The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

cellular automaton
cellular automata

    (CA, plural "- automata") A regular
   spatial lattice of "cells", each of which can have any one of
   a finite number of states.  The state of all cells in the
   lattice are updated simultaneously and the state of the entire
   lattice advances in discrete time steps.  The state of each
   cell in the lattice is updated according to a local rule which
   may depend on the state of the cell and its neighbors at the
   previous time step.

   Each cell in a cellular automaton could be considered to be a
   finite state machine which takes its neighbours' states as
   input and outputs its own state.

   The best known example is J.H. Conway's game of Life.

   FAQ
   (http://alife.santafe.edu/alife/topics/cas/ca-faq/ca-faq.html).

   Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.theory.cell-automata,
   news:comp.theory.self-org-sys.

   (1995-03-03)