

Article 154 of comp.theory.cell-automata:
Path: mimsy!tank!uxc!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!rpi!rpics!hiebeler
>From: hiebeler@rpics (Dave Hiebeler)
Newsgroups: comp.theory.cell-automata
Subject: Future Cellular Automata Machines
Summary: CAM-8 in a year or 2 perhaps
Keywords: cellular automata, CAM, MIT
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 20 Feb 89 02:46:19 GMT
References: <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]>
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Reply-To: [email-masked] (Dave Hiebeler)
Organization: RPI CS Dept.
Lines: 57

  Well, I had the pleasure of visiting the Information-Mechanics group
at MIT a few days ago.  I spoke with Tom Toffoli, Norman Margolus, and
Mark Smith there.  Perhaps some people would be interested in knowing what
they're up to, as far as the next generation of CAM machines goes.

  Margolus summarized the CAM-8 as it is currently expected to perform:
   o   Between 4 million and 16 million cells  (compared to CAM-6's
	 65536 cells)
   o   16 bit cells, 16-bit lookup table, as opposed to CAM-6's
	 4-bit cells and 12-bit lookup table.
   o   Cell-updates should be done 5 or 6 times faster than CAM-6.
	 However, since there are many more cells, the simulation
	 will actually go slower.  But CAM-8 is supposed to allow
	 you to use a smaller grid and run much faster, or use the
	 larger grid but run slower, depending on what kind of
	 stuff you are doing.  This is a nice feature, because
	 sometimes you want speed, other times you want size.
	 (And of course sometimes you want both.  Too bad. :-) )

 The price on CAM-8 will be higher than CAM-6.  I don't know just how
much more, but it will "be under $10,000" I was told.  Perhaps
a lot less than that.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
  Systems Concepts will _NOT_ be producing CAM-8.  They caused a
disaster with CAM-6 (_HUGE_ delays, many problems, etc.)  I don't
know who will be producing the machines.
  They are still considering what machine should serve as the host
for the machine.  I think Sun workstations would be nice, and they
said that was one possibility.  But that is not decided yet, so
who knows.
  I doubt we'll see the machine within 2 years, although they will
probably have prototypes running by then.  I think they said they
hoped to have some early versions functional by the end of the year?

  In general, the CAM-8 will certainly expand some of the limitations
of the CAM-6.  It's really inconvenient to always play the game of
"how few bits can I possibly squeeze this algorithm into" when you
want to use CAM-6.  The 16-bit lookup-table of CAM-8 will still be
somewhat inconvenient, but certainly better then CAM-6.  And the
larger grid will be nice.  The speedup will also be nice, although
I never really had any complaints about CAM-6's speed...

  Disclaimer: all of this is just a bunch of rumors, based upon an
afternoon informally chatting with Toffoli and Margolus and Smith.
The CAM-8 is still being developed and designed, so who knows how
many changes will take place between now & production-time.  It
could be significantly better than what I've described, or it could
be worse.  I will certainly be keeping an eye open for the next couple
of years to see what comes out of MIT as far as cellular automata
machines go.

  -Dave
----
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  "xue zai xao"     "Off we go, into the wilds you ponder..."