by Jonathan Stark

The Special Interest Group for Computer Architecture (SigArch) has been playing marbles for the last few weeks. With Engineering Open House quickly sneaking up on us, we've been working to complete our educational entry for judging with a world of marbles. Using "marble flow" as a model for "electron flow", we hope to build many elementary gates and a working adding machine using "MML" (Marble-Marble Logic).

Modeling electron behavior with marbles allows us to add a fun and educational show into the festivities of EOH, but we're also working on several other projects. Our network video project is coming along quite well, with meetings on Tuesday nights. Much of the design has already been completed. The goal is to be able to plug a standard video camera directly into a network and deliver real-time video across the 'net.

The LED Nametag Project is also being revitalized. After last year's prototype, which weighed enough to rip the shirt off of anyone trying to wear it, the project is being redesigned to minimize the weight. We have an informal race between the production of the new LED nametag and the Cylindrical Display, a full color imaging system that fell upon hard times in EOH competition last year when the slip ring that delivers power to the unit melted and destroyed the brushing assembly.

SigArch has much to accomplish before EOH, and we really need all the help we can get. No experience is necessary (though a love of playing with marbles might be helpful) and meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend. We meet in the ACM Office (1225 DCL) and go from there to our secret laboratory every Thursday at 6:00. Hope to see you all there! If you are interested or want to learn more, email sigarch@uiuc.edu.