Two chips talking

One chip measures the weather outside, a second one controls the hangar door inside. The door chip has to know when a storm is coming. Two chips talk to each other by one putting a value down and the other picking it up.

The housing's Setting as a mailbox#

Every IC housing has a Setting its chip writes with s db Setting x. Other chips on the same data network read it like any other device:

s db Setting storm                                    # weather chip
lbn storm HOUSING HASH("Wetterchip") Setting Average  # door chip

HOUSING is the hash of StructureCircuitHousing. So that the door chip hits the right housing, the weather chip's housing gets a name of its own.

Logic memory in between#

Instead of the housing, a logic memory can hold the value as well. That has two advantages: the value stays even while the writing chip is taken out, and a player sees and changes it without code. The weather chip writes into it with sbn, the door chip reads with lbn.

Who writes, who reads#

The most important rule: every value has exactly one writer. If two chips write into the same box in turns, whoever came last wins, and the value jumps back and forth.

If the weather chip needs feedback, such as “door is closed”, the door chip writes it into its own housing. That way every channel has one direction.