Can LLMs Be Computers?
Researchers at Percepta built a computer inside a transformer by compiling C code to WebAssembly and having the model generate the execution trace step by step. The key breakthrough: using 2D attention heads to turn linear KV cache scans into logarithmic-time geometric lookups.
The result: The model runs the Hungarian algorithm on a 10×10 matrix, solves the world’s hardest Sudoku, and streams execution traces at >30k tokens/sec on a CPU—all without ever leaving the transformer.
It makes the whole computation differentiable and opens the door to compiling arbitrary programs directly into weights.
3March 20, 2026 313 6
