Published January 28, 2021 | Version 1.0
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Computation is woven

  • 1. FoAM Kernow

Description

Evidence that computation is woven, and weaving is computation. The first computers were looms, and if we look closely enough, we can find the remaining legacy of this history. Here we visualise the contents of a Z80 processor register memory after each instruction as it runs a handful of example programs. To this day, the majority of low level machine code instructions on the computers we use are not explicitly concerned with numerical values, but rather in the manipulation of patterns (shifting, rotating, masking and composing). That these instructions are given priority in the allocation of transistors seems an appropriate but quiet recognition of the importance of weaving in contemporary digital technology.

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Additional details

Funding

PENELOPE – A study of weaving as technical mode of existence 682711
European Commission