Imagine a videogame with a full world inside of it. You can move as you wish and even build anything you wish. Maybe even a 1 Hz computer with 256 bytes of RAM that can be connected to a display you built in the game as well.
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Current computer chips are so tiny and complex that we tend to forget the real physical processes that are behind their workings. These processes can even be recreated in our own virtual world. For example, in the popular and inspiring world of Minecraft. Recently, the largest and most complex CPU called Chungus 2 was created in it. It might be virtual but works just like the silicone you have in the real world.
The creator of the Minecraft CPU is a player known as Sammyuri. He claims to have spent seven months playing Minecraft to building Chungus 2. Chungus 2 stands for Computational Humongous Unconventional Number and Graphics Unit 2. He used only materials and tools that can be found in Minecraft. Thus, theoretically, anyone who knows the inner workings of this incredible could have built it.
You may know that this isn’t the first time someone has built a virtual CPU in Minecraft. There are several such projects. Chungus 2 just seems to be the largest and most complex at the time. It simulates an 8-bit CPU with a frequency of 1 Hz with 256 bytes of RAM. Just like its predecessors Chungus 2 uses the game’s physics engine to reproduce the structure of a real CPU on a macroscopic scale. And if we would say that each block of material in Minecraft corresponds to a meter in the real world than Chungus 2 is about the size of a skyscraper.
Minecraft’s Chungus 2 can also be connected to a virtual display with 32 x 32 pixels of resolution and also to a controller. This controller can be used by the player jumping on its virtual buttons. This allows to use Chungus 2 to play classical retro games such as Tetris or Snake. Or even use it as a calculator. These applications are stored in game in sort of plug-ins. Each of these plugins are about the size of a freight train.
This whole project is an amazing practical application of computer sciences. It’s educational value is obvious as it literally embodies the basic principles of how a CPU works.
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