Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ub!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!grover.llnl.gov!howell From: howell@grover.llnl.gov (Louis Howell) Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata Subject: Re: John Conway's "Life"/Pseudo-Neural hardware implementation Message-ID: <85294@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> Date: 1 Nov 90 23:37:52 GMT References: <1990Nov1.185409.25802@bradley2.bradley.edu> <85285@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> Sender: usenet@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV Reply-To: howell@grover.llnl.gov (Louis Howell) Distribution: usa Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lines: 43 Nntp-Posting-Host: grover.llnl.gov In article , gessel@cs.swarthmore.edu (Daniel Mark Gessel) writes: |> In <85285@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> howell@grover.llnl.gov (Louis Howell) writes: |> >In article <1990Nov1.185409.25802@bradley2.bradley.edu>, pwh@bradley2.bradley.edu (Pete Hartman) writes: |> >|> I had the idea some time ago to do a hardware implementation of the |> >|> Life algorithm... |> > |> >You've just described a Connection Machine, right down to the LED's. |> |> Is this really a Connection Machine? That is, does a connection machine |> cumpute using Conway's Life? I wouldn't expect that the Connection Machine |> would use a two dimensional array. |> |> Do you have any info on how to compile or program to a life "board"? |> I would be very interested. Sorry, I spoke from the hip, and didn't mean to be misleading. The CM processors can do much more than just play Life, and are not limited to a 2-D grid. There are 16 bit-serial processors per chip, and these chips are connected in a 12-dimensional hypercube (full size machine). Several different 2-D grids can be embedded in this hypercube, and other geometries as well. There are other components too, like the router, floating point chips, etc. The operations in Conway's Life map very naturally onto the Connection Machine, so you can write a parallel Life program in very few instructions in any of the CM languages. There are also large banks of LED's, which could be used to display Life patterns, though I don't know if anyone has ever done that. There are better ways to do graphics. Usual disclaimer: I don't speak for Thinking Machines, blah blah blah. As for programming using Life, I have read that streams of gliders can simulate a universal Turing machine and therefore can perform any computation a digital computer can do. Don't know the details of the proof. -- Louis Howell "A few sums!" retorted Martens, with a trace of his old spirit. "A major navigational change, like the one needed to break us away from the comet and put us on an orbit to Earth, involves about a hundred thousand separate calculations. Even the computer needs several minutes for the job."