396 Game of Life 8x32 (siLife)
396 : Game of Life 8x32 (siLife)
- Author: Uri Shaked
- Description: Silicon implementation of Conway’s Game of Life with LED Dot Matrix Output
- GitHub repository
- GDS submitted
- HDL project
- Extra docs
- Clock: 10000000 Hz
- External hardware: MAX7219 LED Matrix (FC-16 module)
How it works
It is a silicon implementation of Conway’s Game of Life. The game is played on a 8x32 grid, and the rules are as follows:
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by underpopulation.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
- Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
How to test
Demo mode:
The demo mode loads a pre-defined game into the grid and advances it automatically.
To enter the demo mode, wr_en high while reseting the design (rst_n low).
Use the pattern_sel inputs to select the desired demo pattern.
Set en to 1 to automatically advance one generation every 0.4 seconds (assuming a 10MHz clock).
To pause the game, set en to 0.
Manual mode:
Load the initial grid row by row.
Each row is loaded by selecting the row number (using the row_sel[4:0] inputs),
setting the cell_in[7:0] inputs to the desired state, and pulsing the wr_en input.
Once the grid is loaded, set the en input to 1 to start the game.
The game will advance one step in each clock cycle.
To pause the game, set the en input to 0.
To view the current state of the grid, set the row_sel[4:0] inputs to the desired row number,
max7219_en to 0, and read the cell_out[7:0] outputs.
Alternatively, set max7129_en to 1 to display the grid on a MAX7219 LED Matrix (FC-16 module).
IO
| # | Input | Output | Bidirectional |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | row_sel[0] / pattern_sel | cell_out[0] / max7129_cs | cell_in[0] |
| 1 | row_sel[1] | cell_out[1] / max7129_clk | cell_in[1] |
| 2 | rol_sel[2] | cell_out[2] / max7129_din | cell_in[2] |
| 3 | rol_sel[3] | cell_out[3] | cell_in[3] |
| 4 | rol_sel[4] | cell_out[4] | cell_in[4] |
| 5 | max7129_en | cell_out[5] | cell_in[5] |
| 6 | en | cell_out[6] | cell_in[6] |
| 7 | wr_en | cell_out[7] | cell_in[7] |