Asynchronous logic automata

Numerous applications, from high-performance scientific computing to large, high-resolution multi-touch interfaces to strong artificial intelligence, push the practical physical limits of modern computers. Typical computers attempt to hide the physics as much as possible, running software composed of a series of instructions drawn from an arbitrary set to be executed upon data that can be accessed uniformly. However, we submit that by exposing, rather than hiding, the density and velocity of information and the spatially concurrent, asynchronous nature of logic, scaling down in size and up in complexity becomes significantly easier. In particular, we introduce "asynchronous logic automata", which are a specialization of both asynchronous cellular automata and Petri nets, and include Boolean logic primitives in each cell. We also show some example algorithms, means to create circuits, potential hardware implementations, and comparisons to similar models in past practice.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Dalrymple, David Allen

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neil A. Gershenfeld.

• Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44914

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/44914