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Exploded

Real machines, built from code with their real numbers, that you can take apart in the browser. Spindl, a hard drive, and Quantum, a photonic quantum computer. Every gauge reads the model that moves the parts.

CI passing · public
Two machines side by side: on the left a hard drive platter with its head over a track lit in orange, on the right the two cabinets of a photonic quantum computer behind blue glass doors.

A collection of machines rebuilt from code and set in motion, one page each. One input drives every machine, its own time, and the panels read the same numbers that pose the parts. Left alone, each page plays a guided tour; any click hands control over.

  • Quantum, a photonic quantum computer: a quantum dot emits one photon per laser pulse, fibre delay lines bring them onto a 24-mode chip together, 276 Mach-Zehnder interferometers mix them, detectors at 2.5 K click. The output distribution is computed from the permanents of the chip’s unitary; a Hong-Ou-Mandel test and the Perceval program sit beside it. Modelled on the public figures of Quandela’s Belenos, not affiliated with Quandela.
  • Spindl, a 3.5-inch 7,200 rpm hard drive: spin-up, the heads loading off the ramp, a seek drawn live, the rotational wait, the 3 nm flying height, the emergency park.
  • Real figures, checked: each machine carries its sources and a script that recomputes every number on screen, from the 8.4 % transmission per photon to the 35 m/s under the head at the outer edge.

In English, French and Spanish, each page under 1 MB and offline once loaded. Built with Claude Code and the teardown skill.