Mechanical Terminal Initial Plans and Records
Why Publish?
Publishing helps me organize my thoughts, so for the early stages of the "mechanical terminal" project I will be publishing records. I considered using a pseudonym for this but I decided to use my real name instead because if I drop the project I honestly don't think anyone else will pick it up and these plans I am publishing are not dangerous or prone to being sabotaged at all.
Previously + Scope
I realized the need for a mechanical terminal when I was writing this essay in November 2024, and spent the next couple months designing a prototype, mostly keeping it in my head except for 3D modeling and printing a few pieces. It started when I was thinking of ways to secure semiconductor production, but I quickly realized if the thousands of John von Neumans at ASML and TSMC and Nvidia can't find ways to do it then there is no possible way I could as well, but I had a crazy idea for simplifying displays instead. In one sentence, manufacturing an LCD screen requires a lot of specialized equipment, specialized knowledge, and complex international supply chains, and would be prone to going out of production in any number of catastrophic scenarios (power grid failure, competence crisis, COVID-like supply chain collapse, geopolitical instability, et. al.), and since LCDs are our main interfaces with computers currently, and since computers are integral for many aspects of modern society, a design interface should be made that is much simpler and easier to manufacture with much less equipment, knowledge, and supply chains. I have not written out what the design requirements and roadmaps are yet so I shall do that here.
Design Requirements
To design a mechanical terminal I must first design its core component, the mechanical pixel. The mechanical pixel must tile, so, I must figure out how to keep the design for one contained in a limited footprint, or, if it does go out of its singular footprint, it should do so in a way that many will not interfere with eachother and instead one overlaps where its neighbor has temporary negative space. Once the design for the mechanical pixel has been completed, it must be figured out how to put together enough for a 640 x 480 resolution, and then make the routing for each individual pixel to work so that it can display stuff like a UNIX shell.
The design for a mechanical pixel will have a user-facing and an observe pixel made of a solid color material - like plastic or painted wood - (yes this is a pixel, a "picture element", even though it does not light up) that will swap eachother out in tandem. It should ideally have an eight color display (Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, White) or even ten (add Pink, Gray). So the obverse pixel will need to be swapped out by a part that does that. But the color swapping piece will take a lot of design time, so for the purposes of getting a functional "MVP" that can sell or at least be demoed to investors, I will be focusing on making one that just has two colors for the face and obverse, black and white, and do the multi-color-swapping piece later.
Roadmap
- At time of publishing (04 Jan 2025), I seek to complete a prototype for the black-and-white mechanical pixel in one week (by 11 Jan 2025). The prototype should be a 4x4 pixel grid to demonstrate ability for multiple to tile and work synchronously and not overlap. A demo script should be made that has the pixels flip from checkered, the other checkered, move - in snake pattern and in sequence - - in both directions - and tile from solid one color flip original color at randomly until it is solid the other color. It can even go row by row, column by column, and diagonally. It can also for a number of steps flip random ones.
- After then, the next thing to do is to write and film a pitch deck and send it to people.
- If I can raise money, the next thing to do would be to hire people who know more than me (see)
- After that, figure out how to make it poly-chromatic
- Also investigate other computer components that the mechanical terminal can be packaged with and sold as a whole computer, including LORA technology and "TGAP"