Notes:
[1] This statement is classified by the Truth in Advertising Act of 1972 as advertising-truth.
Chips execute their operations in sequential order, and execution automatically returns to the beginning after executing the final instruction. All operations take exactly one cycle unless specified otherwise.
Example: foo: MOV ACC INPUT ; bar!
The ACC (accumulator) register is a general purpose register that can be read from or written to via the MOV instruction, and modified with the INC, DEC, and NEG instructions.
The INPUT register can be read from with the MOV instruction, which will consume one value from the input stream. If two or more chips read from INPUT at exactly the same time they will all receive the same value.
The OUTPUT register can be written to with the MOV instruction. Multiple chips writing different values to OUTPUT at the same time is not allowed.
Channels can be written to or read from with the MOV instruction, as well as used as a source of comparison for the JUMP family of instructions
Writing to the NIL register does nothing. Reading from the NIL register is the same as using the literal number 0.
All values in registers will be clamped between negative and positive Biblical Infinity (seventy times seven).
Reads from source and writes the read value to destination. The source can be any readable register, or a literal number. The destination must be a writable register.
| MOV Examples |
| MOV ACC INPUT MOV OUTPUT ACC MOV ch7 99 |
These decrement or increment the value stored in the accumulator (ACC) register.
This negates the value stored in the accumulator (ACC) register (multiplies it by negative 1).
This does nothing for as many cycles as there are Os.
Moves execution to the first instruction after the specified label instead of continuing to the next instruction.
Compares the value read from the specified channel against 0 and jumps to the specified label if the comparison succeeds.
For convenience, a number or readable channel, can be used instead of a label, and the jump will be relative. For example JMP -1 will jump to the preceding line.
Note that for quantum observability reasons, chips cannot make decisions based on their own state, so can only compare the values broadcast by other chips.
A composite instruction to do a MOV, optional NOP (for as many cycles as there are Us), and then a clearing MOV:
| MOV destination source NOP/NOOP/etc MOV destination 0 |
Example: PLS ch1 input is equivalent to:
| MOV ch1 input MOV ch1 0 |
Example: PUULS ch3 7 is equivalent to:
| MOV ch3 7 NOOP MOV ch3 0 |
This is an alias for JEZ CH# 0, which will continue executing the same instruction until the specified channel reads a non-zero value. This can be useful in synchronization when combined with `PLS`.
Synchronization example:
| Chip 1 |
| NOOOOOP ; do some work PLS ch1 1 ; signal MOV acc input ; in sync |
| Chip 2 |
| WAIT ch1 ; wait for signal MOV acc input ; in sync |
The QuantumPulse™ Visualization Interface allows you to step cycle-by-cycle and will highlight which line of code will be executed next in each chip, will show the current value of all registers, radios (both the values being broadcast from a given chip as well as the combined value on the channel that a chip might read), and other internal state of any chip.
Prefixing any instruction with ! will cause the Visualization Interface to pause execution immediately before that instruction is executed. For example, in the following program, execution will pause whenever a non-zero value is read from CH1, immediately before outputting 99:
| loop: JEZ CH1 loop !MOV OUTPUT 99 |
The QuantumPulse™ Visualization Interface contains a series of training exercises that will help you master your craft! Every exercise contains a description of the problem you need to solve, and shows you a set of inputs and expected outputs that you need to match. To pass an exercise, your solution needs to solve the provided input/output as well as 2 or more input/output sets which will only appear after you've solved the first ones. It does not matter what your solution does after writing the final correct output value.
When comparing your solutions to those of others, we recommend looking at 3 important metrics:
Completing all of the included training exercises will grant you access to the exclusive QuantumPulse™ BBS, where even more challenges await. You will also be the first to be shipped new chips to further unlock the potential of your QuantumPulse™ computing device! New chips will come with appendices to supplement this document.
CHIP NAME: OSCILLILATOR
MANUFACTURER: KosmosTek®
CONFIGURABLE FEATURES:
SPECIFICATION:
The Oscillilator broadcasts a value from a cell every cycle to its output channel, starting with the first cell, and repeating it for repeat cycles, then moving on to the next cell until it reaches the final used cell, at which point it starts outputting from the first cell again.
SCORING:
When used in a competitive challenge, each used memory cell counts as 1 LOC.
CHIP NAME: ROM-12
MANUFACTURER: KosmosTek®
CONFIGURABLE FEATURES:
SPECIFICATION:
The ROM reads an index from the read index channel, and then on the next cycle broadcasts the value stored at that index to its read value channel. If the index is less than or equal to zero, nothing is broadcast. If the index exceeds the number of used cells, the ROM wraps around and broadcasts earlier values. In general, this chip has the same timing characteristics as running the following repeatedly (if an array index operation was generally supported): MOV CH#OUT DATA[CH#READIDX]
Timing example:
| AW0401 Chip |
| MOV CH1 3 ; ask idx 3 MOV OUTPUT CH2 ; outputs 0 MOV OUTPUT CH2 ; outputs 7 |
| ROM-12, READ:ch1, OUT:ch2 data: 5 6 7 |
| ; broadcasting nothing MOV CH2 DATA[CH1] ; reads idx ; now broadcasting a 7 |
Note that on the first cycle, the ROM reads a 0 from the index, so does not broadcast. On the second cycle, the ROM reads a 3 from the index and will start broadcasting the data from that index, and on that same cycle the AW0401 chip still reads nothing being broadcast. On the third cycle, the AW0401 chip finally reads the requested value. This delay between requesting a value from the ROM and being able to read it is necessary to prevent potential quantum paradoxes from damaging your reality.
SCORING:
When used in a competitive challenge, each used memory cell counts as 1 LOC.
Supplemental data received as a BBS attachment.
| ID | Y | X |
|---|---|---|
| VB | 35 | -121 |
| YPG | 33 | -114 |
| CL | 36 | -118 |
| ED | 35 | -118 |
| Replacement | ||
| 39 | -77 | |
CHIP NAME: RAM-20
MANUFACTURER: KosmosTek®
CONFIGURABLE FEATURES:
SPECIFICATION:
The RAM-20 chip reads an index from the write index channel, and if it is greater than 0, it replaces the value in the memory cell at that index with the value read from the write value channel. At the same time, the RAM-20 chip reads an index from the read index channel and then on the next cycle will broadcast the value stored at that index to its read value channel, behaving similarly to the ROM-12.
Note that whenever the write index channel has a positive index, a new value will be written to a memory cell, so if you wish to stop writing to memory, first stop broadcasting to the write index channel before you stop broadcasting to the write value channel.
SCORING:
Using the RAM-20 chip will not currently affect your LOC score in competitive challenges (subject to change at the administrator's discretion).
With the latest hardware supplement, your QP-2A device now allows interactive challenges, where the inputs read by your program are not fixed, but instead dependent upon what the program outputs. Essentially, your program can make wrong guesses as to the answer and will get feedback if it is correct or not. Being correct will end the test and move on to the next one. Some interactive puzzles have hundreds of test cases, to eliminate any advantage gained from previous runs.
Note that the INPUT and OUTPUT shown in the Visualization Interface while you are developing your solution is only an example, the actual values will depend on what your program does.
SCORING:
Any wrong guess by your program adds a penalty of 100 cycles to your score.
CHIP NAME: PLOTTER-144
MANUFACTURER: Kostronika®
CONFIGURABLE FEATURES:
SPECIFICATION:
This exciting new chip from the flagship chip maker in Kostovia, the Plotter opens up a whole new realm of possibilities! Whenever it reads a positive value from the read value channel, it turns on the LED corresponding to the current row and column. If a negative value is read, it turns off the corresponding LED. Simultaneously, it also broadcasts a 1 on the write value channel if the corresponding LED is currently lit. Note that if the row and column address anything out of range, no LEDs will be changed, and no value will be broadcast on the write value channel.
SCORING:
For challenges that require a particular Plotter output, the challenge is considered successful if the image displayed on the Plotter matches the requirements at any time.