phyllis@utcsrgv.UUCP (Phyllis Eve Bregman) (01/26/84)
UofT Department of Computer Science Seminar Schedule for
the week of January 30th, 1984
Wednesday, February 1st, 4:00 P.M., SF3202: Professor Peter Gacs,
Department of Computer Science, Boston University: "Reliable
computation with cellular automata".
ABSTRACT: We construct a one-dimensional array of cellular automata
on which arbitrarily large computations can be implemented reliably,
even though each automaton at each step makes an error with some
constant probability. To compute reliably with unreliable components,
von Neumann proposed Boolean circuits whose intricate interconnection
pattern (arising from error-correcting organization) he had to assume
to be immune to errors. In a uniform cellular medium, the error-correcting
organization exists only in "software", therefore errors threaten to
disable it. The real technical novelty of the paper is therefore the
construction of a self-repairing organization.
--
Phyllis Eve Bregman
CSRG, Univ. of Toronto
{decvax,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,allegra,utzoo}!utcsrgv!phyllis