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Author Topic: Computing question  (Read 794 times)

Zaphod

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Computing question
« on: May 17, 2011, 04:08:40 pm »
I was reading the dwarven computing aricles on magma wiki and had a thought.
Is it possible for dwarven computers to lock up or freeze? Or for that matter crash?

I'm not planning on building a dwofputer, just currious.
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gtmattz

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Re: Computing question
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2011, 04:16:07 pm »
LOL what an odd question...

I would assume a building destroyer coming along and wreaking havok with the machinery would count as a crash, maybe trees growing in the water passages and such as well.  There are probably also all kind of problems that could arise during the building of the system where things get improperly linked that could cause the computer to malfunction in someway.  So just based on pure assumption (I have never built anything more complex than an inverter, a flip-flop, and an AND gate) I would have to say yes?
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Sphalerite

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Re: Computing question
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2011, 04:56:26 pm »
The dwarven computers created so far are very simple, more similar to the earliest computers made from individual transistors and logic gates than to a modern multitasking operating system.  Locking up, freezing, or crashing are only really meaningful when talking about computers with an operating system or real-time task processing, something that needs to respond to external input or perform some periodic task.  I don't think anyone has yet made a dwarven computer complex enough to have a software-induced crash.  Of course, it's always possible to make a computer that fails for some hardware version, such as too much or too little water in supply cisterns or the power source freezing up, or some critical part being smashed by a troll.
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Zaphod

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Re: Computing question
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2011, 05:08:44 pm »
Lol, making one on a glacier could "freeze" it
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I only play legends mode

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