On Feb 4, 2006, at 9:13 AM, Peter Onion wrote:

>>
>> http://petertodd.ca/persist/2006-02-04/mprom_front.jpg
>> http://petertodd.ca/persist/2006-02-04/mprom_back.jpg
>
> Isn't this just a degenerative form of "diode matrix ROM"
> Hardly a new idea I'm afraid !

I agree here.  Without the requirement of electrical programability,
you've just got a plugboard variant.

Hmm.  I wonder if you can combine a hall sensor with one of those
mechanical/magnetic displays to get the sort of visible programmable
memory you're looking for.  A sort of visible core memory, modernized.
It would probably be pretty tough to construct 1000s of bits, though.
(why did you say you wanted thousands of bits?  You know that about
300 bits is sufficient to count the total number of particles in
the universe, and 64 bits of seconds (or even milliseconds) will
count essentially forever...)

BillW

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist