Minecraft is about exploring infinite worlds and constructing structures ranging from the simplest homes to the grandest castles. Similar to many popular and influential games such as Dinosaur Game and Cobalt, Minecraft has established a growing position. The management and development of Minecraft are evident.
The lengthy project demonstrates the underlying physics of the CPUs that we take for granted.
Computer chips have become so small and intricate that it is sometimes difficult to remember that they are based on real physical principles. They are not simply a collection of ever-growing numbers. Check out the most recent version of a computer processor created solely within the Minecraft game engine for a practical (albeit virtual) example.
Sammyuri, a Minecraft developer, spent seven months creating the Chungus 2, an extraordinarily complex computer processor that exists virtually within the Minecraft game engine. The Chungus 2 (Computation Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit) simulates an 8-bit processor with a 1 Hz clock speed and 256 bytes of random access memory.
Minecraft processors use the game’s physics engine to recreate the structure of real processors on a macro scale, using materials such as redstone dust, torches, repeaters, pistons, and levers. As a point of reference, each block in the game is one virtual meter on each side, so if this structure were recreated in the real world, it would be roughly the size of a skyscraper or cruise ship.
The Chungus 2 can play interchangeable 2D games such as Tetris, Snake, and even a graphing calculator when connected to an in-game 32A-32 screen and controller (operated by a Minecraft player avatar jumping on button-sized blocks). Certain programs require that the Minecraft server be artificially sped up in order for the 1Hz processor to be usable. Each program is also created virtually in Minecraft, plugging into the computer like a train-sized game cartridge.
The project is an extraordinary application of computer science in action, designed in a way that makes its principles immediately and visibly apparent. If you want to check it out for yourself, you can download it from mc.openredstone.org and install it on your own server. The universe will likely implode if we wait a few years for a Minecraft-capable CPU, at which point we will have a Minecraft-capable CPU.
