From: info@turneraudio.com.au   
      
   On Friday, 1 February 2013 08:27:43 UTC+11, sam_mo...@gomail.com wrote:   
   > I want to build a computer entirely out of tubes, and be able to download   
   and store the entire internet on it. How many tubes do I need?   
      
      
   What a brilliantly difficult question you ask!. Let us assume you want to use   
   a vacuum tube to to do what each transistor does in any present day computer.   
   But you wish to store all existing info and tubes are not required for   
   storage, so let us assume    
   you only need to use tubes to access the stored data and to put all data known   
   to man onto hard drives etc. So, let us assume you'd need the computing power   
   found at say 20 of the largest data centres in the world, and they might   
   contain gillions of    
   billions of transistors. It doesn't take long to work out that all available   
   space on this planet would have to be devoted to your project. It would take   
   about 1,500 years to build.   
   There wouldn't be room to grow a McDonald's hamburger, and no room for any   
   more potato chip factories where recycled garbage is now used to make chips   
   for deep frying to keep you fat and unhealthy. No more room to make milk from   
   re-cycled engine oil for    
   your milkshakes. Forget ice-cream, because in the world you build the   
   temperature will, er, be hot.   
   I wish you very good luck, and IMHO, you'd need it.   
      
   Patrick Turner.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)