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Programming an Amorphous Computational Medium

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Unconventional Programming Paradigms (UPP 2004)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 3566))

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Abstract

Amorphous computing considers the problem of controlling millions of spatially distributed unreliable devices which communicate only with nearby neighbors. To program such a system, we need a high-level description language for desired global behaviors, and a system to compile such descriptions into locally executing code which robustly creates and maintains the desired global behavior. I survey existing amorphous computing primitives and give desiderata for a language describing computation on an amorphous computer. I then bring these together in Amorphous Medium Language, which computes on an amorphous computer as though it were a space-filling computational medium.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Jacob Beal

Authors
  1. Jacob Beal
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Rennes I and INRIA/IRISA, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France

    Jean-Pierre Banâtre

  2. INRIA Rhône-Alpes - POP ART project, 655 avenue de l’Europe, 38330, Montbonnot, France

    Pascal Fradet

  3. LaMI UMR 8042 CNRS – Université d’Evry, Genopole, 523 place des Terrasses de l’Agora, 91000, Evry, France

    Jean-Louis Giavitto  & Olivier Michel  & 

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Beal, J. (2005). Programming an Amorphous Computational Medium. In: Banâtre, JP., Fradet, P., Giavitto, JL., Michel, O. (eds) Unconventional Programming Paradigms. UPP 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3566. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11527800_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11527800_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-27884-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31482-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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