With Weir’s assistance, the fundamental computational unit of the original world’s first-generation computer, the vacuum tube, immediately found an equivalent in this world.
Moreover, this thing is genuinely more impressive than the original world’s tube because, even by the 21st century, it was quite challenging for human processing technology to create vacuum tubes as small as a grain of wheat.
As for those miniaturized tubes, those are already transistors, not vacuum tubes.
This is also why the first-generation computer was so massive. After all, combining eighteen thousand bulb-sized vacuum tubes would essentially be impossible without a space as large as hundreds of square meters.
Moreover, even though the first-generation computer was designed with eighteen thousand vacuum tubes, it never reached its maximum design computational speed because those tubes would constantly fail and generate copious amounts of heat during computation.
Consequently, this first computer in the history of the original world couldn’t run at full power; it had to release waste heat periodically, undergo shutdown cooling, and replace broken vacuum tubes. Fresh chapters posted on 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅✦𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾✦𝗇𝖾𝗍
However, with Weir’s magic puppet technology, these issues are no longer problems.
The grain-sized magic puppet computational units use an entirely different technology from vacuum tubes, yet they can achieve the same function, namely identifying two opposing signals.
This constitutes the most fundamental principle of computational operation in the original world, namely identifying 0 and 1 to perform the most basic binary computations.
With this foundation, Perfikot could refer to the design principles of original world computers to handcraft a real computer.
Furthermore, the advantage of magic puppet computational units is that Perfikot doesn’t need to convert it into an electrical system; steam can still power it.
After all, its core architecture is based on magic and alchemy, capable of sending mechanical or magic signals, but definitely not electrical signals.
Under Perfikot’s persistence, Weir designed two types of signal transmission modes for the magic puppet computational units: one producing mechanical signals through steam power, and the other more advanced and convenient magic signals.
According to Weir’s idea, using magic signals directly would suffice, but Perfikot chose mechanical signals, despite slower computation speed and more complex structure, since mechanical systems are relatively more reliable than magic.
Just like in the original world, as electrification increased, more traditional mechanical structures were considered safer and more reliable.
Thus, in some critical systems, especially military and essential fields, a primitive mechanical system is retained outside the electronic system.
This ensures that if something goes wrong, mechanical solutions can still be relied upon.
Perfikot’s reasoning resonated with Weir, prompting her to seriously consider Perfikot’s suggestions and explanations. She revised the design of the magic puppet computational units according to Perfikot’s requirements.
Moreover, she designed a magic puppet computational unit capable of performing more complex multi-digit calculations, naturally increasing its size to that of a quail’s egg.
However, this did not concern Perfikot and Weir, as this larger unit doubled the performance of its smaller counterpart by volume.
Consequently, Perfikot didn’t stop Weir from striving in this area but instead encouraged her to focus on enhancing performance and reducing size, even though he mentioned that the current grain-sized magic puppet computational units were adequate.
As for Perfikot himself, as Weir reluctantly began crafting the magic puppet computational units repeatedly, he started constructing the most primitive circuit boards using these units to enable signal reception and transmission, thus realizing basic computational functions.
This forms the most basic structure of a computer.
Through Perfikot and Weir’s collaborative efforts, they finally completed a computer comprising two thousand miniature magic puppet computational units before the second snow descended on the Northern Territory.
This computer was capable of running one thousand computations per second.
This is an astonishing number, considering the first computer humans built in the original world used over eighteen thousand vacuum tubes, achieving only five thousand computations per second.
And even this computational speed wasn’t fully utilized.
Moreover, Weir’s magic puppet computational units don’t suffer from the issues of easy damage and heat generation like vacuum tubes, allowing the computer to be made exceptionally small.
At least, it’s exceptionally small compared to the original world’s first electronic computer, being only as large as a suitcase.
"Astonishing, I never imagined magic puppets could be used this way! I have to admit you’re the Empire’s foremost Alchemist. Though your technology and knowledge might not be the strongest, your imagination allows you to outperform your capabilities by over 120%, sufficient to create miracles!" Weir sincerely praised Perfikot’s imagination as she gazed at the computer crafted through their cooperation.
She now genuinely understood why Perfikot emphasized in public Imaginary Alchemy theory that imagination is the prime productive force in alchemy.
Indeed, possessing technology without imagination is fatal for an Alchemist, reflecting incapability.
Despite alchemy’s prowess, it’s essentially a tool, and humanity’s task is to utilize and apply it across broader domains.
Without imagination to give wings to technology, even the best technology would still remain grounded.
She felt this deeply.
Magic puppet technology is a rather mature and traditional skill that current Alchemists are unwilling to continue using due to its crude nature.
Yet, in Perfikot’s hands, this ancient art shone with new brilliance.
It’s unimportant if magic puppets are simple-minded. They merely need to identify two opposing signals and transmit them. This minimal requirement suffices even if magic puppets are dumber than ants.
But this simplicity allowed Perfikot to create this super computational device capable of one thousand computations per second, surpassing the computational speed limit of regular human capability.
"The only drawback is its size, too big to fit inside my Alchemy Puppet. Otherwise, I could upgrade it." Perfikot expressed with some humility but didn’t linger on this topic, merely asking Weir: "Based on our findings, can you make a computer achieving ten thousand computations per second?"