This program is then fed into a second piece of software called a compiler, which translates it into a sequence of machine instructions for a specific kind of microprocessor, such as Intel's x86 family, which can then run the original program.

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There are no plans to mass-produce the machine, but instructions and source code are being made available.

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Calculating the addition of the number 2 to a variable, for example, can generate 27 instructions in machine code, many of them repetitive.

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It then sifts through all the gadgets on its host machine until it has put together the required list of instructions.

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What the rest of the world sees as squirrel chow Von Ehr sees as a perfect woodmaking machine, with the necessary energy supply, tools and complete instructions wrapped in a small package.

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The "systemic" machine operates very differently to conventional PCs and desktops, which execute instructions in an ordered, linear fashion.

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