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#minecraft#redstone#alu

16-bit ALU in minecraft

theinternetftw

7.7K subscribers • 1 video on Hallway

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  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 in engineering communities.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2012 to 2020.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

9.4M views16 years ago3 recommendations

HardwareComputer scienceCPUs and computer architecture

A demonstration of a functioning 16-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit built inside Minecraft using redstone logic gates.

This is the first part of a planned 16-bit computer that will run entirely in minecraft. That computer will be "Hack" compatible, which is to say that it'll run code meant for the Hack machine described in The Elements of Computing Systems (a fantastic book that you should look up if you are at all interested in how computers work. Its website is idc.ac.il/tecs ). Some more info: The design was drawn up in a program called Redstone Simulator (does what it says on the tin), which was written by Baezon on the Minecraft Forums minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=17924 MCEdit ( minecraftforums.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=15522 ) was used to help clear off space and import the design into minecraft. Hours of experimenting with prototypes, modifications to the design, and debugging took place in the game itself, however. This project is far from over. Memory, here I come...

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as a classic example of building computer hardware components inside Minecraft's virtual environment.

u/boonzeetin r/programming • Recommends

On “Functioning Digital Clock created in Conway's Game of Life”

It's vaguely similar to the guy that built a 16-bit ALU in Minecraft Redstone years and years ago. Built the logic gates, then components of a system and start to hook them all together. As another comment has said, having a good knowledge of and following the rules of any Turing complete system, it is possible to do anything another Turing machine can do, given enough time. Game of Life has 4 simple rules which control its entire operation, but allow for a surprising level of complexity (as seen here).
24View on Reddit

u/a_p_clarkin r/compsci • Recommends

On “Learning how the basic logic blocks of a simple computer are designed?”

If you really want to get how software works with hardware, I think you should check out The Elements of Computing along with it's companion site that includes everything you need (software, lessons, the book in pdf). That book is what inspired this guy to build a 16 bit alu in minecraft and what led to a plethora of other architectures in the game. It's practical, understandable, you can actually make something from it, and you'll understand how code you write is implemented on the hardware side. *edit: internetftw actually mentioned this first. I didn't look through all of the comments before posting.
5View on Reddit

u/trigger_segfaultin r/programming • Recommends

On “I created the first 64-bit computer in minecraft, along with an assembly-ide to program it”

Minecraft Computing has come such a long way in the last decade. It's insane! 10 years ago we had the 16-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit for basic adding and subtracting, and now we have the whole damn CPU at 4x the bit-depth, *and an architecture designed around it!* With each addition to redstone (and later command blocks, and so on), the entire scale of some of these projects has just gone up and up, *even while* these additions continue to reduce the space needed for many kinds of gates, memory, and other contraptions!
2View on Reddit