/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #12678421

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Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 17:56:19 2021 No.12678421 View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>12678544 >>12678812 >>12678900 >>12679109

How feasible and useful are mechanical computers in the present day?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 18:33:45 No.12678544 Report

Quoted By: >>12678565

>>12678421
most cars have mechanical computers in them. A differential is a gigantic computer that can only add and subtract. If computer means turing machine and all that jazz, mechanical computers may have some use in environments too deadly for traditional computers. At certain temperatures stuff stops semiconducting and radiation tends to kill semiconductors too. There are even some indications that it might be possible to make MEMS based mechanical logic that can operate at MHz.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 18:42:19 No.12678565 Report

Quoted By: >>12678699 >>12679145

>>12678544
I'd be curious to read more about how that was figured out. (What's MEMS though?)

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 19:22:42 No.12678699 Report

Quoted By: >>12678812

>>12678565
Google "Additively manufacturable micro-mechanical logic gates." It's on nature, so I can't post the link here.
stands for MicroElectroMechanical Systems(MEMS). Whatever you do, do not do a PhD in MEMS. You have been warned.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 19:52:32 No.12678812 Report

Quoted By: >>12678879 >>12678902

>>12678699
>Whatever you do, do not do a PhD in MEMS. You have been warned.
How come?

>>12678421
We call them watches.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 20:08:54 No.12678879 Report

Quoted By:

>>12678812
takes a long time to finish because of the time it takes to get stuff made in semiconductor fabs.

Arno Niem

Arno Niem Sun 07 Feb 2021 20:14:53 No.12678899 Report

Quoted By:

Given how far manufacturing - of materials and (very very) small parts - has advanced, mechanical computers are feasible now.

The design approach would be a big issue; do you go for a big set of functions or a reduced instruction set? Or, on a mechanical level, custom parts versus standard parts.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 20:15:06 No.12678900 Report

Quoted By:

>>12678421
Combined with this I'm sure it's used in niece areas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliant_mechanism

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 20:15:11 No.12678902 Report

Quoted By: >>12678910 >>12680334

>>12678812
I did my PhD in a clean room working with lithography. I would like to see the reasoning behind your claim.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 20:17:28 No.12678910 Report

Quoted By: >>12679138 >>12680334

>>12678902
Those pawls are so sloppy. Do you even tolerance bro?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 21:28:47 No.12679109 Report

Quoted By: >>12680775

>>12678421
more feasible than ever but microcontrollers are so cheap and abundant that theres no reason to design and manufacture a custom, single purpose mechanical computer.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 21:36:52 No.12679138 Report

Quoted By:

>>12678910
I do but that is not my work, just an illustration of this topic.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 07 Feb 2021 21:39:22 No.12679145 Report

Quoted By:

>>12678565
Proyectors use MEMS chips with tiny mirrors to create images

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 08 Feb 2021 03:55:00 No.12680334 Report

Quoted By: >>12681093

>>12678902
met a guy who also did a PhD and MEMs and it took nearly a decade for him to finish because of how hard it was to get fab access. His advisor also moved midway through which complicated things. He told me to never get a PhD in MEMS and that MEMS is a dead field.
>>12678910
MEMS processes are precise, but not necessarily accurate.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 08 Feb 2021 07:14:51 No.12680775 Report

Quoted By:

>>12679109
Why would it have to be single purpose rather than programmable?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 08 Feb 2021 10:08:19 No.12681093 Report

Quoted By:

>>12680334
Advisors leaving their students midway through the PhD is shaky but taking on PhD students when you have insufficient resources is hugely unethical. The university should be named over this.

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