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[THESPECINATOR]

I just have finished my proof of concept on my 6 tick computer. It uses instant wire to do everything. It has a 13 function ALU currently and 15 bytes of RAM. I only have 1 line of ROM hooked up for testing, and no real output area. It runs on a series of pulses that instant wire make. It does not work a whole lot like other computers do so I will soon write a small explanation on how everything works.

I have made 2 videos on the basics, the first is an overview along with showing that it can handle the 6-tick speed. The second shows the ALU binary functions.




For those of you that don't want to watch the videos, here are some screenshots


Here is an overview:




Here are the individual RAM cells





Here is the top view of the RAM





A view of the ALU






The random number generator (I forgot who came up with this design)






Control Panel/ 1 line of ROM





CPU clock (just so there is no confusion)



Some stuff I should get out of the way:

can it run minecraft in minecraft? NO

Will it have a GPU? eventually, I first plan on just a number screen

Will it have branching? YES, conditional (with select-able conditions) and unconditional

Why just 1 line of RAM? This is a just a proof of concept

Why a stacked ALU instead of one of the fancy ones? fancy ones lend themselves to errors, along with this being the first single wire instant ALU, i do plan to compact it later though.

Why is the ALU 13 function? it supports up to 16, but I removed 2 and never used 0000 as an address, I plan to add some adder type functions though.

I see repeaters, but you call it instant? repeaters are used to eliminate nano-ticks, also instant wire can run at 6 ticks at the fastest so I see no reason to make everything 1 tick as long as it all gets done in 6 ticks.

There are lots of things that could be eliminated and look useless, why are they still there? hindsight is 20/20, I did not feel like redoing everything to save 1 block of space, plus I want it to work and be easy to error check.

ALU Explanation:

Spoiler:

there are 13 total functions here is a list,

Spoiler:

0000 nothing / unused (probably will remain nothing)
0001 subtract
0010 add
0011 nothing / unused (possibly add +1)
0100 nothing / unused (possibly add then branch if there is a carry)
0101 Xor
0110 XNor
0111 And
1000 NAnd
1001 Nor
1010 A->B implies
1011 A->B Nimplies
1100 Not (may be eliminated, it is the same as Nor)
1101 OR
1110 Shift Right
1111 Shift Left

each layer of dirt is a separate function, and none are combined. This is the first instant ALU that is single wire so I made it big to keep it simple. Much like new things, they start big and get smaller and more reliable.
Subtract takes 3 ticks. Add takes 2. All others take 1 or have been made to be 1, these functions will also be the ones that send to the branching area.
The busses are simple, they go up and down, the output goes below the entire thing and into the back of the RAM.

RAM Explanation:

Spoiler:

I created every part of the RAM, It was made to be no more than 15 wide and as short in length as possible. I did not care about height. It uses a simple repeater cell to sore data and lots of pistons. It also has a cool sin wave top.
It's specs, It has a 1 tick write speed and a 0 tick read speed making it very fast. The same cell can be used repeatedly as shown in the video. 15 bytes in total.
In the computer I skipped the accumulator step, because it works on pulses so there is no reason to have one. There is nothing between it and the ALU.
Both numbers go in at the same time so it can be considered kind of dual read. It does this with an A & B register. They are identical, so the data is technically stored in 2 different places. Why do this? I wanted to keep it not very wide. Dual read was not really an option then. I did not care about height so this is the best for now.
Final thoughts, i plan to make it about 8 shorter and will look into possibly doing dual read for efficiency sake. As for now it works fine.

ROM Explanation:

Spoiler:

Currently there is part of a line there or 2 bytes. Each line will be 3 bytes total. I plan for sets of lines of ROM. I plan for 16 sets of 16, plus a setup ROM area to clear and set constants back. This will be over 256 lines of ROM which is 768 bytes of ROM. Branching will branch to a certain set instead of a specific line.
ROM division:

Spoiler:

/0000-0000-0000-0000-00-00-0000/ from left to right....
OP code
A register
B register
Store location
GPU commands (allotted for a possible GPU)
Branching type (will be explained later)
Branching location

This is just my idea for my ROM area and none of it is built yet, so there is likely to be changes. I have a design in my head, but I'll have to see how that pans out.

Branching Explanation:

Spoiler:

The input for branching will be taken from the 11 functions shown in the second video. There is 2 bits allotted for different types.
They are as follows:
00 no branching
01 branch if any bit is ON (off technically for instant wire)
10 branch if all bits are ON (off technically for instant wire)
11 branch if all bits are OFF (used for unconditional branching while adding)
If there condition is meet then it will branch to the given set using the given 4 bit address in ROM. Branching will only take 1 clock cycle so you can jump very quickly. I still have yet to build it and I will after the ROM

Random Number Generator:

Spoiler:

It makes random numbers. It uses a torch update glitch or quirk. Minecraft uses your computers RNG to randomly update torches. It is one of the more random ones. It is based off Sethblings idea / design, but some one else came out with the sets I used.
Currently it is only hooked up to the B register, but I may hook up another one to A so you can pull to random numbers. It is addressed using the code 1111.

Multiplexer Explanation:

Spoiler:

It is a 4 bit decoder, It has 5 lines though. 4 are used by the data while the last is an enabler bit. The enabler lets me use 0000 as an address and helps stabilizes inputs. The decoders use pistons pulling up or not pulling up. It takes 0 ticks to find the correct cell, but due to Nano ticks there is a repeater making it 1 tick total.

GPU Explanation:

Spoiler:

There is currently not one. I have given 2 command bits to it just encase I go all out. I will probably start with a hex display. Then I will either do an 8 bit decoder so it is in decimal or I will make an angled line drawer. If i go all out the GPU will draw shapes, and angled lines. It will have it's own processor, RAM, and ROM, this is unlikely though due to obvious limitations. I do not plan on games, because they would be horribly slow even with it's speed. A GPU is the last thing on my list, but a decoder is near the top.

Timing stuff

Spoiler:

Due to the fact that there is a limited number of redstone updated a second I had to split things up.
Now for what goes on when:
1st tick, read ROM and do multiplexers
2, calculate in alu
3, adding/subtraction or branching
4, same as 3
5, storing data, branching
6, branching

I am not sure how long it will take to branch, but my estimates say on the 6th tick i should be done

I am currently not working on the computer, for I have been sidetracked with a cooler projects. I have finished 1, but 2 more good ideas have come up. I have kind of lost interest in computers, after i thought about how trivial they can be. I may return to this project in the future.


Something I should say about redstone computers. If you want a machine that can run Pong, battleship or other games. Make a machine that specifically does that. It will always run better, faster, and more stable (this is already 28 times faster than the RedGame2). So you may wonder why build a computer then? Simple, it is fun. I always enjoy working with redstone and this is the highest level thing that can be done, so that is why.

[Kamil]

Were you the same person that was making this way back when?

[samruxman]

Amazing. I like it.
But i still wonder, WTH does the Minecraft computers do?

[space_king]

it would take me several years just to lay out the blocks for this nevermind the redstone

[Zormer]

samruxman, on 17 March 2012 - 10:19 PM, said:

Amazing. I like it.
But i still wonder, WTH does the Minecraft computers do?

Nothing usefull at the moment, they're usually too slow and big to be of any real use. But it's fun to see how powerful they can get.

space_king, on 18 March 2012 - 06:36 AM, said:

it would take me several years just to lay out the blocks for this nevermind the redstone

It would take anyone months to put all the blocks and redstone there, that's why everyone building computers use a mod (usually WorldEdit) that allows you to copy and paste parts, so you can just, for example, create one memory cell and copy the rest. There are parts, like bussing, that can't be (usually) done by copying and pasting, though.

[THESPECINATOR]

Kamil, on 17 March 2012 - 10:18 PM, said:

Were you the same person that was making this way back when?

I showed off my ALU before, but a lot has changed since then.

samruxman, on 17 March 2012 - 10:19 PM, said:

Amazing. I like it.
But i still wonder, WTH does the Minecraft computers do?

I don't really know. They compute stuff. The idea is that that they can play several different games with no physical alterations. The problem is they run very slow in comparison to a specified device. I just enjoy doing it.

space_king, on 18 March 2012 - 06:36 AM, said:

it would take me several years just to lay out the blocks for this nevermind the redstone

McEdit is your friend I made this in 72ish hours of gameplay, maybe less because I used the world to do other things before this.

I am temporarily stopping working on it, because I found a way to make something that I have always wanted. It is even cooler than an instant computer.

[myskillsisfromhell]

good luck with it.
but let me just ask you question, you said that these fancy alu's has many errors?
but i have build 2 "fancy" alu's 1 4 tick and 1 6 tick so far i now that the 6 tick one can do 24 functions without any problems so why did you use a tower style alu.

[Sneak.QQ]

Quote

I am temporarily stopping working on it, because I found a way to make something that I have always wanted. It is even cooler than an instant computer.

Go on...

[Darkroom97]

Ok so i know you don't want a fancy alu but lets think about this....
to make every function, add, and subtract ALL you have to do is put xors in A, B, and output for inversion. Stick an adder in the middle. A cut carry op code so you can get xor and take the carry for bools. If you want pictures of this ask

[THESPECINATOR]

Sneak.QQ, on 18 March 2012 - 06:48 PM, said:

Go on...

All i will say is it is going well. I have started it and have made all the parts the only issue is i keep finding ways to make them better, so I have to redo things. It will be awesome though. I may give a sneak peak soon though.

myskillsisfromhell, on 18 March 2012 - 06:27 PM, said:

good luck with it.
but let me just ask you question, you said that these fancy alu's has many errors?
but i have build 2 "fancy" alu's 1 4 tick and 1 6 tick so far i now that the 6 tick one can do 24 functions without any problems so why did you use a tower style alu.

Darkroom97, on 18 March 2012 - 07:34 PM, said:

Ok so i know you don't want a fancy alu but lets think about this....
to make every function, add, and subtract ALL you have to do is put xors in A, B, and output for inversion. Stick an adder in the middle. A cut carry op code so you can get xor and take the carry for bools. If you want pictures of this ask

When redstone first started almost all ALU's were stacks. pistons have been out since last year and it took people awhile to make the complex ones. This is the first instant wire ALU. It has some limitations that i'm sure people may eventually solve.
The current problem is the Nano tick. The reason there are repeaters at the ends of things is because on Nano ticks. It is generated by the Xor's I'm using. each Xor then adds 1 tick of delay because of the repeater needed. I do agree that I could combine the inverses together, but I wanted to keep it very simple at first. If I copied your design for standard wire, it would be a delay mess and may not work.
I'm sure the instant wire ALU will get better it will just take time. This is the start rather than the end. I currently am preoccupied right now with another project so I do not plan to do any improving any time soon.

[Darkroom97]

THESPECINATOR, on 18 March 2012 - 10:10 PM, said:

All i will say is it is going well. I have started it and have made all the parts the only issue is i keep finding ways to make them better, so I have to redo things. It will be awesome though. I may give a sneak peak soon though.





When redstone first started almost all ALU's were stacks. pistons have been out since last year and it took people awhile to make the complex ones. This is the first instant wire ALU. It has some limitations that i'm sure people may eventually solve.
The current problem is the Nano tick. The reason there are repeaters at the ends of things is because on Nano ticks. It is generated by the Xor's I'm using. each Xor then adds 1 tick of delay because of the repeater needed. I do agree that I could combine the inverses together, but I wanted to keep it very simple at first. If I copied your design for standard wire, it would be a delay mess and may not work.
I'm sure the instant wire ALU will get better it will just take time. This is the start rather than the end. I currently am preoccupied right now with another project so I do not plan to do any improving any time soon.

I have made a insta wire ALU 3ticks. If you want to check it out search 24tick clock then go into QUAD CORE. After that download the map and look for the ALU it is good

[YuriKahn]

That's amazing! I'm interested in your instant wire though, how does it work?

[THESPECINATOR]

Darkroom97, on 18 March 2012 - 10:18 PM, said:

I have made a insta wire ALU 3ticks. If you want to check it out search 24tick clock then go into QUAD CORE. After that download the map and look for the ALU it is good

I took a look and could not figure out how the ALU worked. I could not determine if it was instant wire or not... you seem to be crossing instant wire and regular wire which is kind of confusing. If you could do a video on how it operates that would be great.
On another note, I noticed some areas were broken. In the ALU there was a repeater going into a block and the other end was not receiving power and in the RAM area some of the pistons pushers were missing.

Quote

That's amazing! I'm interested in your instant wire though, how does it work?

It is Shroggs basic type. I made all the boolean functions and I used Shroggs adder with a few modifications.

[Darkroom97]

The type of insta wire i use is called clocked insta wire it works on the fact that if you force a upward edge on all the pistons at the same time no delay

[makerimages]

this is cool

[THESPECINATOR]

Darkroom97, on 19 March 2012 - 10:32 AM, said:

The type of insta wire i use is called clocked insta wire it works on the fact that if you force a upward edge on all the pistons at the same time no delay

Some of your pieces looked similar to mine, but your ALU looks very weird. I have seen you smash the Redgame 2, but you still have yet to show yours working. The Redgame is not a terrible computer, though not the best. You say he does not tell the whole truth about it, which may be true, but you still have not shown yours to work....

[Darkroom97]

THESPECINATOR, on 20 March 2012 - 07:06 PM, said:

Some of your pieces looked similar to mine, but your ALU looks very weird. I have seen you smash the Redgame 2, but you still have yet to show yours working. The Redgame is not a terrible computer, though not the best. You say he does not tell the whole truth about it, which may be true, but you still have not shown yours to work....

Ah i will show when i finish the whole quad core i will put out aton of videos about how it works and doing i think pong or space invaders followed by the use of an array. On the red game thin lets get real ima use your comp as an example because it works fully at this time:
REDGAME|Your comp
1)70tick clock 1)6tick clock
2)Bad alu 8 functions 2)like 20 i think i can't remember
3)Terrible ram 3)good fast ram
4)registers are soooo bad 4)idk do you even use registers because i don't in my comp
Over all every computer after that has been better but people STILL LIKE HIM. Also pls don't make me rage on your tread i like being a nice person but he doesn't deserve repesct or niceness

[THESPECINATOR]

Darkroom97, on 20 March 2012 - 08:50 PM, said:

Ah i will show when i finish the whole quad core i will put out aton of videos about how it works and doing i think pong or space invaders followed by the use of an array. On the red game thin lets get real ima use your comp as an example because it works fully at this time:
REDGAME|Your comp
1)70tick clock 1)6tick clock
2)Bad alu 8 functions 2)like 20 i think i can't remember
3)Terrible ram 3)good fast ram
4)registers are soooo bad 4)idk do you even use registers because i don't in my comp
Over all every computer after that has been better but people STILL LIKE HIM. Also pls don't make me rage on your tread i like being a nice person but he doesn't deserve repesct or niceness

though his computer is not great, he does have some pretty good tactics at getting his up there. There have been many other good computers, but they all lack some form of a gpu, which his has. newish people think it is possible to make pong and various other games on it, but it just runs to slow. He does deserve some respect, because he has done what only a handful can do and it was made quiet a while ago. It does not match up to the more modern ones, but it has that gpu everyone wants.

on another note, why do you want so many games on yours? why not just make a dedicated machine? also with your games will the ROM be the only thing switched out or will there be hardware changes?

[Darkroom97]

THESPECINATOR, on 21 March 2012 - 09:10 PM, said:

though his computer is not great, he does have some pretty good tactics at getting his up there. There have been many other good computers, but they all lack some form of a gpu, which his has. newish people think it is possible to make pong and various other games on it, but it just runs to slow. He does deserve some respect, because he has done what only a handful can do and it was made quiet a while ago. It does not match up to the more modern ones, but it has that gpu everyone wants.

on another note, why do you want so many games on yours? why not just make a dedicated machine? also with your games will the ROM be the only thing switched out or will there be hardware changes?

I hate to break to it to you but GPUs are the easiest part of a redstone comp because they are a single cell that you just //stack ..... so most people have them on there comp i don't have one on mine yet because i was just showing off my core. On the hardware thing there will be a I/O register line for hooking multipliers and dividers also number screen and that kind of stuff if you want it.
EDIT: Just so you know i can make 2x2gpus and his gpu is the size of my comp so again his computer is terrible

[wyldstallyns]

This is full of win