

Synchronized oscillators may allow for computing that works like the brain - Top_geek
http://www.kurzweilai.net/synchronized-oscillators-may-allow-for-computing-that-works-like-the-brain

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sitkack
There were Japanese computers from the 50s that used phase between waveforms
for computation, can't find an immediate reference.

Found it.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametron)

This also might be of interest
[http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/dudley-bucks-
for...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/dudley-bucks-forgotten-
cryotron-computer)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryotron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryotron)

For completeness there was a great talk the UW EE department a couple days
ago,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwl6fORHNqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwl6fORHNqs)
on using electron spin to store information.

[https://www.ee.washington.edu/cgi-
bin/research/colloquium/di...](https://www.ee.washington.edu/cgi-
bin/research/colloquium/display.pl?id=203)

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jacquesm
The very first computer memories worked like this, standing waves in tubes
filled with mercury.

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Pitarou
I don't think it was standing waves. If memory serves (i.e. I may well have
got this wrong) they stored data as a pattern of pulses travelling down a
mercury tube.

They borrowed this trick from radar engineers. The engineers needed a way to
compare what the radar is seeing now to what the radar saw on its last
rotation, so that they could detect moving objects. They did this by sending
the information down a mercury delay tube of suitable length.

~~~
jacquesm
You're absolutely right, standing waves was the wrong term, it should have
been travelling pulses. Apologies!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory)

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anon4
So given that developers have a lot of trouble programming normal simple
binary computers even using languages as high-level as python (not to mention
their trouble at grasping advanced languages like Haskell), why do we think
they will do better with fuzzy logic for which we don't even have high-level
languages?

