  Cellular Automata (CA), as they are presented in the literature, are abstract
mathematical models of computation. In this pa- per we present an alternate
approach: using the CA as a model or theory of physical systems and devices.
While this approach abstracts away all details of the underlying physical
system, it remains faithful to the fact that there is an underlying physical
reality which it describes. This imposes certain restrictions on the types of
computations a CA can physically carry out, and the resources it needs to do
so. In this paper we explore these and other consequences of our
reformalization.
