Post #4328004

2026-08-02 10:31 UTC

Arrived at Machynlleth. On the drive down, I had a thought. How small could a computer be made, running on valve technology, that could access the internet? How many valves might that need? Could it even be done, without getting too silly about it? Anyway, tea and then unload the trailer.

Replies (2)

@steely_glint@chaos.social 2026-08-02 10:38

@Maker_of_Things@cupoftea.social I am going to guess that modern encryption in https would make that almost impossible. I did a thought experiment of building a clock that decoded and displayed a time signal in 80s era TTL (no microprocessor) and it was hard. Your best bet might be to implement a minimal RISC in valves, then use a clang backend to compile modern stuff to it. But even then you would need a lot of valves for storage.

Open ##4328255
@Maker_of_Things@cupoftea.social 2026-08-02 11:26

All unloaded now, and time for lunch and a cuppa, before heading home.

Open ##4328620