2.2 KiB
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.