cellular automaton

Noun

cellular automaton (plural cellular automata or cellular automatons)

1. An automaton consisting of cells arranged in a regular grid, in one or more dimensions. Each application of an associated rule creates a new generation, where the cells have a new configuration of values.
   • Or maybe just taking some precautions when setting up the division scheme for a particular cellular automaton might be good enough in other cases, depending on how dynamic and non-homogeneous the behavior over the grid will be.1989 March 21, Dave Hiebeler, “Fast LIFE (was: Re: summing 9-cell neighborhoods)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
   • For fixed n this is, of course, a cellular automaton. You can allow any positive integer states for each of the n cells. The transition rule is such that if a cell has state x >=2 then the state never exceeds x and if it has state x < 2 then it either stays the same or increase by 1 or 2.2003 October 8, Edwin Clark, “a puzzle related to artinian group”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)

   Synonyms:

   CA