Implementation of Logical Functions in the Game of Life

: The Game of Life cellular automaton is a classical example of a massively parallel collision-based computing device. The automaton exhibits mobile patterns, gliders, and generators of the mobile patterns, glider guns, in its evolution. We show how to construct basic logical operations, AND, OR, NOT in space-time configurations of the cellular automaton. Also decomposition of complicated Boolean functions is discussed. Advantages of our technique are demonstrated on an example of binary adder, realized via collision of glider streams. The Game of Life (Life) is probably the most well known cellular automaton. The rules of its behavior were discovered by John Conway at the end of the 1960s. The presentation of Conway's construction by Martin Gardner in the October 1970 issue of Scientific American made it so famous that, in 1974, Time magazine even complained about how much computer time could be wasted because "growing hordes of fanatics" spent their office days playing...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2004
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Jean-Philippe Rennard
• Keywords: Cellular Automaton, CORR 2004, Education, Game, Life Cellular Automaton