BIG BRAIN HAS 12 CHILDREN
With the birth of Morpher-8 and Propeller Elf, Big Brain has now produced twelve offspring. The Offspring Series of brain machines continues to grow as the Big Brain continues to give birth to its increasing family.
Big Brains' Offspring Children Born
01) Bantam Brain
02) Child Brain
03) Baby Brain
04) Bit Brain
05) Tiny Brain One (TBO)
06) Tiny Brain Two
07) Tiny Brain Three
08) Small Brain
09) Pint Size Brain
10) Brain Child (BC)
11) Morpher-8
12) Propeller Elf
1) Bantam Brain has 3 Propeller chips, 24 Cogs with VR cores. This bantam offspring is small in physical size only, as its interior braining architecture includes over 3,000 processors in extreme high density. Bantam Brain is designed to fit inside the smallest robots and can be considered a "shirt pocket" brain. Preliminary X-Y specs log in around 2.5 x 4-inches in the first prototype.
3) Baby Brain 1 Prop (Under 5 Props). Starting with 8 Cogs. The success of the Child Brain has led to the simple development of a much smaller brain, smaller by a factor up to five times. Baby Brain originates from the Child Brain. In fact, to make a Baby Brain, take one Child Brain and remove anywhere from one to four Propeller chips. The rapid config ability of the Baby Brain to add more Propeller chips by a simple plug-in is a key feature. This is possible because Baby Brain retains wiring and components for all chips. Baby Brain is used for rapid testing where fewer props are needed. Future apps for the robotic Big Brain may include dispensing the smaller Brain Clan from the belly of the Big Brain.
4) BIT Brain Interim Test Machine, 6 props, 48 processors, Special test machine for Solo and Parallel performance, Brain BIT is made up of two Brain modules with solderless breadboards for testing base programs and paralleled programs in multi-mode formats. It can load and run different interface types at the same time and is
modular. The unit is made from five main solderless breadboards and
eight power rails. Three line up perpendicular to the others to
delineate circuitry. Included are seven LEDs, decoupling and power mains filtering
capacitors, dropping resistors, crystals (one for each module), and two
pushbuttons. The two supplies are 9 volts and 3.3 volts DC provided by a
bench supply or batteries. It includes five props in parallel and one solo without any initial
connection to the others. This facilitates testing of different programs
and the wiring of circuit combinations. Modules run one or the other,
or both at the same time. BIT includes two EEPROMS and duplicated Prop Tool interfaces. This
enables testing of simultaneous At Once loading, distro, piggyback
eeprom'ing and other nice features. One of the best advantages of Brain BIT is the one chip portion which is
based on PEK. This can run many programs in SPIN for rapid testing,
configuring and development.
5) Tiny Brain One (TBO) 1 Prop, 8 internalize processors, a tiny experimental brain in the smallest config used as an adjunct to the Big Brain in primarily testing communications transfer and interfacing abilities. TBO is now used as a portable tiny brain for travel and portable work. It's prototyped on a solderless breadboard. The smallest brain in the series of brains is the Tiny Brain One. Much of the Big Brain test software can run on a TBO. TBOs have one Propeller chip with eight hard processor cores. Each of the "cog" cores in Tiny Brain One is thought of as an individual internal chip with a four I/O pin allotment for use in multiple chip development. TBOs are very portable, ideal for research and project development, and set up on one solderless breadboard. These run multiprocessor software and the full range of sensors. TBO "Internal Chips" are theoretical 20MIPS with a shared 5MHz crystal. TBO Features:
One Propeller chip
Eight Internal Setup Chips
Four pin i/o allotment per internal chip
Two dedicated hardware counters per internal chip
Standard programming for multiple cogs
Shared 5MHz crystal
Shared 32K EEPROM, RAM, ROM
20MIPS/Internal Chip
$1/Internal Chip Cost
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?124495-Fill-the-Big-Brain&p=1033313&viewfull=1#post1033313
6) Tiny Brain Two (TB2) 2 Props, 16 computers
9) Pint Size Brain 2 Props, 16 computers, in a 340 gram jar, built on a single solderless breadboard with wire jumpers and two power rails. It has two Parallax Propeller chips mounted piggyback. Pins, depending on the required circuit and software are either bent up or kept in contact with the other prop to create various interface functions. A nine volt battery fits behind the breadboard and software can signal exampling neurons whose firing are visible through the clear jar. The Jar Brain has sixteen cores, all of which can run in parallel, which makes it powerful given its small "pint size." The Jar lid is unscrewed to hookup the USB cable to load in the program. Lerner uses PST and Life uses a TV externally. However the Nanite and code to activate the LED can run from stored programs in the EEPROM.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?132716-Propeller-Brain-in-a-Jar
10) Brain Child (BC) 5 props, The Big Brain begat an offspring temporarily known as the Brain
Child. BC is nearly identical to its parent except for its size and
limitations imposed by fewer props. It contains one Brain Span of five
Propeller chips and no partitions. This means BC has a total of 40 risc
computers at its disposal ready for running apps. BC is currently
compatible with Big Brain software. Brain Child has many of the functions of parenting Big Brain. It can
talk (with speaker and amp), sing, learn, dream, and handles the same
neural injector and neurons. The biggest gain is less power draw, immediate access to experiments
and tests, portable, and it runs on battery power. The convenience of
its smaller solderless breadboards is immediately apparent. BC has components on two connected breadboards with four power rails. It
has one 32K eeprom for program storage and connectors for a Parallax
Prop Plug to download programs through a USB cable. Output is currently through five LEDs, one distributed to each Propeller
chip. The base wiring is comparable to a PEK board. Next, the overlay
interface of the Neural Injectors is implemented. Finally a choice of
hybrid designs entertain various modes of communication. At this early stage software is limited to some test packages to
distribute code and inject sampling neurons. Software also has access to
other packages for speech & singing (requires speaker and amp),
hearing sounds, recognizing words (requires microphone circuit),
dreaming and learning. Due to lack of TV, output is routed to a supporting computer through a terminal program such as prop terminal and PST. No doubt the greatest adaptations for BC will result in portable
braining operations for mobile robots and smaller humanoids. BC is also
very useful for running Big Brain Tests and to develop new algorithms
and programs and to set up new functions and capabilities.
11) Morpher-8 1 prop that has ability to control, morph, transform using a NARO servo and programming in SPIN language. As a new prodigy, Morpher-8, is capable of autonomous morphing and transforming and has access to eight RISC processors known as Cogs in the Parallax Propeller chip world. Morpher-8 is a controller baby, already able to manipulate position in space and time using SPIN commands and a demonstration program running from one Cog. It's small body interfaces to the real world with a tiny NARA servo, the same as used in a Parallax Penguin robot.
12) Propeller Elf (PE) 1 Prop, this is a Propeller brain with no parts whose purpose is pure thought. It runs on SPIN software using the conventional support for the Parallax Propeller chip and communicates through a standard Propeller Plug. Prop Elf is a spin off of the Big Brain "No Parts" project. All software utilized is found at the Parallax Propeller Forum. PE uses eight internal processors known as Cogs and also utilizes the internal components built into the Propeller chip. Thinking takes place with the RC clock and the chips built in protection circuits so no crystal, resistors or caps are required. It can use virtual devices internally and externally. Debugging is with the PST Parallax Serial Terminal software and Prop Terminal.
The Number of Propeller Chips within Each Offspring
Big Brain Parent - Over a hundred props
- 01) Bantam Brain - 3 Props
- 02) Child Brain - 5 Props
- 03) Baby Brain - 1 Prop
- 04) Bit Brain - 6 Props
- 05) Tiny Brain One (TBO) - 1 Prop
- 06) Tiny Brain Two - 2 Props
- 07) Tiny Brain Three - 3 Props
- 08) Small Brain - 5 Props
-
09) Pint Size Brain - 2 Props
-
10) Brain Child - 5 Props
- 11) Morpher-8 - 1 Prop
-
12) Propeller Elf - 1 Prop
The Big Brain Genealogical Research page is a work in progress describing over 300 machines leading up to the Big Brain and its related siblings.
