tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188823222763071436.post7819514457773772309..comments2023-10-16T05:03:13.609-07:00Comments on The Mostly Color Channel: Babbage's Print Automation EngineNathan Moroneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09545954704890276824noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188823222763071436.post-84660476051011202502010-03-18T19:35:30.435-07:002010-03-18T19:35:30.435-07:00Good point. Although almost never discussed from t...Good point. Although almost never discussed from the printing perspective, the main purpose of the BDE was to remove the drudgery and inaccuracies in manually calculated tables of transcendental functions.<br /><br />You heard the one about the guy who manually calculated Pi to around 1000 places? About a century later, an electronic computer found an<br />error starting near the 500th place. Bummer!<br /><br />UPSIDE: Apart from a few minor bugs, the BDE worked as advertised.<br /><br />DOWNSIDE: He didn't read and heed Leibniz, so negative numbers are 10's complement and therefore not just a bit flip away.<br /><br />The BDE used lookahead-carry rather than ripple-carry, according to http://halfbakedmaker.org/2009/12/26/rod-logic-alu/ "Indeed, Charles Babbage utilized lookahead carries through the part of the Analytical Engine he called an Anticipating Carriage."<br /><br />Apparently, you CAN try this at home http://acarol.woz.org/ :)Neil Guntherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441377418482735926noreply@blogger.com