Definition of Turing Machine

When the world was heading for a new global conflagration, in the 1930s, the science of computing It was also advancing, guided in many cases by the preparation for the war effort that some already anticipated would arrive.

It is in this context that the British mathematician Alan Turing (a posteriori considered one of the fathers of the computing modern) develops his work and, in 1936, postulates what will be the foundations of the computer modern.

The call Turing machine It is a theoretical device capable of processing data according to given rules.

Both the rules and the data are separate; in fact, Turing imagined that the rules would be stored on some kind of fixed medium, whereas the data would be stored on tapes that the same machine could modify according to the table of rules.

We clearly see in this conceptual model an advance of what modern computers will be: even if one has a level of Username simple, you can easily see the distinction between the

app "Immutable" (with nuances, but in this case let's take it that way) and the data, which can be altered following the rules, which would be the programming.

Although the theoretical Turing machine is terribly simple, performing only very basic operations such as the change of state, the reading and writing, it is capable of carrying out all the mathematical calculations that a mechanical computer can perform using a algorithm.

In other words, if a problem could be expressed through a algorithm In writing, it could be processed - at least on a theoretical level - by a Turing machine.

Alan Turing conceived it as an exercise to show that there were mathematical problems that computers could not solve.

The data tape, which Turing conceived as infinite, can be moved by the machine from right to left and from left to right, like an old cassette or film tape that can be rewound or advanced to discretion.

The set of rules can also be understood as a programming language, since it must have a syntax logic and consistent.

In hindsight, other mathematicians have made more sophisticated versions of the Turing Machine.

Thus, there are machines with two bands, determinists, or even a quantum Turing machine that can help, as did his illustrious ancestor, to lay the foundations of the long-awaited computation quantum.

Photo Fotolia: Chrisdorney / Steve Simmons

Topics in Turing Machine