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Digital Wires
Alfred Hubler, [email protected], Physics, UIUC
http://server10.how-why.com/blog
Digital Wire
Analog wires are used to move energy (power lines, power grid) and information (data
transmission lines, Internet) in electrical networks.
However, most dynamical systems with more than 7 degrees of freedom are chaotic
=> the dynamics of large networks of analog wires is unstable => congestions &
cascading failures
Digital wires: Wires that propagate only patterns of rectangular pulses
Specific advantages of digital wires:
- Fixed pulse shape (increased reliability & speed);
- Robust against electric smog (increased reliability & speed);
- No cross talk (increased reliability & speed);
- No echoes (increased reliability & speed);
- Adjustable pulse speed (increased adjustability);
- Encryption (increased security);
- Digital wire can be general purpose computers (increased adjustability).
Neurons are digital wires. Digital wires move information in parallel.
Digital wires
Graphical depiction of a “Digital Wire” formed by imposing circular
boundary conditions on a CA. A digital wire implemented by a CA has
notable advantages over copper wires, such as isolating defects. By
choosing the appropriate rule, the effects of a defect such as a short
circuit can be isolated to a single cell site, rather than propagating the
defect along the entire wire, as copper wires do.
Digital Wires: hardware implementation as a transistor
network
Vin
Vout
Cell 1
Cell 2
Cell n
(a)
(b)
(a) A digital wire constructed of resistors and pnp transistors. (b)
Experimental measurement of the input-output response of the pnptransisator digital wire. The sharp transition at 77% of the total supply
voltage results in a noise immunity threshold. In order for noise to affect
the outcome of a signal, it must exceed this threshold.
Digital Wires:
Hardware implementation as a Boolean
network
Digital wires: a simple model
Definition: A digitial wire is a long network of
cells. Digital pulses travel along the digital wire,
according to the following rule:
Digital Wire
Ax+1,y = f (Ax,y-1, Ax,y, Ax,y-1)
-i.e. the state of the cell Ax+1,y =0,1, depends only
on the “upstream” neighbors.
Discussion: Digital wires can be viewed as
hardware implementations of elementary cellular
automata (S. Wolfram). Therefore a digital wire
can be a general purpose computer.
Digital wire (Boolean network, xor rule)
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Data
Program
Direction of
pulse
propagation
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Discussion, continued …
Digital wires on various scales:
-nano- level: thin film transistor networks (parallel , reliable input for
CPUs, may replace CPU), quantum dot networks, neurons (brain)
-Atomic level: electron hopping from atom to atom along a path on a
macro molecule (hard ware implementations of neural nets)
-Microscopic level: transistor networks
-Mesoscopic level: Boolean networks, Field programmable gate arrays
(image processing)
- Macroscopic level: power lines with phase sensitive switches every 10
miles (no cascading power failures), city traffic
Data transmission lines versus power lines:
There is energy traveling with every pulse. Computation does not
necessarily consume much power (conservative computation).
-Periodic pulses can produce a lot of power.
-Pulses that carry information look random.
H. Higuraskh, A. Toriumi, F. Yamaguchi, K. Kawamura, A. Hübler, Correlation Tunnel Device, U. S. Patent # 5,679,961 (1997)
Digital Wire
Discussion, continued …
Different cellular automata rules:
-Rule 110: general purpose computer
-Rule 204: identity rule
-Rule 30: random number generator
-Rule 254: self-repairing pulses
-Rule 0: trivial
Merging data from different digital wires:
Wire 1 Wire 2
Given is the state
000111010.
What is the pulse one
time step later for rule 0?
000000000
Summary: Digital Wires
Analog wires are used to move energy (power lines,
power grid) and information (data transmission lines,
Digital Wire
Internet) in electrical networks.
-Dynamical systems with more than 7 degrees of freedom are chaotic (Lee Rubel )=>
the dynamics of large networks of analog wires are unstable.
Digital wires: wires that propagate only patterns of rectangular pulses
Specific advantages of digital wires:
- Fixed pulse shape (increased reliability)
- Robust against electric smog (increased reliability)
- No cross talk (increased reliability)
- No echoes (increased reliability)
- Adjustable pulse speed (increased adjustability)
- Encryption (increased security)
- Digital wire can be general purpose computer s(increased adjustability)
Neurons are digital wires.
Alfred Hubler, [email protected], Physics, UIUC
http://server10.how-why.com/blog