3 ms·

Even though it seems like implementing an aircraft carrier to kill a fly, what a amazing bunch of work. I wonder if you could implement this in hardware and win

Even though it seems like implementing an aircraft carrier to kill a fly, what a amazing bunch of work. I wonder if you could implement this in hardware and wind up with a working computer.

jacquesm 9y ago
> I wonder if you could implement this in hardware and wind up with a working computer. Yes you can, bonus points if you can do it without a central clock.
- falcor84 9y ago
  Well, having some sort of a central clock to use for the Game of Life ticks is a prerequisite, right?* And then the ticks are an all-powerful global clock that you get for free. A-la Leibniz's two clocks metaphor. * Unless you're trying to go for a distributed multi-verse implementation with separate boards having their own clocks and only limited message passing between them. The more I think of it, the cooler it seems. I'm now imagining setting up Erlang/OTP on these :)
- pmontra 9y ago
  The CPU they built is asynchronous. "Our computer is also asynchronous, meaning that there is no global clock controlling the computer. Rather, the data is accompanied by a clock signal as it flows around the computer, which means we only need to focus on local but not global timings of the computer." I'm not sure that it qualifies as clockless but according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_circuit#Asynchronous_CPU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_circuit#Asynchron... it does. BTW, congratulations to the authors of all of this. It's a huge achievement.
peter303 9y ago
Its like saying our universe is a simulation embedded in another universe. The simulation only need to be to the resolution of Plancks quantum of action. We couldnt distinguish any detail finer than that. The other universe could have a much finer resolution than our hbar. The simulator could be using a hundred grid points and time steps for grid point and time step in our universe.

Even though it seems like implementing an aircraft carrier to kill a fly, what a amazing bunch of work. I wonder if you could implement this in hardware and wind up with a working computer.

jacquesm 9y ago

> I wonder if you could implement this in hardware and wind up with a working computer. Yes you can, bonus points if you can do it without a central clock.

falcor84 9y ago
Well, having some sort of a central clock to use for the Game of Life ticks is a prerequisite, right?* And then the ticks are an all-powerful global clock that you get for free. A-la Leibniz's two clocks metaphor. * Unless you're trying to go for a distributed multi-verse implementation with separate boards having their own clocks and only limited message passing between them. The more I think of it, the cooler it seems. I'm now imagining setting up Erlang/OTP on these :)
pmontra 9y ago
The CPU they built is asynchronous. "Our computer is also asynchronous, meaning that there is no global clock controlling the computer. Rather, the data is accompanied by a clock signal as it flows around the computer, which means we only need to focus on local but not global timings of the computer." I'm not sure that it qualifies as clockless but according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_circuit#Asynchronous_CPU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_circuit#Asynchron... it does. BTW, congratulations to the authors of all of this. It's a huge achievement.

peter303 9y ago

Its like saying our universe is a simulation embedded in another universe. The simulation only need to be to the resolution of Plancks quantum of action. We couldnt distinguish any detail finer than that. The other universe could have a much finer resolution than our hbar. The simulator could be using a hundred grid points and time steps for grid point and time step in our universe.