

Minecraft CPU now available - mambodog
http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/e65zg/hey_rminecraft_wanted_you_to_have_first_dibs_on/

======
mambodog
I thought I should provide a bit of explanation, as the linked thread really
doesn't say much. This is a complete functioning CPU, based on a homebrew CPU
design, built within the game Minecraft. It's very cool because you can walk
around inside a working CPU and inspect the state of every circuit, register,
logic gate, etc.

Video demonstration: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sNge0Ywz-M>

The CPU design being implemented here comes from the book _The Elements of
Computer Systems_ [1], which defines a whole hardware & software platform.

From the linked thread, this is an isometric render of the CPU/game world,
done by reddit member 'yonis': <http://i.imgur.com/6ithi.png>

[1]
[http://books.google.com/books?id=THie6tt-2z8C&printsec=f...](http://books.google.com/books?id=THie6tt-2z8C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)

~~~
cing
Is there any physical analogue of this type of thing, perhaps in some
computing museum? Some kind of giant mechanical CPU that I can walk inside of
and inspect the registers and logic gates as computations are being performed?

~~~
willyt
Not quite the same, but there is a working replica of Babbage's difference
engine N.o.2 in the science museum in London. You can walk round it and see
how it works. I think they run it for a few minutes at set times during the
day.
[http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_p...](http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/computing_and_data_processing/1992-556.aspx)

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RiderOfGiraffes
For other submissions and discussions, here's a search you might find
useful/helpful.

<http://searchyc.com/submissions/cpu+minecraft?sort=by_date>

I have no experience of Minecraft at all, so I have no real idea what's going
on in these videos. I've watched a bit, but can't figure out what's going on.

And that's interesting to me for a slightly strange reason.

I give lots of talks about math and computing, and sometimes i can see in my
audience a complete disconnect with what I'm talking about. They have no idea
why it's cool that there's a square root of -1 modulo 101, but not mod 103,
even when I've been talking about the motivation and the reasons.

They have the knowledge, but not the experience. The experience can make _all_
the difference between "getting it" and "not getting it".

It's not enough to read books, blogs and articles. It's not enough to listen
to talks and join in conversations. Seomtimes you ahve to do it for yourself,
to get your hands dirty, to build an intuition based on direct personal
experience, and not just conveyed second- or even third-hand knowledge.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." --
Samuel Beckett

\----

(Of course, there's always: _No. Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try. --
Yoda_ )

------
pak
I think if people could actually see what their computers did on the inside,
their head would explode.

This reminds me of the Commodore 64 emulator where you can see pretty much a
full slice of active memory, along with all the various graphics buffers, and
tweak them as you wish. This takes it to another level: you can literally see
and poke every physical component.

Can you fly in Minecraft? It's fun to walk around a CPU, but that looks like a
lot of walking.

------
mitko
Simulation that can simulate itself!

~~~
cmaggard
"You're very clever, young man, very clever- but it's turtles all the way
down!"

~~~
mambodog
<http://xkcd.com/505/>

