Lost Generation: The Relay Computers
My favorite "lost" type of computer is the balanced ternary machines. These were actually built in the Soviet Union in the 1960s:<p><a href="https://dev.to/buntine/the-balanced-ternary-machines-of-soviet-russia" rel="nofollow">https://dev.to/buntine/the-balanced-ternary-machines-of-sovi...</a><p>Programming with trits and trytes!<p>Unfortunately, domestic Soviet computers were effectively killed by a 1970 decision to base all future efforts on a "Unified System" which was really a clone of IBM System/360:
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ES_EVM" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ES_EVM</a><p>Playing it safe by shooting yourself in the head...