Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2

[died4hislove]

You can now watch the explanation on why my engine system is super-efficient by watching the following videos:

Principles That Makes My Engine SUPER-EFFICIENT

(See Part 1 to Part 4)

[TheGoombaLover]

make it divide by zero

[aachelabelaaron]

@TheGoombaLover but then it would turn into a steampunk mecha @__@

[FedericoJimbo]

Early days of Computer... fascinating....

[BabyyiaMayaaa891]

hìhí_ì_fèêl_sÕ_lÔNÊly_tòdÅY

[Thet3]

But can it calculate crysis physics?

[Chaytup]

I take my calculator for granted. ;'(

[juggaleaux]

Can it run Portal?

[alecail]

@juggaleaux The usual joke is "Will it blend ?", not "Can it run Portal?". You failed..

[aachelabelaaron]

@alecail can it play icp?

[freemanz1000]

@juggaleaux fucking dumb ass

[Abu7929]

Waoh ! Just amazing. Although this is not the first mechanical computer as is often thought, in fact the Greeks built the first known mechanical computer about 2000 years previously with the antikythera

[Nalet]

Kann man damit PI berechnen ? *g*

[DouglasZwick]

Babbage's difference engine is utterly beautiful.

[hihowareyou22]

its so well built!! awesome!

[ianinbcn]

Please go to plan28 . com to read about the successor to this, the analytical engine, and how it could be built.

[CapitanoGUC]

@Archin04 well, allright - even steven then

[charliecrowson]

Reminds me of the training room in Kung Fu Panda

[psyjax]

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!

[stormshaman]

Digital doesn't mean 'uses electricity'. Electric things can be analog (like a tube radio) or digital, and so can mechanical things. Digital means it operates on discrete numbers, like 1, 2, 3, ..., while analog means it operates on a continuous range (think a mechanical kitchen timer, where you can turn the dial to any point, not just x minutes y seconds).

[onionofdeath]

analog computing at its best

[stormshaman]

@onionofdeath The Difference Engine was digital.

[IlersichProductions]

@stormshaman This was nowhere NEAR digital. It doesn't utilize electricity in any way, shape, or form.

[rajithaify]

@IlersichProductions digital has nothing to do with electricity. as stormshaman has already pointed out if the machine works on discrete numbers it's digital.. and by the look of it this machine is indeed digital.

[CapitanoGUC]

what bullshit is that man talking - the achine was inventet by Johann Helfrich von Müller. His Idea was picked up again by Babbage !!!!!!!!

Together wit Zuse, the Computer is a mainly german invention

[gothos1000]

MYYY BRAAIINN HUURRTS!!

[KrypticGuy666]

I went to London last year for vacation and I saw the staff at that museum playing "Crysis on it.

[regressing2apes]

stick your dink in it.

[TnseWlms]

Babbage created the class definition for the difference engine But he defined an abstract class, which could not be instantiated until someone overrode his definition with a superclass containing methods for creating precise mechanical parts. The superclass still needed to be instantiated on a platform that could execute the constructor without throwing an insufficient funding exception.

[apokkalyps]

@TnseWlms haha!

[rajithaify]

@TnseWlms whooh

[jonbatista]

@rajithaify Yes, but you'd have to crank like a motherfucker.

[Valentine001]

It runs Crysis at 80fps but can't handle AA or AF.

[kingcrimson234]

i'm going to design a 3d accelerator for this.

[singedrac]

Can it run Crysis?

[lawiley]

I think we are missing the bigger point. This is the beginning of the idea that machines can be used for calculations. The next step after the slide rule and the abacus. The industrialization of calculation.

[DoctorSomeone]

@lawiley what do you call the pascaline then?

[thekkl]

@lawiley Doesn't an abacus calculate?

[TnseWlms]

@thekkl No, an abacus only stores numerical values. It cannot "read" or store any kind of instructions, or even carry automatically.

[freq32]

this machine was built recently out of materials that were available back during that time period. it wasn't built in the 1800's.

Sadly, Babbage never finished his version due to lack of money.

[rollininoldstyle]

wow, this is an amazing engineering feat back in the day

[2029AD]

yeah, but will it be able to support starcraft II?

[sundhaug92]

No probably not, it isn't a turing machine

[sspoke]

today charles babbage might of been the pioneer of the best mathematical compression for computers.. right now these type of compressions already exist but they are soo crap.. either they do primitive function such as replace long exact variables with keys or they try to squish numbers in binary using last nibble as a flag key lol all modem compressions blow.. if someone can compress a self replicating single digit for well 1024 bytes into 1 byte+flag(s) for how much to re-assemble. millionaire

[TGOW11]

I wonder what charlse would make of modern computers.

[sspoke]

he might of created self compiling logic operators who knows.

Plus i hate modem computers too.. why don't people make more clockwork computers. I would like to have a calculator like this.

[quidproquo2004]

Buy a curta! It's a handheld mechanical calculator.

[SirCoolness]

The problem with machinery like this is that it's expensive. At the time it would have been practical in that it could have resulted in accurate calculations for the people it was available to. Keyword: availability. This machine costs a huge amount of money. It took 17 years for the owner to acquire the money necessary to build it. The advancements we have made technologically allow for computing devices to be made available to almost everyone. But I agree that they could try to look nicer.

[Philomathie]

You only need one difference engine to produce a tabulated book of results which can then be copied as many times as needed. Considering the amount of time that would have been spent in those days trying to calculate the same problems (BY HAND I might add) this would be well worth it because of the time saved and the inherent accuracy in the results which reduce errors.

[MisterHougy]

Probably what type of gear configuration we are using inside the case :D

[BlueNight134]

I wonder what the specs are, in bytes and flops.

I wonder what programs a modern compiler could write.

I wonder if this is how to defeat Skynet.

[sutchsteve]

it doesn't have either bytes or flops - a byte is a group of binary bits, and this machine didn't encode data in binary code. a flop is the number of FLoating-point OPerations, and the difference engine works only with fixed-point numbers.

The actual program, or what would nowadays be called microcode, is in the arrangement of cams which controls the order in which the levers operate on each rotation of the handle, and conceivably you could make the machine do something else by changing them

[sundhaug92]

You can however measure IPS (Instructions Per Second), however both IPS, and FLOPs (if doable) would have been an stupid way of measuring the performance, as you can increase it by increasing the input RPM.

[RedNifre]

The storage is about 103Byte and it runs at 0FLOPS since it doesn't have floating point numbers. :)

You can calculate it like this:

(Log_2 ( 10 ^ (Columns * Digits) ) ) / BitsPerByte

this means:

(Log_2( 10 ^ (8 * 31) ) ) / 8

Since this is tricky for most calculators you can simply it to this:

248 / Log(2) / 8

Which results in 102.97977094150823278397990231­417

which is about 103Byte

(The more advanced Analytical Engine would have 20.7kB or 20.2KiB)

[darkoriginhunter]

@RedNifre whooaa watch your sig figs lol

[sspoke]

wow.. built a whole computer just to print tables in a math book perfectly.. wow these mathematician's don't like mistakes!

[jtkirk2000]

sweet

[rbwannasee]

I built one of those from rubber bands, plywood, and meccano. I calculated pi to the googillionth place (10 e100) in 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 15.92 seconds. Spooky huh? Yes, I am a genius - thank you for wondering.

[TnseWlms]

If you're a genius, can you settle a longtime dispute- How do you pronounce "Meccano"?

[rbwannasee]

I pronounce the syllables as "Mu" as in murder, "Car" as in cart, and "no" as in nose So Mu-Car-No. This of course would be in the Queens English. As for the rest of my prior comment, it's been said I am prone to hyperbole - or maybe "Hyperbola!" - LOL - that was a very good pun, what with the polynomials and what not! No? Oh well, nevermind.

[vexellent]

no one cares

[DCkr]

Can you do something like Charles' invention?.

I assumed you can't do it, so, no one cares. Really.

[Apollo2366]

Oh my god, I love you.

[ariesorbiter]

LOL He blind you with Science!

[BristolBlueglassltd]

a bit like an early telephone exchange

[sundhaug92]

Anyone who wants an emulator?

[powerofflight]

just to briefly note something here: this is NOT the Babbage Analytical Engine, which in fact was a full blown computer if you compare the CONCEPT. Of course, you cannot play crysis on it, but it could calculate the steps needed, just, well, reaaaaly slowly. though you have to remember, that this was not the forefather of modern day computers. there is no historic link to Zuse e.i., since he did not know about Babbage and hence was working independently. That is not to discredit Babbage,its fact

[privateworldofwarft]

So how long do you think it would take to process the installer for cyrsis? Maybe if they have instaled linux they would use it more lol jk. Here my real question. Did it have any type of ram or harddrive? Could it do anything close to a modern computer? In theory could they make a really big mechanical computer that can be as powerful as at least a Pentium 1? I am talking in theory.

[powerofflight]

the analytical engine in fact did have a ram something that could be compared to a long term storage (hdd of today): it could print out its results to paper OR punch hole cards, which were a prominent way of storing data. the analytical enginge was never built. neither did Babbage succeed at building even his "simplest" first difference engine, due to pecuniary issues. the technology of the time just was barely up to the task. babbage could in theory have designed something like a pentium.

[privateworldofwarft]

So he could of built something as powerful as Pentium processor? That's cool Did any of his deigns that powerful? How fast was the computing on this thing?

[powerofflight]

you gotta be careful about how to phrase it. by concept, you can compare his machines to computers, though being completely mechanical, they would probably not be able to achieve pentium-like performance. they'd simply be too big. however, Babbage introduced "clocked processing" with his analytical enginge. it appears that a real comparison in terms of performance does not reveal much about the machine. its working principles are, what is amazing, i think.

[privateworldofwarft]

Well i was just theoyizing . It would be cool if they could make mechanical computer that is powerfull. Think how complex it would be.

[SailorBarsoom]

@privateworldofwarft

If the analytical engine could be built of nanoscale parts, and cranked as fast as it would go w/o tearing apart, you might get speeds comparable to today's desktops. I think. I'm just kind of bubbling with possibilities right now, and won't pretend to know for sure.

[Argonn2142]

Nerobi Are you serious right now? Without this device or concept That Crysis game would not exist nor the machine you've used to spew your ignorance on the world wide web. The Idea of computers came with baby steps to become what they are today and what they will become in the future. That's All I have to say for that. Thank you for understanding and have a good day.

[myfatproductions]

I am pretty sure that ther where people that died and could maybe come with something even better...

Maybe also something totaly different and that could change the world....

[fire1chip]

crank it baggage u legend!

[drjmrenfield]

Yooou! Crank that difference engine!

[Darkangel754]

But can it run crysis?

[Nerobi]

The video says one full cycle of the machine is four turns on the handle and not one. Then again, this thing is not a fully programmable computer. It's hardcoded to produce polynomial tables to a set number of decimalsm and it's of course not comparable to any clockspeed microprocessor of today.

It also obviously does not fulfil any of Crysis' other requirements; there's no sound output for one, unless you count the mechanical grind of cogs and gears... ;)

[privateworldofwarft]

haha what about Linux. I think it could handle that. :) most slow computers can. Is there a measure of clock speed to this thing. Like compared to a modern computer. Does thing measure up close 1mhz? Whats ram and Size its harddrive. I want some details on this mechanical wonder.

[hamsterhelgrind]

clock freq. is measured in Hertz, which is cycles per second.4 cycles per calc., I imagine it would take about 2 seconds to turn the handle and its 1 cyc per turn : 2 x 4 = 8Hz = 0.000008Mhz

"RAM" wise it wud only have enough to contain the 31 digits required plus any carry bits - too tired to work out but it would be no more than 62 digits. As 1 digit is 1 bit then u have at most 62 bits which is nearly 64 bits which is nearly 8 bytes (8 bits in a byte). This is just under 0.00006MB.

[privateworldofwarft]

Thanks man. Thats i wanted to know. Thats pretty crazy how slow that is 8hz. 62 bits of ram lol that must habe been a charm to work with.

[Acrimonius1408]

A big enough one could.

[bendystr4w]

What a beautiful machine. Babbage was a brilliant man.

[cryofreeze1986]

Babbage is a mechanical and math genius. He was able to visualize a very very very complicated machine that could solve mathematical equations seen as formidable during his time considering the fact that there were no electronic calculators back then.

In my opinion, the machine is like thousands of slide rules combined to form one real amazing system.

[newwolfram]

It is a novelty item, leave the calculations up to computers. I am sure a computer could do the calculations. Then you could get all the nice neat printouts that you want. I do admit it is a masterpiece though.

[flyingsuperpetis]

Really?

You're that clueless?

[newwolfram]

I think it is interesting.What do you know about it?

[BHT195]

this was designed when computer not only didnt exist,m they were beyond anyones imaginations. This was built mainly as a testament to the mans genious and the fact that this machine can handle amazingly complex calculations.

[MrNonesuch]

I cant tell if your just trolling or you really are THAT dumb. Bravo sir.

[01DOGG01]

Lucky an american didn't invent the thing, or it'd have a big V8 where the hand crank is, and they'd make some kind of a redneck sport out of it

[flyingsuperpetis]

You're not very bright, are you...

[01DOGG01]

I dont know... i can fully picture Cletus computing the square root of 987 0.3 seconds faster in his supercharged small block v8 than Billy Ray in his turbodiesel...

[Membrane556]

That would be funny.

[Membrane556]

The full analytical engine would have used three steam engines.

[Jmcenanly]

How fast was this in comparison to ENIAC, which I recall weighed about as much?

[lschumacher21]

how fast can you turn the crank?

[SailorBarsoom]

@lschumacher21

Could the crank have been turned by one of the early electric motors? It's fun to imagine hooking it up to a steam engine, of course, but electric might have been more practical.

Or not; I admit I'm not really up on steam vs electric in the 1830s.

[einstein2k8]

Kind of hard to believe that one guy actually drew this whole thing out in blueprint form at one point or another. I'd think he would get tired of drawing out over 8,000 parts and never be assured that his design on paper would work in reality. Amazing piece of work!

[macosgyver]

Kinda like how I imagine those medieval composers worked out big pieces without having a full orchestra at their disposal. It takes a lot of brain power to imagine and write something that's made of thousands of pieces, and be certain that it's going to work.

[wedjanuary23]

neat!

[spark300c]

I love mechanical machines