Towards Physarum Binary Adders

Abstract

Plasmodium of \emph{Physarum polycephalum} is a single cell visible by unaided eye. The plasmodium's foraging behaviour is interpreted in terms of computation. Input data is a configuration of nutrients, result of computation is a network of plasmodium's cytoplasmic tubes spanning sources of nutrients. Tsuda et al (2004) experimentally demonstrated that basic logical gates can be implemented in foraging behaviour of the plasmodium. We simplify the original designs of the gates and show --- in computer models --- that the plasmodium is capable for computation of two-input two-output gate $<x,y>\to <xy,x+y>$ and three-input two-output $<x,y,z>\to <\bar{x}yz,x+y+z>$. We assemble the gates in a binary one-bit adder and demonstrate validity of the design using computer simulation.

Biosystems (2010), in press. Please download final version of the paper from the Publishers's site

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