A computer in Conway’s game of life

This is a computer built in Conway’s game of life.

An improved version with a pixel display is available here : https://github.com/nicolasloizeau/scalable-gol-computer

The computer can be programmed with the Golly script assembly.py (Golly: http://golly.sourceforge.net/ http://golly.sourceforge.net/)

Programing instructions are in assembly.py

• folder logic gates contains logic gates
• folder tools contain tools for making adapters between logic gates

For a more detailed explaination, check https://www.nicolasloizeau.com/gol-computer

Programming

Run assembly.py with Golly to program the computer

programing instructions:

There are only 8 variables names: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h h is used for storing the current program line, so be carefull, modifiying h will jump to the line h+1 the instructions are:

(let be n an integer in base 10)

write a n
-> write n to the variable a (written in 2's complement if signed)

goto n
-> go to the line n (first line is line 0)

move a b
-> b=a

jumpif a
-> jump the next line if a is not 0

print a
-> print a

add a b c
-> c=a+b

or a b c
-> c=bitwiseOR(a,b)

and a b c
-> c=bitwiseAND(a,b)

xor a b c
-> c=bitwiseXOR(a,b)

not a b
-> b=bitwiseNOT(a)

flat a b
-> b=0 if a=0; b=11111111 else

sign a b
-> write the most significant bit of a in b (sign of a if a is written in 2's complement)

increment a
-> a=a+1

This example computes the Fibonacci sequence

write a 1
write b 1
add a b a
print a
add a b b
print b
goto 2