Revision as of 01:45, 18 November 2022 by Confocal(talk | contribs)(remove "mechanism" from the defined term - it's "mechanism that could be used for diagonal lightspeed communication" in the post, rather than what's in the current title!)
A pattern that transmits a signal diagonally at the speed of light was found by Jason Summers in 1999. It is composed of 88 gliders and 2 LWSSs.[2] The mechanism is shown below with and without an input signal. If the input glider is present, it travels through the mechanism at the speed of light. However, because the pattern takes a while to get started and to settle down at the end, the effective speed is less, approximately 150 cells in 193 ticks, still much faster than the c/4 diagonal spaceship speed limit. Regardless of the presence or absence of an input glider, the mechanism soon dies, thus it is a single-use mechanism. The limitation with using this in a complete circuit is that generating gliders that are so closely spaced with current technology would require an immense pattern.[3]
LEFT: pattern with SW input glider emerging to the NE RIGHT: pattern without an input glider The 3 gliders furthest SW and the 2 LWSSs (from N and E) are for cleanup
