Comment by petra
7 years ago
Here they talk about a miniatirized pneumatic microprocessor using microfluidics:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2917228/
But: it takes a full 10cm wafer to make 50 D flip-flops(a basic component equivalent to a memory bit), and it works at frequency of 0.5hz .
So it's a challenge.
But maybe it's possible to build a very dumb terminal with this(say keyboard + screen
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41378-018-0018-1
) , if you offload everything to the cloud - and use a really basic communications protocol.
But will the Amish accept a computer/network ? What will it look like ?
Fluidics can work much faster upto 10 KHz[0], maybe even up to 30 KHz or higher if one uses light gases like hydrogen or helium. Although fluidic elements tend to be pretty and have a foot print on the order about a square centimeter. They are also difficult to scale down because it's difficult to maintain the same reynolds number.
Mechanical logic is an interesting option as some newly developed MEMS logic gates might be able to operate at MHz frequencies[1].
[0]https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a084924.pdf [1]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08678-0