Overclocking

Overclocking is a term used when a circuit can accept a signal at a specific period which it cannot accept at a higher period. A syringe is a simple example.

Some staged recovery circuits also permit overclocking, and can function successfully at a rate faster than their recovery time. A Silver's reflector has a recovery time of 497 ticks, but can be overclocked to reflect a period-250 glider stream, or any nearby period above 248, simply by removing a beehive after the first glider enters the reflector. However, a continuous stream of gliders is then required to maintain the circuit, with timing within a tightly bounded range.

There are actually two distinct ways "overclocking" is used. In some cases, like the syringe or the semi-cenarks, there are a few periods where the mechanism works, and then a few periods where it doesn't work, usually because of something like a temporary spark that has to get out of the way. And then the mechanism is safe to use any time after the official repeat time. With this more recent usage, "overclocking" doesn't add any extra restrictions to the use of the mechanism, it just means that it's not guaranteed to work for all higher periods.

x = 115, y = 141, rule = B3/S23 103b2o$103b2o2$71bo$69b3o$53bo14bo$53b3o12b2o$56bo$55b2o$73b3o4b2o$79b 2ob2o$56b2o16bo8bo$56b2o16bobobo4bo$73bo8bo$73bo4b3o$72bo4bobo33b2o$ 72bo3bo36b2o$75bo2$72b2o$72bo19b2o$74bo16bobo$73b2o16bo$69b2o19b2o$69b o$70b3o$72bo6$78b2o$78bo$59b2o15bobo$59b2o15b2o3$45bo$44bo$44b3o7$58b 2o$57bobo$57bo$56b2o9$68b2o$68b2o6$57b2o$58bo8bo10b2o$58bobo5bo11bo$ 59b2o5b3o7bobo$63b2o6bo4b2o$62bo2bo4bobo$63b2o5bobo$59b2o10bo$58bobo$ 58bo$57b2o3b3o$64bo7b2o$63bo8bo$73b3o$75bo3$101bobo$102b2o$102bo53$2o$ b2o$o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ HEIGHT 720 WIDTH 720 THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 8 X 25 Y -30 GPS 30 AUTOSTART LOOP 249 ]]

Silver's reflector overclocked to period 249 (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here

External links

• Overclocking at the Life Lexicon