[Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Software

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by robertsconley

Read up on Analog computers. This was quickly neglected in favor of digital computer in our history but who to say what would happen in some alternate tech progression including hybrids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer

It's also worth noting that vacuum tubes don't need to be tall - it's the width that matters. So you can miniaturize vacuum tube computers quite a bit. 1mm tall slices, but 1cm wide and 0.5-1cm long. Can make for practical vacuum tube mainframes in a few cubic meters.

And vacuum tube computers can be analogue, digital, or composite!