Difference between revisions of "40d:Computing"

Revision as of 16:15, 1 December 2009

Computing in dwarf fortress is the practice of setting up complex constructions to perform logical operations and calculations, ideally to control some functionality of your fortress, or such a doddle. Even it isn't a young concept anymore there is still lots of room for improvement and development. One reason is that there are many ways to solve one problem. Innovation and invention is encouraged.

General

Concepts of computing in dwarf fortress are far away from what you can call a programmable computer. Even all necessary components are proven to exist, a construction working like a real computer may be too complex to be built in dwarf fortress. Nevertheless, early computing machines and electronic devices are comparably simple. These concepts can be easily transferred into dwarf fortress. So dwarfputing is more or less a kind of electronics, casting logic in hardware.

Basics

Binary information

Binary information can have one of two possible states: true or false, respectively 1 or 0. In dwarf fortress they can be represented by different entities:

on/off state or signal of a trigger
power or connection state of a machine component
open or closed state of a door or similar buildings
low/high or flowing/standing fluid
present creatures and borgs
...

Electronic devices and computers base on this elementary form of information, and if you want to go into computing, you’ll have to familiarize with it. propositional calculus

Input/Output

Input can be every trigger - lever or pressure plate. Typically your dwarfs are pulling levers, any creatures are walking over your pressure plates, or any fluid is covering those plates to initiate any computing. The bottom line is you'll always have a lever or a pressure plate or multiple of them sending binary signals: on/off.
Note: Even pressure plates can be constructed to trigger at different fluid levels, the output will always be just a binary on/off. So everything you build will have a binary base.

Input elements

manual: lever -> binary on/off signal
triggered: pressure plate -> binary on/off signal

According to input, output can be everything that is able to react to an on/off signal. This can be doors, bridges, floodgates allowing or stopping flow, gears controlling pumps and many more. Just refer to the lever page for a detailed list. Independent of what you finally want to control with your dwarfputer, there are always pressure plates generating this signal. In some special configurations - when mechanical logic is involved - output may not be a on/off signal but power, thus running or not running machine component.

Output elements

signal: pressure plate -> binary on/off signal -> linkable Object(s)
power: gear assembly -> binary power on/power off -> machine

Binary logic

Basic binary logic takes one or two input bits and creates an output based on them. The devices that perform these operations are commonly called logic gates.

NOT - takes one input and returns the opposite of the input

input A	NOT
0	1
1	0

AND - takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are true
OR - takes two inputs and returns true if at least one input is true
XOR - takes two inputs and returns true if exactly one input is true
NAND - takes two inputs and returns true if either input is false
NOR - takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are false
NXOR - takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are identical

input A	input B	AND	OR	XOR	NAND	NOR	NXOR
0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0
1	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
1	1	1	1	0	0	0	1

The most human-understandable logic system requires NOT, AND and OR gates, but having a design for either a NAND or a NOR gate is enough to build any of the other gates. Some gates are easier to create or need fewer components than others depending on what discipline your logic relies on.

Complex gates

Latch - storing and reading a single binary value
Repeater - sending a repeating signal
Counter/Adder - binary calculation

Disciplines

There are 4 main disciplines of dwarfputing, depending on what will drive the dwarfputer. Each of them has it's assets and drawbacks.

Fluid logic

Fluid logic is controlling the flow of fluid over different pressure plates. Fluid logic can be easily constructed and every known logic gate in dwarf fortress has already been built with it. On the other hand this discipline depends on a somehow unlimited source of the used fluid to deal with it's evaporation and destruction.

Mechanical logic

Mechanical logic uses systems of axles and gear assemblies to build logical gates. Mechanical logic reacts very fast and can be easily constructed. Especially the feature of gears to toggle on every signal instead of reacting different to on/off signals makes mechanical logic gates very flexible. On the other hand this discipline depends on much mechanical power. And because of the lack of some kind of rotation sensor, you will generally need a pump, a pressure plate and any fluid to convert power into on/off signals.

Borg logic

Borg logic controlling the path of your dwarves to direct them over pressure plates. They will be driven by constant hauling jobs or military designations. Pressure plates are used in similar setups to those in the fluid logic method. It is theorized that Borg logic would be quicker and easier to set up than fluid logic, although it would require a very large population dedicated to nothing but borging. The tendency of dwarves to eat, sleep, drink, makes this discipline quite unreliable. There are no known examples of borg logic, and it is purely theoretical at this time. Maybe the discovery of one-way ramps will push it's development.

Animal logic

Animal logic is like borg logic but uses animals or captured hostiles to trigger pressure plates. Animals have a natural 'follow the leader' tendency and never starve. Hostiles will always target your dwarves and will also need no food or sleep.

Examples

There are few examples of a really useful dwarfputer and some concepts witches have the potential to become useful for others. But in most cases they are made just for fun. What doesn't mean to diminish their designers achievements, because these are in general the more complex ones.
At the moment there are no known examples of animal or borg logic.

Useful

Magma trap
- This is an example of an useful dwarfputer controlling a magma trap. It automatically floods an area with lava, cleans up and resets afterwards. The timing is perfectly adjusted to let the victims vanish only leaving their valuable metal behind.
  video: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1808-perfectmagmatrap
  design: http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/kanddak/magmatrap.png

Concepts

repeater
- mechanical logic http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1370-pump-basedautorepeater
adding machine
- mechanical logic, 6-bit: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1561-addingmachine
- fluid logic, 8-bit: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1084-numberabbeydemonstration

Such a doddle

decimal display for 4-bit binary input
- mechanical logic, decimal with overflow-bit: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1745-dwarfputerv01
- probably fluid logic: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1657-7segmentlcddisplay
- fluid logic, hexadecimal: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1092-7-segmentdisplaydemonstration
tic tac toe
- mechanical logic http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1813-tictactoev10simple

Related user pages

User:BaronW - A calculator capable of addition and subtraction with inputs of up to 1023.

User:SL/Logic Gates - These use mechanisms for connecting gates and devices and so forth, but fluid for logic. They're built on top of a body of water, and require power (for a pump or two per gate).

User:Kyace/Adder - A full adder built using fluid logic, with a video of a rough prototype. Trivial to combine 8 of these to make a fluid device capable of adding two 8 bit numbers together.

User:Soundandfury#Logic_Gates - These have a water supply reservoir above and a drain below. The drained water can be pumped back to the supply reservoir.

User:Bidok - Animal logic with all gates, memory, repeater and counter. All powered by kittens.

User:Hussell#Assorted_Devices - Fluid logic

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Computing in dwarf fortress is the practice of setting up your fortress in such a way that allows logical operations like AND, OR, NOT, etc to exist and be used.  Computing in Dwarf Fortress is a ''very'' young concept with lots of room for improvement and development.  Innovation and invention is encouraged.
+Computing in dwarf fortress is the practice of setting up complex constructions to perform logical operations and calculations, ideally to control some functionality of your fortress, or such a doddle. Even it isn't a young concept anymore there is still lots of room for improvement and development. One reason is that there are many ways to solve one problem. Innovation and invention is encouraged.
+== General ==
+<!-- ''"So, what is computing? Let's pretend to be stupid ..."'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Feuerzangenbowle Die Feuerzangenbowle]<br /> -->
+Concepts of computing in dwarf fortress are far away from what you can call a programmable computer. Even all necessary components are proven to exist, a construction working like a real computer may be too complex to be built in dwarf fortress. Nevertheless, early computing machines and electronic devices are comparably simple. These concepts can be easily transferred into dwarf fortress. So dwarfputing is more or less a kind of electronics, casting logic in hardware.
 == Basics ==
-Binary logic takes one or two inputs and creates an output based on them. The devices that perform these operations are commonly called '''logic gates'''.
+=== Binary information ===
+Binary information can have one of two possible states: true or false, respectively 1 or 0. In dwarf fortress they can be represented by different entities:
-NOT takes one input and returns true if that input is false, or false if the input was true
+* on/off state or signal of a [[trigger]]
+* power or connection state of a [[machine component]]
-AND takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are true
+* open or closed state of a [[door]] or similar buildings
+* [[pressure plate|low/high]] or [[flow|flowing/standing]] [[water|fluid]]
-OR takes two inputs and returns true if at least one input is true
+* present [[creature]]s and [[dwarf|borgs]]
+* ...
-XOR takes two inputs and returns true if exactly one input is true
+Electronic devices and computers base on this elementary form of information, and if you want to go into computing, you’ll have to familiarize with it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propositional_calculus propositional calculus]
+=== Input/Output ===
-NAND takes two inputs and returns true if either input is false
+Input can be every trigger - [[lever]] or [[pressure plate]]. Typically your dwarfs are pulling levers, any creatures are walking over your pressure plates, or any fluid is covering those plates to initiate any computing. The bottom line is you'll always have a lever or a pressure plate or multiple of them sending binary signals: on/off.<br />
+Note: Even [[pressure plates]] can be constructed to trigger at different fluid levels, the output will always be just a binary on/off. So everything you build will have a binary base.<br />
-NOR takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are false
+<br />
+Input elements
- A B  AND  OR   XOR  NAND NOR
+* manual: [[lever]] -> binary on/off signal
-0  0    0    0    1    1
+* triggered: [[pressure plate]] -> binary on/off signal
-1  0    1    1    1    0
-0  0    1    1    1    0
-1  1    1    0    0    0
-The most human-understandable logic system requires NOT, AND and OR gates, but having a design for either a NAND or a NOR gate is enough to build any of the other ports.
-Additionally, two-dimensional logic design requires a 'jumper' gate that crosses two signals without affecting their contents. This may only be an issue in DF if you are considering magma-based circuits.
-== Fluid Logic ==
-''Main article:'' [[Fluid logic]]
-Fluid logic uses the tendency of fluids in dwarf fortress to, umm, flow.  It takes advantage of the ability of pressure plates in the new version to be triggered by water (or magma) resting on top of them.  This allows systems of pumps, floodgates, doors, bridges, and anything else operated by pressure plate to be incorporated into a machine.
-<!-- could someone who's used this type of logic go into further detail with it?  what kinds of circuits can be created and how?  What are the major challenges of using fluids? -->
-To get you started, a pressure plate set to trigger on water level 0-3 and linked to a floodgate will CLOSE the floodgate when the tile has deep water.
-If the pressure plate is set for water level 4-7, then the floodgate will OPEN when the tile has deep water.
-Fluid logic allows for computing in up to base 8.
-A simple, practical application of fluid logic is a [[Talk:Lever#Inverting a Lever|Lever inverter]].
-== Machine Logic ==
-See [[mechanical logic]]
-== Borg Logic ==
-Borg logic is the experimental version of fluid logic.  It consists of creating a way for your dwarves to travel constantly in a predictable way through your fortress through constant hauling jobs or military designations.  Pressure plates are used in similar setups to those in the fluid logic method.  It is theorized that Borg logic would be quicker and easier to set up than fluid logic, although it would require a very large population dedicated to nothing but borging.  The consequences of dwarves quitting to eat, sleep, drink, etc are unknown.  There are no known examples of borg logic, and it is purely theoretical at this time.  <!-- Could someone with more free time than me give this a shot?  Just some proof-of-concept gates and a picture should be enough.
-        You're doing it wrong: you start comments with <!-- --GreyMario   -->
-Note: Borg Logic may be a bit more difficult, or impossible, in early versions due to a bug in 33c (and possibly earlier versions): The 'citizens trigger' setting on pressure plates does not actually cause the pressure plate to trigger when citizens step on it. This has been fixed, though.
-== Animal Logic ==
-Animals have a natural 'follow the leader' tendency and never starve. Pitting an animal into a maze with movable exits can force the animal to shuttle around and compute.
-Hostiles are also suitable for this purpose, and may be easier to control since they will target dwarves. [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=26476.msg313381#msg313381]
-==One-way pathing==
-Currently{{ver|0.28.181.40d}}, due to what seems to be a minor bug rather than a feature, it's not only possible but quite easy to create [[one-way]] gates with ramps, leading to any restricted path you can create from one controlled access point to another, or more than one (of either). The usefulness of this in computing is up to your ingenuity.
+According to input, output can be everything that is able to react to an on/off signal. This can be doors, bridges, floodgates allowing or stopping flow, gears controlling pumps and many more. Just refer to the [[lever#On/Off states|lever]] page for a detailed list. Independent of what you finally want to control with your dwarfputer, there are always pressure plates generating this signal. In some special configurations - when [[mechanical logic]] is involved - output may not be a on/off signal but power, thus running or not running machine component.<br />
+<br />
+Output elements
+* signal: [[pressure plate]] -> binary on/off signal -> linkable Object(s)
+* power: [[gear assembly]] -> binary power on/power off -> machine
+=== Binary logic ===
+Basic binary logic takes one or two input bits and creates an output based on them. The devices that perform these operations are commonly called '''logic gates'''.<br />
+* NOT - takes one input and returns the opposite of the input<br /><br />
+{| class="wikitable" border=1
+|-
+! input A
+! NOT
+|-
+| 0
+| 1
+|-
+| 1
+| 0
+|}<br />
+* AND - takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are true
+* OR - takes two inputs and returns true if at least one input is true
+* XOR - takes two inputs and returns true if exactly one input is true
+* NAND - takes two inputs and returns true if either input is false
+* NOR - takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are false
+* NXOR - takes two inputs and returns true if both inputs are identical<br /><br />
+{| class="wikitable" border=1
+|-
+! input A
+! input B
+! AND
+! OR
+! XOR
+! NAND
+! NOR
+! NXOR
+|-
+| 0
+| 0
+| 0
+| 0
+| 0
+| 1
+| 1
+| 1
+|-
+| 0
+| 1
+| 0
+| 1
+| 1
+| 1
+| 0
+| 0
+|-
+| 1
+| 0
+| 0
+| 1
+| 1
+| 1
+| 0
+| 0
+|-
+| 1
+| 1
+| 1
+| 1
+| 0
+| 0
+| 0
+| 1
+|}<br />
+The most human-understandable logic system requires NOT, AND and OR gates, but having a design for either a NAND or a NOR gate is enough to build any of the other gates. Some gates are easier to create or need fewer components than others depending on what discipline your logic relies on.
+=== Complex gates ===
+* [[Latch]] - storing and reading a single binary value
+* [[Repeater]] - sending a repeating signal
+* [[Counter]]/[[Adder]] - binary calculation
+== Disciplines ==
+There are 4 main disciplines of dwarfputing, depending on what will drive the dwarfputer. Each of them has it's assets and drawbacks.
+=== Fluid logic ===
+[[Fluid logic]] is controlling the ''flow of fluid'' over different pressure plates. Fluid logic can be easily constructed and every known logic gate in dwarf fortress has already been built with it. On the other hand this discipline depends on a somehow unlimited source of the used fluid to deal with it's [[evaporation]] and [[Water#Water_in_Fortress_Mode|destruction]].
+=== Mechanical logic ===
+[[Mechanical logic]] uses systems of axles and [[gear assemblies]] to build logical gates. Mechanical logic reacts very fast and can be easily constructed. Especially the feature of gears to toggle on every signal instead of reacting different to on/off signals makes mechanical logic gates very flexible. On the other hand this discipline depends on much mechanical power. And because of the lack of some kind of rotation sensor, you will generally need a pump, a pressure plate and any fluid to convert power into on/off signals.
+=== Borg logic ===
+[[Borg logic]] controlling the path of your dwarves to direct them over pressure plates. They will be driven by constant hauling jobs or military designations. Pressure plates are used in similar setups to those in the fluid logic method. It is theorized that Borg logic would be quicker and easier to set up than fluid logic, although it would require a very large population dedicated to nothing but borging. The tendency of dwarves to eat, sleep, drink, makes this discipline quite unreliable. There are no known examples of borg logic, and it is purely theoretical at this time. Maybe the discovery of [[one-way]] ramps will push it's development.
+=== Animal logic ===
+[[Animal logic]] is like borg logic but uses animals or captured hostiles to trigger pressure plates. Animals have a natural 'follow the leader' tendency and never starve. Hostiles will always target your dwarves and will also need no food or sleep.
+== Examples ==
+There are few examples of a really useful dwarfputer and some concepts witches have the potential to become useful for others. But in most cases they are made just for fun. What doesn't mean to diminish their designers achievements, because these are in general the more complex ones.<br />At the moment there are no known examples of animal or borg logic.
+=== Useful ===
+* Magma trap
+** This is an example of an useful dwarfputer controlling a magma trap. It automatically floods an area with lava, cleans up and resets afterwards. The timing is perfectly adjusted to let the victims vanish only leaving their valuable metal behind.<br />video: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1808-perfectmagmatrap<br />design: http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/ss208/kanddak/magmatrap.png
+=== Concepts ===
+* repeater
+** mechanical logic http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1370-pump-basedautorepeater
+* adding machine
+** mechanical logic, 6-bit: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1561-addingmachine
+** fluid logic, 8-bit: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1084-numberabbeydemonstration
+=== Such a doddle ===
+* decimal display for 4-bit binary input
+** mechanical logic, decimal with overflow-bit: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1745-dwarfputerv01
+** probably fluid logic: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1657-7segmentlcddisplay
+** fluid logic, hexadecimal: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1092-7-segmentdisplaydemonstration
+* tic tac toe
+** mechanical logic http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1813-tictactoev10simple
 == See Also ==
+* [[Fluid logic]]
+* [[Mechanical logic]]
+* [[Repeater]]
+== Related user pages ==
 [[User:BaronW]] - A calculator capable of addition and subtraction with inputs of up to 1023.
@@ Line 68: / Line 142: @@
 [[User:Bidok]] - Animal logic with all gates, memory, repeater and counter. All powered by kittens.
-{{Buildings}}
+[[User:Hussell#Assorted_Devices]] - Fluid logic
 [[Category:Guides]]