A simple nonlinear dynamical computing device

We propose and characterize an iterated map whose nonlinearity has a simple (i.e., minimal) electronic implementation. We then demonstrate explicitly how all the different fundamental logic gates can be implemented and morphed using this nonlinearity. These gates provide the full set of gates necessary to construct a general-purpose, reconfigurable computing device. As an example of how such chaotic computing devices can be exploited, we use an array of these maps to encode data and to process information. Each map can store one of M items, where M is variable and can be large. This nonlinear hardware stores data naturally in different bases or alphabets. We also show how this method of storing information can serve as a preprocessing tool for exact or inexact pattern-matching searches. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.