Collision of two blobs in MGS

Current processor and multiprocessor architectures are almost all based on the Von Neumann paradigm. Based on this paradigm, one can build a general-purpose computer using very few transistors, e.g., 2250 transistors in the first Intel 4004 microprocessor. In other terms, the notion that on-chip space is a scarce resource is at the root of this paradigm which trades on-chip space for program execution time. Today, technology considerably relaxed this space constraint. Still, few research works question this paradigm as the most adequate basis for high-performance computers, even though the paradigm was not initially designed to scale with technology and space.

The BLOB Computing project, developped by F. Gruau at LRI, represents an alternative to the current Von Neumann model, following a biocomputation dogma.
The whole project idea is to try to capture the principles of bio-computing system allowing massive parallelism. The model of computation is based on the concept of self developing network of compute nodes, the machine is a 2-D Cellular automaton grid whose evolution rule is fixed and implemented by simplified physical laws. A machine configuration represents idealized physical objects such as membrane or particle gas. A central object called blob is the hardware image of a compute node.

The two animation below shows the simulation of the collision of two blobs. Blobs are simulated in MGS using proxi. Proxy are a kind of topological collection where the neighborhood relationship is defined by a user predicate. Elements of the proxi used here are of two kinds: membrane nodes and molecule nodes. Membrane nodes are linked by a spring like force. All node exert a repulsive force. The loss of molecules in the movie is due to a too low attractive force between membrane nodes. Another version is based on the use of Delaunays. The two versions improve over an initial simulation coded as a cellular automaton. The simulation has been developped in MGS by Julien Cohen using a previous program developped by Antoine Spicher.

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collision of two blobs using MGS

collision of two blobs (alternative view) using MGS.

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Pages started: May 2002. Last revision: 24 jully 2003.

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English keywords for indexation: computer science, programming language, topological collections, transformation, declarative programming language, functional languages, simulation of biological processes, cell model, biological pathway, interaction network, gene regulation, signal transduction, morphogenesis, developmental biology, integrative simulation, biological organization, dynamical systems, dynamical structure, Gamma, CHAM, P system, L system, Paun, Lindenmayer, cellular automata, membrane computing, aqueous computing, artificial chemistry, GBF, Cayley graph, data fields, nested collections, rewriting, rule based programming, pattern-matching, intentional programming, compilation, interpretation, type, type inference, nested type, polytypism, catamorphism, static analysis, sequence, multiset, combinatorial algebraic topology, chain complex, chain group.