tidepool is a digital evolution system modelled by a grid of cells with machine-code-like genomes. A finite number of processes execute these code sequences in parallel to produce deltas that are reintegrated into the cell grid.
The primary structure in tidepool is the environment (Env). The number of cell execution processes is specified when running the blocking main loop of the environment (Env.Run).
These processes respond to two types of ticks generated at regular intervals by a timer in the environment's main loop:
- triggers random cell execution;
- signals the inflow of energy to a random cell.
An available process will respond to these ticks by requesting a random cell neighborhood from a queue in its environment. All cells in this neighborhood are cloned and handled according to the tick type:
- inflow: the center cell of the neighborhood receives a randomized genome and its energy is increased by the inflow rate.
- exec: the genome of the center cell is executed in a virtual machine (
VM) and its neighborhood effects are recorded.
These procedures produce a delta structure (Delta) representing changes to the cell and its neighborhood which is then applied to the cell grid.
A secondary loop is responsible for:
- applying deltas to the cell grid;
- queuing random cell neighborhoods for use by processes;
- handling requests for access to the cell grid by library users.