Initial commit

notes/glossary.md

@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Glossary
+
+**Cellular automaton / CA**  
+A discrete dynamical system comprising cells having states that are updated according to a local transition rule or evolution function.
+
+**Evolution function `F`**  
+The protected local transition function applied to a cell and a bounded neighborhood to compute a next state.
+
+**Cell state**  
+The state value stored for a CA cell. In the current contemplated embodiment, each cell may be represented by a compact multi-bit state, for example a 6-bit state.
+
+**State image / image program**  
+An initial, maintained, or loaded spatial configuration of CA cell states that performs computation by evolving under `F`.
+
+**Memory-image-defined computation**  
+Computation in which the effective machine or program is encoded in a CA state image rather than in a conventional sequential instruction stream.
+
+**Persistent propagating structure**  
+A localized CA structure, such as a glider, that propagates through the lattice while preserving recognizable identity or information.
+
+**Interaction region**  
+A spatial region of a CA image configured so that incoming propagating structures interact to perform logic, routing, detection, emission, transformation, or simulation behavior.
+
+**Output region**  
+A predetermined memory region read after one or more CA update cycles to obtain computational output.
+
+**Effective hardware architecture**  
+The logical processor, accelerator, simulation engine, or computation fabric defined by a loaded CA image, as distinguished from the fixed physical update circuitry.
+
+**Pull-based update**  
+A CA update method in which each cell computes its own next state from its current state and neighboring states, thereby avoiding multi-writer conflicts.
+
+**Symmetry-preserving conflict resolution**  
+Conflict handling in which simultaneous neighbor influences are resolved by a rule that is equivariant under selected lattice rotations, reflections, or coordinate transformations.
+
+**Bias-compensated deterministic update**  
+Conflict handling in which deterministic local priority orientations vary across cells, rows, planes, tiles, or cores according to a balanced pattern so that no lattice direction is globally preferred.
+