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Lego Logic Gates

Thud457 writes "LEGO Logic Gates - It's like Babbage, but with bricks. All the gates except XOR are here, and he goes on to develop a clocked flip-flop. While practical mechanical computers may be out, even at the nanotechnological scale, nanomechanical memory may be in. "

22 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Lego-4 3 GHz, here we come! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    'Tis but a small step to a 64-bit processor with 2 MB of cache. Of course, the bricks might burn up upon power-up, but it's a small price to pay!

    1. Re:Lego-4 3 GHz, here we come! by Idarubicin · · Score: 4, Funny
      Hmmm...3 GHz...

      Since the push/pull distance for the gate outputs described is about one LEGO stud length, or 8 millimeters.

      At 3 GHz we have a cycle every 3e-10 seconds (~300 picoseconds), and so a mean speed of 8 mm / 300 ps, or nearly 25 million meters per second. That's nearly 10% of the speed of light, so you're going to have to watch out for relativistic effects. :D

      I don't know the mass of the LEGO axles used in the figure, but if they're 5 grams apiece, then each would have a kinetic energy of about 1.5 terajoules. That's about the same as the kinetic energy possessed by a Nimitz class aircraft carrier travelling at 300 knots.

      If you think P4s have heat dissipation issues....

      --
      ~Idarubicin
  2. Thats all very well but..... by JaF893 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can it play .Ogg files?

  3. Memory Error - brick not found, restart? (y/n) by flumps · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... just as long as we don't get a little lego man instead of that bloody paperclip I don't really care

    --
    "So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
  4. Will BSD run on it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let us know when theres a NetBSD for it so we can build a LegoLAN

  5. Dudududupe by Repugnant_Shit · · Score: 3, Funny

    Next, CmdrTaco will build a duplicate article out of Dupe-lo blocks!

  6. from the page.... by eobanb · · Score: 1, Funny

    "The previous bandwidth issues should be solved now that I have a new server"

    Not for long.

    --

    Take off every sig. For great justice.

  7. Re:cool by flumps · · Score: 5, Funny

    Have you seen the size of these things? Putting them in any kind of robot would be kinda stupid.

    "Here I am, brain the size of a planet...made out of lego.."

    I think you'd have more luck with the nano versions of these gates. But good luck trying eh :)

    --
    "So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
  8. Re:Way to go, editors! by lxs · · Score: 1, Funny

    Look at it as an open source approach to news.

  9. From the article: by IO+ERROR · · Score: 1, Funny
    Before you read on, if you have had trouble accessing this page then please accept my apologies. The previous bandwidth issues should be solved now that I have a new server.

    That is, until /. arrived....5:30am and the site's already running slow. How much longer you think it will hold up?

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
  10. Imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    .. a Bionicle cluster of these ...

  11. "Apple iBricks Launch delayed by goldcd · · Score: 3, Funny

    and projected power decimated."
    A spokesman said Steve would only use the white bits of Lego.

  12. NAND gates... by Gopal.V · · Score: 1, Funny

    The road to hell is paved with NAND gates.

    -- /usr/bin/fortune

  13. Competition by anum · · Score: 2, Funny

    How long will we have to put up with this LEGO monopoly? Will Megablox answer this challenge? That upstart Knex, perhaps?

    Back in my day we had to build our mechanical analogs of digital circuits out of Tinkertoys! And we liked it! What's this new fangled "plastic" stuff anyway. Wood! that's the way to go.

    On a slightly more serious note: If we had built some of these in my CS3?? class instead of just diagraming them on paper I might have paid more attention. But I doubt it.

    --
    I don't think, Therefore I'm not.
  14. Speed? by the_Twisted · · Score: 3, Funny

    At how many (K)hz will this thing operate when it's finished? How many FLOPS will it achieve? Could you overclock it by adding oliveoil to the gears?

  15. Re:Clever, but not exactly practical by Ziviyr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Someone should make a Lego computer, and then run a CAD program on it, just for irony's sake.

    I'd be happy with an BF interpreter made out of Lego...

    --

    Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
  16. Re:cool by nospmiS+remoH · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our new EMP proof lego robot overlords.

    --
    !hoD
  17. Re:My question by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

    He could build a Lego vacuum-cleaner made of Lego, but that's like canabalism. Before he knew it, he'd have a Legoid-lifeform eating his other projects and growing stronger.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  18. Re:Mechanical Analogs by Tackhead · · Score: 2, Funny
    > Besides, a steam-powered computer would be really fun to build!

    Are you nuts? Valve's DRM system eats up 25-30 megabytes even when HL2 isn't running. Do you have any idea how much Lego costs these days? :)

  19. Re:WOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Everyone can understand NO and everyone can understand some, you could even build a computer out of chimp or small children.
    Creating a computer out of small children would be a very challenging task, due to their unique logic properties which I've outlined briefly below:

    When placed at the beginning of a circuit, a small child acts as a logical inverter -- a "yes" input becomes "no", and a "no" input becomes "yes".

    However, when placed at the end of a circuit, the same child acts as a NOR gate -- all output is "no", usually with a corresponding increase in amplitude. This output is usually looped back on itself creating a recursively louder "NO!" output.

  20. Neal Stephenson ... Prophet? by H0ek · · Score: 2, Funny

    The work depicted in TFA seems awfully similar to the rod logic found in Neal Stephenson's book Diamond Age. This begs the question, is Neal a prophet? Has he foretold the future? Will I be getting my pizza in thirty minutes or else the Mafia comes and apologizes personally?

    Only time will tell. Until then, I have to thank this lego-builder for making my life more interesting. Now I know what I'm gonna do for Christmas, play with Legos and make logic gates!

    Lord, I'm such a geek.

    --
    H0ek
    Think you're smart? Prove you've got brains!
  21. Legos? pfff by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I found a new device, the vacum tube, to be about 60% cheaper and faster than Legos. They are gonna make me rich, I tell ya, rich!