On Thu, Mar 29, 2007 at 08:40:02AM -0700, David Clark wrote: > I would like to know what computer executes data without code. None > that I have used since 1976 so please educate me!
The distinction is a bit arbitrary. Machine instructions are nothing but data to the CPU. But the lack of distinction between code and data in biological tissue processing is significant. Such systems are best seen as state, and their evolution (the state space variety) as iterative transformation on that state. Considering the memory bottleneck, you don't get a lot of refreshes/s on a typical 10^9 word node. With current technology 10 MBytes/node in order to match the refresh rate of neuronal circuitry, which is not a lot of state/node, so you need an awful lot of nodes. > Even though some state designs can put logic into data instead of > program code, and even though program code is stored as data, they > aren't the same. The distinction between storage and processing, between code and data is arbitrary. It's an earmark of a particular technology, and a rather pitiful technology, which goes back directly to the Jaquard loom. We're stuck in a bad optimum for time being, but luckily people have started running into enough limitations (recent multicore mania is a symptom) so they're willing to abandon the conventional approach, because it no longer offers enough ROI, especially long-term. > To estimate given, insufficient knowledge is problematic, to estimate > given NO knowledge produces useless conjectures. Yes. This is why I stick to what biology can do in a given volume, because it's the only working instance we can analyze. -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
