research results, can you make a computer that can calculate 10,000 times per second?"

(End of this chapter)