/ Cory Doctorow / 9:22 am Thu Mar 22, 2012

Scientific calculator in Minecraft

SgtGodswordBerserker has implemented a multi-function scientific calculator using Minecraft, a project that echoes the earlier projects to build a CPU and a 3D printer using the game engine and its primitives.

Specs: 6 digit addition and subtraction, 3 digit multiplication, division and trigonometric/scientific functions. (The reason these are only 3 digits is because multiplication and division would take a long time to decode/complete/encode. Also, the fraction display is hard enough to build for 3 digits, let alone 6 - 6 digit RAM would not only be massive, but a bit pointless since the curves follow the same pattern surrounding the peaks.). Graphing y=mx+c functions, quadratic functions, and equation solving of the form mx+c=0.

The screen and keypad were always meant to be the main feature of this machine. The main display boasts 25 digits. Square root signs are displayed and can change to accommodate any number of digits. Square root signs, add, minus, multiply and divide signs are displayed at appropriate times, and there is a full fraction display. The 7-segments for the fractions are the smallest possible, being only 3 wide, and stackable vertically and horizontally.

...The calculator itself is just over 250x200x100 blocks. It contains 2 6-digit BCD number selectors, 2 BCD-to-binary decoders, 3 binary-to-BCD decoders, 6 BCD adders and subtractors, a 20 bit (output) multiplier, 10 bit divider, a memory bank and additional circuitry for the graphing function.

Minecraft Scientific/Graphing calculator - Sin Cos Tan Log Square root (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

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  3. The thing that strikes me about that project, having worked with redstone before, is just how compact it is.  Even simple 1 bit memory cells in redstone are massive. 

    1. Not so – two blocks long by one wide and two high does nicely:

      Repeaters and pistons have revolutionized redstone circuit engineering since Minecraft’s early days.

  5.  I think someone did a simple computer with Minecraft. So then Minecraft  could be ported to run on Minecraft. And then before you know it, you have the video to Bjork’s ‘Bachelorette’

  6. This really F’d with my head when I first saw this thing on YouTube via reddit.  From what little I knew of Minecraft, I thought this thing was entirely “mechanical” (as in working like a giant abacus on steroids with gears, etc. performing the computational tasks).

    Just as my mind was starting to meltdown trying to grasp how that was even possible on this scale of computation, someone on reddit graciously explained the redstone in the game.

    It was bittersweet, because the sense of awe and wonderment was diminished a little bit, but I was also relieved to know that my struggle to comprehend this thing was valid in the context of what little I knew of Minecraft.

    All in all, it was exhausting!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very impressed with this thing, but damn…  it was destroying my brain when I thought it may be all mechanical somehow.

    1. I had the same reaction… I also thought someone had Minecrafted a mechanical calculator… I couldn’t being to comprehend how you would even get started on that…

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