Factorio Computer

[Lupoviridae]

do you think you can make a Game of Life with this?

GoL should be very possible. Actually it should be possible with a MUCH smaller array. Theoretically with 10 or so combinators per pixel.

Edit: It actually takes 12 gates/pixel minimum, 7 gates/corner, and 9 gates/edge. And should be able to clock up to 20 Hz. I kind of want to make this now.

[Sander Buruma]

How about a game of tick tac toe?

[Lupoviridae]

With 0.12 out, finally putting in the combinators!
So far have the first memory "chip" done. It stores 128 B with 32 unique addresses.
Here's what the map looks like.

Map.PNG (134.05 KiB) Viewed 6210 times

And a close up on some of the bits:

Bits.PNG (519.21 KiB) Viewed 6210 times

And here's the final 8 bit to 2x16 line address decoder.

Decode.PNG (544.5 KiB) Viewed 6210 times

Finally, the save file if anyone wants to check it out. Currently have a program running to test the memory writing. Doing a sequential write 1 followed by sequential write 0 on all 32 current addresses.

Keith2.zip

(12.81 MiB) Downloaded 236 times

[Lupoviridae]

One more picture of the chip. Zoomed all the way out for some scale.

Chip1.PNG (2.12 MiB) Viewed 6172 times

[ratchetfreak]

You can combine several "channels" into a single row selector using the special signals "everything", "anything" and "each"

For reading you put a selector ID on the 0 signal and each output decider combinator is set to 0 signal = rowID and output to "everything input count ". To filter out the 0 signal from the group you need to multiply it by -1 and also output to the output line.



The left constant emits the row selector on the green wire, the right contains the row data (as place holders).

The arithmetic combinator inputs on green and outputs on red to neutralize the 0 selector signal.

The decider combinator inputs the selector on green and the data on red and outputs on red to the poles.

You can do a similar trick for selecting the row for writing though you'll need a arithmetic combinator per row.

[Lupoviridae]

As I said earlier, this whole computer can in theory be reduced down to a single row of poles . I went with a binary implementation because I wanted it to be closer to a real computer. As for a read/write controller, I already have something very similar included in each memory bit, where the data flow in each cell is instead controlled by a master address enable signal.

[Jonathan88]

Please could you (Lupoviridae) do some kind of guide/tutorial on how to begin with combinators and stuff.
It would be very useful since I am not very good at combining logic gates and making more complex contraptions. I understand how to make some logic gates and some basic programming (easy programming, not actual 'basic').

I'm sure lots of other people would really appreciate it and it would be great for it to come from the master of Factorio circuit systems! I understand if you are busy with your factorio computer so please make that your priority!

[ratchetfreak]

Please could you (Lupoviridae) do some kind of guide/tutorial on how to begin with combinators and stuff.
It would be very useful since I am not very good at combining logic gates and making more complex contraptions. I understand how to make some logic gates and some basic programming (easy programming, not actual 'basic').

I'm sure lots of other people would really appreciate it and it would be great for it to come from the master of Factorio circuit systems! I understand if you are busy with your factorio computer so please make that your priority!

perhaps do it on the wiki, it needs some lovin'

[Lupoviridae]

Please could you (Lupoviridae) do some kind of guide/tutorial on how to begin with combinators and stuff.
It would be very useful since I am not very good at combining logic gates and making more complex contraptions. I understand how to make some logic gates and some basic programming (easy programming, not actual 'basic').

It would be my pleasure. Honestly though there's so many possibilities I'm not sure where to start. Do you have something specific you would like to see, or any suggestions on what would be a good starting point? I guess fluid handling has the most practical implementations at the moment.

[Jonathan88]

It would be my pleasure. Honestly though there's so many possibilities I'm not sure where to start. Do you have something specific you would like to see, or any suggestions on what would be a good starting point? I guess fluid handling has the most practical implementations at the moment.

Yeah! Whatever! I'm not really sure what their uses are but it would be cool to see some practical ones and some that just look cool! (https://youtu.be/LYVvtDx6AG8)

[MadZuri]

evidently nothing new to see here

[Sander Buruma]

Combinator devices like this are in several posts already, not least of which twinsen's scrolling factorio sign save file which was made public before yours.

[Lupoviridae]

evidently nothing new to see here

It's a rather large project, with the amount of playtime i get it will probably be a week or so before the memory is finished. Its also pretty limited until player input is implemented, so once the memory is done I'll likely take a break and make the Game of Life

[Lupoviridae]

Finally finished building a computer (or the RAM at least). I ended up dropping the binary build and going for a 32-bit build instead, since the binary build was mostly just to help me learn how computers work. My thanks to XKnight (whose basic memory cell design I incorporated) and u/orost on reddit (whose design motivated me to get off my ass and finish this). Each cell can store any set of signals in memory. input is at the top left. The red wire carries data, while the green wire carries the address and read/write signal. "A" is the address signal (1-256 for the 256 memory cells). R=1 is the read signal, while R=2 is the write signal.

Computer pic.PNG (661.41 KiB) Viewed 6728 times

[Lupoviridae]

Here's what a single cell looks like.

Cell Layout.PNG (229.39 KiB) Viewed 6728 times

I plan on using signals 0 - 9, each with a value of 0 - 255 for data. Meaning each cell will essentially store 10 Bytes, making this a 2.5 kB setup.

[Jonathan88]

Well done! It lools awesome but does it do anything? It would be cool to have 1 program (maybe more) that does something impressive with lamps etc. and then a world download to finish it off! On the other hand... I kinda want to see game of life...

[MasterBuilder]

Well done! It lools awesome but does it do anything? It would be cool to have 1 program (maybe more) that does something impressive with lamps etc. and then a world download to finish it off! On the other hand... I kinda want to see game of life...

I'm now imagining programs being distributed as the 'blueprint' version of punch-cards.

[Lupoviridae]

Unfortunately there aren't too many uses until some player interface devices are added. One idea I had was to have it take a snapshot of the entire logistics system at regular intervals, then on command one could say, "show me my iron usage", and it would output a graph of the amount of available iron over the past x amount of time. Not certain if I want to do this yet though, still trying to think of other ideas.

[XKnight]

Here's what a single cell looks like.



I plan on using signals 0 - 9, each with a value of 0 - 255 for data. Meaning each cell will essentially store 10 Bytes, making this a 2.5 kB setup.

Maybe I missed something, but why 5 combinators and 1 constant combinator are placed there?
I think it is possible to do the same thing only with 4 combinators. Like this:



Red - carries address.
Green - carries in/out data.
Address 123 = means write
Address -123 = means read

[Lupoviridae]

I think you're right. I hadn't considered using a negative value as a read signal, this is really smart. You still need to use electric poles to provide power, so the overall footprint is still pretty close (5x2 instead of 6x2), but your way definitely uses less combinators and less time per read/write (1 tick instead of 2). Nice design! I definitely wouldn't have thought of that.