39 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
39 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
# Glossary
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**Cellular automaton / CA**
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A discrete dynamical system comprising cells having states that are updated according to a local transition rule or evolution function.
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**Evolution function `F`**
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The protected local transition function applied to a cell and a bounded neighborhood to compute a next state.
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**Cell state**
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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.
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**State image / image program**
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An initial, maintained, or loaded spatial configuration of CA cell states that performs computation by evolving under `F`.
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**Memory-image-defined computation**
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Computation in which the effective machine or program is encoded in a CA state image rather than in a conventional sequential instruction stream.
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**Persistent propagating structure**
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A localized CA structure, such as a glider, that propagates through the lattice while preserving recognizable identity or information.
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**Interaction region**
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A spatial region of a CA image configured so that incoming propagating structures interact to perform logic, routing, detection, emission, transformation, or simulation behavior.
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**Output region**
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A predetermined memory region read after one or more CA update cycles to obtain computational output.
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**Effective hardware architecture**
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The logical processor, accelerator, simulation engine, or computation fabric defined by a loaded CA image, as distinguished from the fixed physical update circuitry.
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**Pull-based update**
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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.
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**Symmetry-preserving conflict resolution**
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Conflict handling in which simultaneous neighbor influences are resolved by a rule that is equivariant under selected lattice rotations, reflections, or coordinate transformations.
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**Bias-compensated deterministic update**
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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.
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