Patent ID: 7000093

Claim:
A processor comprising: a first memory to store instructions and data for use by the processor, the first memory further to store data representing a first state of a cellular automaton at a first time step, the data to be organized in cells; a first update engine, the first update engine including a microprocessor execution unit capable of executing general purpose microprocessor instructions; a cellular automaton prefetch state machine to prefetch data from cells to be updated and associated neighborhood cells and store the prefetched data in a neighborhood buffer; and a cellular automaton update unit to provide data from the neighborhood buffer to the first update engine, the first update engine to update at least some of the selected cells according to an update rule and a state of any associated neighborhood cells to provide a state of the cellular automaton at a second time step, the first memory, the cellular automaton prefetch state machine, the neighborhood buffer, the first update engine and the cellular automaton update unit being integrated on a single micro-processor chip.