The Turing Machine

Rossella Travia

March 29, 2004

The Turing Machine

The Turing Machine was first introduced in 1936 by Alan M. Turing.

It is traditionally known as being the foundation of the modern computer because of its ability to solve computable problems.

                        

Components of the Machine

The three major components of the Turing machine are Tape, Read/Write Head, and Controller.

Tape

The tape is a sort of memory device that has infinite capacity.

It can hold an infinite number of characters in a sequence at any one time.

It only processes positive integer data represented in unary arithmetic

“101101” is read as “4” Only the 1’s are read, not the 0’s

Read/Write Head

points to any one symbol at a time, which is called the current symbol.

The current symbol is read and then the respective actions is carried out by the controller

After reading, the head moves right,left,or even stays in its place.

All this is done under the commands of the controller

Controller

The theoretical counterpart of the CPU in modern computers

It is a finite state automaton Machine that has a predetermined number of states

Moves from one state to another based on the input Can be in any state at any time

Conclusion

Thanks to Turing, the journey to modern world of technology was accelerated…