You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider neonnoodle.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Early (pre integrated circuit/microprocessor) computers worked with lots of wires, relays, and switches. They don't have "storage" or "memory" per se, but doesn't the sequencing and "logic" that EM's perform using electricity kind of make them rudimentary analog "computers"? Interested in others' thoughts on this.
Quoted from bingopodcast:Yes.
Relays can act as buffers, short and long-term memory.
The score motor handles some calculations (mechanically).
Steppers handle addition or subtraction.
For a much more obvious version, look into bingo pinballs. They have to store and use a massive amount of state as well as provide (hardware) randomization and much more.
Glad I didn't make this up then! Would have thought bingos would be simpler, not more complex than pinballs. BTW, I met you a few years ago at the York Show...good to run into you again. Just got your book too 
Quoted from rod90:How many states are you talking about? An EM contact has only two states. That makes it digital.
That's very interesting. I didn't think of it like that. But would that make it digital, binary, or both?
As the OP, to follow-up, definitely some great responses here. After reading all of this I'll make the clarification that I was talking about the internal workings of the machine only, and how it keeps track of the game. Also, if I could rephrase my original question it would be "Are EM's Essentially (electro) Mechanical Computers?" or "Are EM's Essentially non-IC (integrated circuit) Computers?". I think the answer to either of these questions would be "yes". I also think the analog, binary, and digital concepts all complicate the situation, but are still fun to discuss.
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider neonnoodle.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/are-em-machines-essentially-analog-computers?tu=neonnoodle and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
