Implementation of a Cellular Automaton with Globally Switchable Rules

Cellular automata represent a discrete model of a computational machine with the inherent concept of totally distributed state transitional function. Previous studies have indicated that well-devised type of a global influence turns out to be an important factor in terms of improving the overall efficiency of a computation process within automata. In this context, polymorphic electronics is an approach that introduces a specific way of a global control to the circuit, not by means of using a dedicated global signal but through employing an inherent environmental variable. In our case the global information is uniformly propagated through the existing voltage supply rail, which is naturally available to all individual cells of a given automaton. It seems that the suggested approach may be very useful for the implementation of enhanced cellular automata. In this paper, the real hardware implementation of a cellular automaton using polymorphic chip and the obtained experimental results are presented together with a subsequent discussion.