Shape Computation Lab

Unsigned Binary Adder

Tzu-Chieh Kurt Hong

03/01/2019

This video shows how an unsigned binary adder can be implemented in DrawScript mode in the Shape Machine. The complete set of symbolic operations is captured here as a shape grammar consisting of 16 shape rules using the shapes 0, 1, C and ___ to perform  the calculation. The addition is done exactly like adding decimal numbers, except that here we have only two digits, 0 and 1. The shape rules calculate the addition of the binary numbers writing the results of any carry to the bottom row. For example, if the Shape Machine sees an 1 which is above another 1 and both above a line ____ , deletes them both, draws a 0 below the line  ___ and puts a C shape below to the next digit as a “carry” symbol to be substituted later by one of the next shape rules. The final result can be up to 5 digits, because the result can be larger than the number 1111. The example here demonstrates the addition of the numbers 11 and 7 in binary, that is, 1011 and 0111. The Shape Machine executes the sequence of shape rules in DrawScript mode and calculates the result equal to 10010, that is, 18.

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