Special-purpose hardware for cellular automata would not evaluate it "step-by-step" either, but in parallel. Every cell could evaluate its next state independently of others.
We could think of some kind of version of RAM where each 'cell' would implement this behavior.
Perhaps similar optimizations like HashLife could be developed for such special purpose hardware as well.
We could think of some kind of version of RAM where each 'cell' would implement this behavior.
Perhaps similar optimizations like HashLife could be developed for such special purpose hardware as well.