Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!munnari.oz.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!latcs1!burns
From: burns@latcs1.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata
Subject: Re: RESEND Life Wars, Ants
Keywords: ants
Message-ID: <9543@latcs1.oz.au>
Date: 17 Feb 91 04:07:24 GMT
Reply-To: burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au (Jonathan Burns)
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia
Lines: 52


Thanks to: brucec@phoebus.labs.tek.com (Bruce Cohen;;50-662;LP=A;)
in <BRUCEC.91Feb7133503@phoebus.labs.tek.com>

In article <9102041839.AA01139@air.acad> rudy@air.UUCP (Rudy Rucker)
writes:
...
>     I think one of the biggest problems at this point is FINDING
> SOMETHING INTERESTING FOR THE ANTS TO DO.  The idea of having ants
> compete against each other is a suggestive game-oriented application,
> analagous to Core Wars.  But could the ants ever do something of
> commercial interest?  Designing the circuits for chips and boards is
> a possibility that is sometimes mentioned, but, as I think Hiebeler
> pointed out, there are already special purpose programs that do this
> much more directly and efficiently.

My impression is that ants would be good at tesselation problems. In
particular, a memory manager, say for virtual storage, could be built
on the basis of static objects (cells) which represent pages in
virtual and real address-space, plus mobile objects (ants) which run
around linking pages together, promoting virtual pages to real and
copying reals back to virtual.

The question is: among VM algorithms, are there already cheap ones that
get 80% usage or so from real storage? Is it worth investing in CA
mechanisms to try and claim another 10%?

Answer: maybe so. Inituition says that a bottleneck develops when 
storage is large, but is managed by a uniprocessor. So, run multiple
MMU's (memory management units) in parallel. But now you have to
arbitrate communications between the MMUs. So, set them up with a
regular neighbourhood topology, and give each a simple set of state
rules. Voila, CA.

Then, for instance, write a new instruction set for a VLIW machine
in emulation. Run a test suite on it repeatedly. Let the ants find
their own rules for locally optimum performance. Burn the rules in.

A similar, maybe even more suitable application is disk space management
for file systems and databases.

A pleasant aspect is that cached storage is a modular part of any
system. Build a cache with CA smarts, and it doesn't entail any change
in CPU architecture.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Burns        | Clashing for the warrior, whose strength is not to fight
burns@latcs1.lat.oz.au| Clashing for the refugee, on the unarmed road of flight
Computer Science Dept | And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
La Trobe University   | We gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing    -Dylan
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