The Wireworld Computer(1987)
The Wireworld computer is a unique cellular automaton designed for programming, developed by David Moore and Mark Owen between 1990 and 1992. It is recognized as the first computer of its kind that allows for practical programming applications. The design has been further explored and detailed by Julien Thevenon, who reverse-engineered its components.
- ▪The Wireworld computer was developed between 1990 and 1992 by David Moore and Mark Owen.
- ▪It is considered the first computer implemented as a cellular automaton suitable for programming.
- ▪Julien Thevenon has provided a detailed explanation of the Wireworld computer's design and components.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
These pages describe how we went about building a Wireworld computer. Although at least one design exists for a tape-based Turing machine implemented in the ‘Game of Life’, ours is, as far as we know, the first ever computer implemented as a cellular automaton that you might reasonably want to write a program for. The design was done by David Moore and Mark Owen, with the help of many others, between 1990 and 1992. It’s a testament to our modesty that it was not until September 2004 that we wrote up our work. You will need a browser capable or rendering looped animated GIFs to fully appreciate the pages that follow. Some of the image files are quite large. This picture shows the display of the Wireworld computer as it calculates primes.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Quinapalus.
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