WWW page for the paper:  Is Bosco's Rule Universal?
Kellie Michele Evans
California State University, Northridge

The constructions described in the paper Is Bosco's rule universal? are presented here.

Patterns and their descriptions:

A.mcl: Bosco, the period 166 oscillator for which the rule is named.

B.mcl: A collection of bugs supported by Bosco's rule. The speed for each bug appears to its left. As the rule updates, the speeds disappear without affecting the bugs' trajectories.

C.mcl: One speed 5/6 orthogonal bug is turned into (1) a new copy of Bosco, (2) a speed 5/6 orthogonal bug, and (3) a speed 8/16 diagonal bug. Two additional copies of Bosco then transform the Bosco and the speed 8/16 diagonal bug into speed 5/6 orthogonal bugs, heading west. The reaction thus turns and triples the original speed 5/6 orthogonal bug.

Gosper.mcl: The first glider gun supported by Life and constructed by William Gosper.

D.mcl: The first bug gun supported by Bosco's rule and constructed by Dean Hickerson.

E.mcl: A period 332 bug gun.

F.mcl: Period 332 bug gun with a 90 degree turn and two spatial shifts.

G.mcl: A 6-bug salvo pulls a block 10 units.

H.mcl: A 5-bug salvo pushes a block 10 units.

I.mcl: Test for zero. In this pattern, a block is pulled from "position 1" (10,0) to "position 0" (0,0) by a 6-bug salvo and the output from a period 332 bug gun is annihilated in the process. If the block had instead been pulled from any position greater than 1 or pushed from any position 0 or greater, the output of the period 332 gun would have moved south unharmed.

J.mcl: The shotgun, which creates the 11-bug salvo consisting of both the 6-bug pull salvo and the 5-bug push salvo.

Patterns J1.mcl-J6.mcl illustrate the pieces of the shotgun described in the paper as follows:

   J1.mcl: Period 166 guns g3, g4, and g5 along with period 332 gun G created bugs b3, b4, and b5.

   J2.mcl: Guns G11 and G2, which have period 332 along with a turn and spatial shifts, create bugs b11 and b2.

   J3.mcl: Guns G6 and G9, which have period 332 along with a turn and spatial shifts, create bugs b6 and b9.

   J4.mcl: Guns G8 and G7, which have period 332 along with a turn and spatial shifts, create bugs b8 and b7.

   J5.mcl: Gun G1 which has period 332 along with a turn and spatial shifts, creates bug b1.

   J6.mcl: Gun G10 which has period 332 along with a turn and spatial shifts, creates bug b10.

K.mcl: Period 332 guns GA, GB, and GC, of the push suppressor create bugs A, B, and C, repsectively, which annihilate all 5 bugs of the push salvo. The 6 bugs of the pull salvo remain unchanged.

L.mcl: Period 332 guns GD, GE, and GF, of the pull suppressor create bugs D, E, and F, repsectively, which annihilate all 6 bugs of the pull salvo, without harming the 5-bug push salvo.

M.mcl: Push signal. The gun G in the southeast corner sends an external push signal, b_push, every 332 time steps. This bug is turned and duplicated by a control device, consisting of three copies of Bosco (B1, B2, and B3) and the new bugs, b_B and b_C annihilate bugs A, B, and C of the push suppressor.

N.mcl: Pull signal. The gun G furthest west sends an external pull signal, b_pull, every 332 time steps. This bug is turned and tripled by a control device, consisting of nine copies of Bosco (B4-B12); the new bugs, b_D, b_E, and b_F annihilate bugs D, E, and F of the pull suppressor.

Pattern N1.mcl illustrates N.mcl as follows:

   N1.mcl: N.mcl is rotated 90 degrees in the clockwise direction to create this pattern.

O.mcl: This is the system test for Bosco's Sliding Block Memory. It starts with 20,460 live sites on a 3,000 by 1,500 lattice.