Povratak

Paintable Computing Simulation

Abstract

Yesterday’s huge powerful desktop computer with big power consumption can be made in size of grain of sand these days. Only we have to buy a pound of those grains, mix them with paint and paint the wall. The result is paintable computing (phrase firstly introduced in Programming a Paintable Computer written by William Joseph Butera). This seems more like painting, but those grains, paintable computers in further text, aren’t limited only to paint; they can be built in clothes, construction materials etc. Those computers won’t be standalone; they will be wireless connected by infrared or radio link. They will drain power from environment; they will be resistant to environment and cheap. This sounds like an idea for distributed computing of future.

Whatever the future brings to us, we’ll take a tour on simulation of this hypothetical future. We’ll go to the store, buy a pound of paintable computers and 5 liters of paint, return home, go to the room, mix paintable computers in the paint and paint the wall. After that, we’ll sit on the sofa and proudly observe the new computer system of extreme processing capabilities. The wall will revitalize.

Let’s get back from this utopia (who can take a break and sit on the sofa anyway!?) to reality where a simulator for such walls exists. We’ll transform wall into the black simulator background, and paintable computers into the pixels of various colors. Pixels which will change color from time to time on the black background aren’t called paintable because of that, but because they are painted on the wall. Coloring of the pixels presenting the paintable computers is only the representation of their various states. So, in the Paintable Computing Simulation we’ll take a look what we can make with a pound of paintable computers painted on the wall.