The Live Artifact
The current public artifact is a standalone WebGL page. The Boolean paper page also points to it as the primary live Cartilage demo, where series of MUX tile blocks are instantiated in a nested manner from a left-edge reconfiguration port area by streaming SPI-like configuration bits.
Tile Roles
The code identifies the model as MUX VLSI Boolean logic cellular automata. Each cell has compact configuration state for orientation, mode, parent pointer, current state, and a configuration shift register.
- Mode 1: wire.
- Modes 2 through 7: MUX behavior.
- Special orientation 0: reconfiguration port.
- Special orientation 1: cross/intersection.
- Special orientation 2: GND.
- Special orientation 3: PWR.
Configuration Stream
The implementation contains an 8-bit core configuration block and an 8-bit shift register for new configuration data. The new configuration bits are applied to the main tile-role bits when the subtree has been filled with configuration bits.
The configuration stream is clocked from an input into the subtree's reconfiguration port at its root. A completion flip-flop marks when the new configuration bits have been collected.
Why Local Ports Matter
A global controller would make the demo less interesting. The point is that reconfiguration enters through local ports. The region being configured is bounded, and the parent/daughter relationship is explicit in the cell state. FPGA and EDA readers should read this as a routing and configuration discipline, not as a metaphor.
The parent pointer creates an ownership tree. Reconfiguration ports are tile roles inside the same fabric, not magic holes in the model. That is the difference between a pretty cellular automaton and a composable reconfigurable substrate.
Relation To Boolean Algebra
The Boolean paper explains why wires, constants, MUXes, feedback, configuration, and tiling are enough as a universal substrate. Cartilage is a live artifact in that direction: it shows tiles being assigned roles and reconfigured locally in a visible browser/GPU model.
Controls In The Artifact
The demo source includes editing controls: ASDW to draw wires while pressing the mouse, ZQERTYU to place multiplexers, backtick for ground, 1 for power, X for intersection, L for reconfiguration port, and numpad 4-8-6-2 to change the parent pointer in the ownership tree.
Those controls are artifact notes, not the main pitch. The main pitch is local nested instantiation.