[Nakul], [Nikilesh], and [Nischal] just finished posting about their entry in the 2012 Open 7400 Logic competition. It’s an encryption system based entirely on 7400 logic chips. The device operates on 8-bit binary numbers, which limits its real-world applications. But we bet they learned a lot during the development process.

The encryption algorithm is based on a the concept of cellular automaton. This is a something with which we’re already familiar having seen many Conway’s Game of Life projects around here. What we’re not familiar with is this particular wing of the concept called ‘Rule 30‘. It works well with this project because a complex pattern can be generated from simple beginnings.

After conceptualizing how the system might work the team spent some time transferring the implementation to the chips they had available. The end result is a quartet of chip-packed breadboards and a rat’s nets of wires, but the system is capable of both encrypting and decrypting data.