Design Method for Unconventional Computing

Network-on-chip concepts allow moving away from the classical, centralized computer. The meaningful collaboration of computing units over a well-behaved network creates the infinite state space that underlies the Turing computer concept. The combinatorial state explosion that results from a network-on-chip will easily prove more valuable than the mere technological progress in memory storage, when the network nodes become small enough. Embedded super-computing has this unconventional goal. This paper introduces a design method for such computing concepts. It discusses how a software simulation is gradually migrated into a network-on-chip implementation. The approach is illustrated by the development of a cellular neural network as a typical example of a well-behaved network on small, embedded nodes