Collision-Based Computing

Collision-Based Computing presents a unique overview of computation with mobile self-localized patterns in non-linear media, including computation in optical media, mathematical models of massively parallel computers, and molecular systems. It covers such diverse subjects as conservative computation in billiard ball models and its cellular-automaton analogues, implementation of computing devices in lattice gases, Conway's Game of Life and discrete excitable media, theory of particle machines, computation with solitons, logic of ballistic computing, phenomenology of computation, and self-replicating universal computers. Collision-Based Computing will be of interest to researchers working on relevant topics in Computing Science, Mathematical Physics and Engineering. It will also be useful background reading for postgraduate courses such as Optical Computing, Nature-Inspired Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Smart Engineering Systems, Complex and Adaptive Systems, Parallel Computation, Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics.

From the reviews: "This book contains a collection of articles on the theme of how to do computation with mobile objects or patterns in nonlinear media, as exemplified most vividly by collision-based computing. ... Each chapter in the book has its own list of references ... . This book is recommended for anyone looking for an introduction to the fascinating developing subject of collision-based computing on a non-trivial level." (Menachem Dishon, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2007 b)

Collision-based computing is an emerging, but fast-growing, field. It is relevant to research in a number of other topics, including the design of advanced computer architectures, theoretical computer science, computational complexity, quantum computing, and bio-molecular/optical computing. At the moment there is little published work, so this book will be a much needed overview.

Preface.- Symbol Super Colliders.- Part I. Twenty Years Ago: Design Principles for Achieving High-Performance Submicron Digital Technologies. Conservative Logic. Physics-Like Models of Computation.- Part II. The Present and the Future: Universal Cellular Automata Based on the Collisions of Soft Spheres. Computing Inside the Billiard Ball Model. Universal Computing in Reversible and Number-Conserving Two-Dimensional Cellular Spaces. Derivation Schemes in Twin Open Set Logic. Signals on Cellular Automata. Computing with Solitons: A Review and Prospectus. Iterons of Automata. Gated Logic with Optical Solitons. Finding Gliders in Cellular Automata. New Media for Collision-Based Computing. Lorentz Lattice Gases and Many-Dimensional Turing Machines. Arithmetic Operations with Self-Replicating Loops. Implementation of Logical Functions in the Game of Life. Turing Universality of the Game of Life.- Index.