After some pointless struggle, Wang Xuexin finally had no choice but to accept the suggestions of Colonel Ian and Joan. He sadly signed the contract and agreed to use technology in exchange for parts, and then reluctantly walked into the "Christopher" machine.
"air raid shelter.
The noise in the air-raid shelter was very loud, like the "clack" sound of a textile machine factory. It was made by the rows of parts standing in the air-raid shelter as neatly as books in a library.
If there is any difference from the library, it is that these parts are cylindrical, with a cylindrical "liner" in the middle. These "liners" are constantly rotating under electric drive... some do not rotate.
All the parts are connected together with seemingly messy but regular wires.
"We call this an encoder!" Qiong Jie explained to the part: "It rotates once and makes a sound, which means it changes state!"
Then Qiong looked at Wang Xuexin and said, "You should know what the situation is like!"
Wang Xuexin said "Oh" and replied: "Like our light switch?"
"Bingo!" Qiong smiled and nodded, and her remaining defense against Wang Xuexin disappeared.
Because if Wang Xuexin hadn't done some research on "universal decoding machines", she wouldn't have known what she meant by "state".
What Qiong didn't know was that her question was nothing to Wang Xuexin.
Although Wang Xuexin is not a good student in modern times, he did attend an undergraduate degree and learned the basics of computers. He knew that early computers were all based on binary calculations... There are only two states of parts, one is with electricity and the other is without electricity.
Therefore it can only be calculated in binary.
In fact, the lowest level of modern computers also uses binary calculations, so the capacity is calculated in units of 1024 instead of 1000. (Note: 1024 is 2 to the 10th power, which is an integer in binary)
It's just that it uses the interface we are used to, which is to convert it into decimal to make it easier for us to operate.
Wang Xuexin looked at "Christopher" working in front of him and roughly understood how this huge machine worked:
Each part of it is a bit in binary, and changes state every time it rotates. The same goes for turning on a light: pull it on, then pull it off. If the cycle continues, it means "1" when there is power, and "1" when there is no power.
"0".
The subsequent complex wires are connected in series or parallel with other bits. When a carry is required during calculation, the wires are used to control the rotation of another part to change state.
"We have also considered using relays instead of encoders!" Qiong explained: "You know, this mechanical operation is very inefficient. It is not only slow, consumes high power and takes up a lot of space!"
Wang Xuexin nodded. This is a mechanical computer. To drive the rotation of thousands of parts, the power consumption must be high.
"This is already the result of our simplification of 'Christopher'!" Joan was a little embarrassed: "This is because we considered that the code you need to decipher is not too complicated, and the space of the transport aircraft is limited, so we only built this small
decoder!"
Then Qiong brought the topic to relays: "We have also considered using relays, but there is a difficulty. The relay cannot maintain its state and store the information we need. I want to know...how did you solve this problem?"
Wang Xuexin was a little confused when he heard Qiong's words, and he was a little nervous.
Because he is talking to the best mathematicians, scientists, and decoding experts of this era. This is not sloppy in the slightest. As long as there is one thing he says that is wrong, it is very likely that Joan will find a breakthrough and then tear apart all the lies and expose them to the sun.
Down.
However, Wang Xuexin thought about it and felt that even if Qiong is the top scientist in modern times, even if he is not as smart as Qiong or as knowledgeable as her, these things are very basic questions in modern times, and it should not be difficult for him to answer them.
Thinking of this, Wang Xuexin calmed down and analyzed this problem.
Relay cannot store information?
Why can't I save?
Modern computing uses memory and hard drives to store information. Of course, these things did not exist in this era.
But why can mechanical parts be stored?
Suddenly Wang Xuexin understood:
Mechanical parts can indeed be stored because they rotate once and remain in that state unless you change it. Just like a light switch, after we turn on the light, it remains on unless we change it.
But relays are different. Although relays also have two states, one is connected and the other is disconnected, they can represent "1" and "0" like mechanical parts.
But the relay relies on electromagnets to achieve connection and disconnection. When the power is turned on, the electromagnet produces a magnetic adsorption reed to connect the circuit. When the power is turned off, the reed springs back and disconnects.
Although this method is fast, consumes less power and is small in size, etc., it has a fatal flaw: once the power is cut off, all relays will automatically return to their original positions, which is what Qiong said cannot store the calculation results or
intermediate results.
Mechanical parts don't have this problem.
What impact will this have?
As Joan said before, once you start a calculation with a relay, you cannot stop it, or if any one of the relays fails, the entire machine will be unable to operate, and all the previous calculations will be wasted and you will have to start from scratch.
If this is a small-scale operation that can be completed in a short time, fine, but a large-scale operation that can be completed in a long time... then it is basically impossible to complete.
Solution?
Wang Xuexin was a little frustrated. If even people like Turing and Qiong didn't know the solution, why should he have the solution?
but……
Wang Xuexin immediately thought of something. He didn't need to innovate, that is, he didn't need to think of it himself.
He only needs to know how Harvard University solved this problem in history when it developed Mark1 and Mark2.
Wang Xuexin pulled up the Mark1 manual from the system without thinking.
System prompt: Mark1 relay computer, 10 million military coins, do you want to buy it?
"No!" Wang Xuexin responded: "I just want to read the instructions!"
System prompts: The instruction manual is 9.99 million military coins. Do you want to buy it?
"This..." Wang Xuexin was speechless: "The whole machine is only 10 million, but the manual is 9.99 million? Are you cheating me?"
The system prompts in red and eye-catching large characters: The system has enabled the white prostitution prevention mode!
Whoring for nothing? When did I...
Suddenly, Wang Xuexin recalled that when he improved "La 5" before, he compared the data of "La 7" and then put forward suggestions for improvement!