Read 32 Reconfigurable Tile Types: The Cartilage Visual Language

June 26, 2026

Thirty-two installed roles turn a dense Cartilage render into a circuit you can read cell by cell and route by route.

Every visible mark comes from the body role stored in a cell, its orientation, and the local wires crossing its four sides. Two orientation bits and three mode bits generate four special roles, four wire directions, and 24 rotated MUX roles.

Use this decoder to follow configuration ingress, crossings, constants, signal direction, selector inputs, runtime values, and complete datapaths across the fabric.

See All 32 Installed Roles In One Key

All 32 Cartilage roles arranged as ports, crossings, constants, directed wires, and rotated MUX selectors
The full alphabet places all 32 installed roles in one field; open the image at full resolution, then follow the grouped decoder into each numbered definition.

Codes 00–03

Ports, Crossings, And Constants

Codes 00–03 admit configuration, cross routes, and supply fixed zero or one locally.

Codes 04–07

Four Directed Wires

Codes 04–07 rotate one pass-through role toward the left, top, bottom, and right.

Codes 08–31

Six MUX Modes In Four Rotations

Codes 08–31 select six neighboring-side pairs and rotate each selector behavior through four orientations.

Pack Every Role Into Five Bits

The renderer stores two fields: two-bit orientation and three-bit mode. The expression orientation + 4 * mode maps those fields directly onto codes 0 through 31.

Mode 0 assigns port, cross, constant zero, and constant one through its four orientations. Mode 1 assigns four wire directions. Modes 2 through 7 assign six MUX behaviors in four rotations each.

All 24 MUX roles execute the same local selector operation over different neighboring inputs. MUX Algebra derives that operation as conditional notation and a complete two-input truth-function table; Cartilage adds spatial rotation and routing.

The suffixes L, T, B, and R name local tile orientations within the render.

Decode Every Cell Role

Open the 32 numbered role definitions
Code
Role
Purpose
00
Port
A parent-owned configuration stream enters through this local port and replaces the body roles inside its bounded child region.
01
Cross
Two routes cross through this intersection while directional state keeps their paths distinct.
02
Const 0
This ground role supplies a fixed low value wherever a local circuit needs zero.
03
Const 1
This power role supplies a fixed high value wherever a local circuit needs one.
04
Wire L
The left-oriented wire passes one local signal through the cell with no selector stage.
05
Wire T
The top-oriented form rotates the same pass-through behavior as Wire L.
06
Wire B
The bottom-oriented wire carries one routed signal segment through the local fabric.
07
Wire R
The right-oriented form rotates the same pass-through wire toward the right-facing side.
08
Mux 2 L
The left-oriented mode 2 selector chooses B when high and R when low.
09
Mux 2 T
The top-oriented mode 2 role rotates the same B/R selection behavior.
10
Mux 2 B
The bottom-oriented mode 2 role keeps the same two data choices and rotates their local geometry.
11
Mux 2 R
The right-oriented mode 2 role completes the four rotations of the same selector pattern.
12
Mux 3 L
The left-oriented mode 3 selector chooses R when high and B when low.
13
Mux 3 T
The top-oriented mode 3 role rotates the same R/B selection behavior.
14
Mux 3 B
The bottom-oriented mode 3 role places that selector pair on its rotated neighboring sides.
15
Mux 3 R
The right-oriented mode 3 role completes the four rotations of its selector pair.
16
Mux 4 L
The left-oriented mode 4 selector chooses T when high and R when low.
17
Mux 4 T
The top-oriented mode 4 role rotates the same T/R selection behavior.
18
Mux 4 B
The bottom-oriented mode 4 role places that selection logic on its rotated neighboring sides.
19
Mux 4 R
The right-oriented mode 4 role completes the four spatial forms of the same function.
20
Mux 5 L
The left-oriented mode 5 selector chooses R when high and T when low.
21
Mux 5 T
The top-oriented mode 5 role rotates the same R/T selection behavior.
22
Mux 5 B
The bottom-oriented mode 5 role keeps the selector pair and rotates its local geometry.
23
Mux 5 R
The right-oriented mode 5 role completes the four rotations of this selector behavior.
24
Mux 6 L
The left-oriented mode 6 selector chooses T when high and B when low.
25
Mux 6 T
The top-oriented mode 6 role rotates the same T/B selection behavior.
26
Mux 6 B
The bottom-oriented mode 6 role places that selector pair on its rotated neighboring sides.
27
Mux 6 R
The right-oriented mode 6 role completes the four spatial forms of this selector pair.
28
Mux 7 L
The left-oriented mode 7 selector chooses B when high and T when low.
29
Mux 7 T
The top-oriented mode 7 role rotates the same B/T selection behavior.
30
Mux 7 B
The bottom-oriented mode 7 role places that selector pair on its rotated neighboring sides.
31
Mux 7 R
The right-oriented mode 7 role completes the final selector mode’s four rotations.

Separate Installed Roles From Runtime Values

Black marks show asserted local state or output values. White rings locate cells and ports. Tan overlays expose selector structure and visible value flow. Purple identifies the reconfiguration-port role. Text labels name the structures above the 32-code fabric.

With those layers separated, a reader can trace constants, wires, crossings, MUXes, and ports through a complete regional reconfiguration run.

Use One Alphabet Across Every Cartilage Circuit

The same body-role vocabulary spans child-owned port roots, generated arithmetic, and nested composition, so every new circuit builds on symbols the reader already knows.

Generated arithmetic

Ripple-Adder Roles In Motion

Trace configured wires, MUX islands, constants, crossings, and edge outputs across 3,072 lockstep updates.

Keep Every Role Readable From Mobile To Full Resolution

Distinct silhouettes, colors, directions, and value marks let every role survive article scale, mobile layouts, and full-resolution inspection. Each large render links directly to its original asset.

Cartilage Core and its SystemVerilog RTL implement the same 32 installed roles across the browser renderer, continuous application plane, and local configuration edges. The physical MUX and wire tile alphabet carries this readable spatial vocabulary into connectorized PCB parts.

Try Cartilage: Run the open one-slot multiplier.

To edit, load, save, share, and follow the browser, Raspberry Pi, and FPGA streaming work, request the private demo username and password on LinkedIn.