Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!math.lsa.umich.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!saturn!xanthian From: xanthian@saturn.ADS.COM (Metafont Consultant Account) Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata Subject: Re: wireworld patterns Message-ID: <10801@saturn.ADS.COM> Date: 10 Feb 90 00:37:34 GMT References: <6713@ubc-cs.UUCP> Organization: Advanced Decision Systems, Mt. View, CA (415) 960-7300 Lines: 41 In article <6713@ubc-cs.UUCP> phillips@cs.ubc.ca (George Phillips) writes: > In the Jan. 1990 issue of Scientific American, A. K. Dewdney > describes the rules for a cellular automata called "wireworld". > For those that haven't seen it, each cell has 4 possible states: > space, wire, electron head or electron tail. Cells interact with > their 8 neighbours by the following rules: > > - space cells forever remain space cells > - electron tails turn into wire cells > - electron heads turn into electron tails > - wire cells remain wire cells unless bordered by 1 or 2 electron > heads > > With these rules, electrons composed of heads and tails can move > along wires and you can build diodes, OR gates, NOT gates, memory > cells, wire crossings and so on. > > After a couple of really cheap hacks, I played with wireworld on my > PC and Unix and was able to come up with a 6 cycle memory cell, a > number of logical gates and some pulsars which generate electrons > at different rates. If anyone is interested, I'll post my patterns > here and (hopefully) someone can dazzle me with their discoveries. > If such postings (or even this posting) are inappropriate here, I'm > sure you'll inform me :-). > > -- > George Phillips phillips@cs.ubc.ca > {alberta,uw-beaver,uunet}!ubc-cs!phillips Hey, post your cheap hacks, too. Porting them should be easier than coming up with them in the first place! This group is too quiet; a bit of source code wouldn't hurt a bit. -- Again, my opinions, not the account furnishers'. xanthian@well.sf.ca.us (Kent Paul Dolan) xanthian@ads.com - expiring soon; please use Well address for replies. Kent, the (bionic) man from xanth, now available as a build-a-xanthian kit at better toy stores near you. Warning - some parts proven fragile. -> METAFONT, TeX, graphics programming done on spec -- (415) 964-4486 <-