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Turing Machine: Submitted By: Maryam Qadeer MD-012

The Turing machine is a theoretical device that Alan Turing conceived of in 1936 to explore the limits of computation. It consists of an infinitely long tape that can be written to, read from, and modified by a head. The head can change the symbol or color under it on the tape, alter its own state, and move the tape left or right by one position according to a set of instructions. The machine operates by reading/writing symbols on the tape and changing state based on those symbols at each step, allowing it to compute any function that is computable in principle.

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Saadia Humayun
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62 views1 page

Turing Machine: Submitted By: Maryam Qadeer MD-012

The Turing machine is a theoretical device that Alan Turing conceived of in 1936 to explore the limits of computation. It consists of an infinitely long tape that can be written to, read from, and modified by a head. The head can change the symbol or color under it on the tape, alter its own state, and move the tape left or right by one position according to a set of instructions. The machine operates by reading/writing symbols on the tape and changing state based on those symbols at each step, allowing it to compute any function that is computable in principle.

Uploaded by

Saadia Humayun
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Turing Machine

In Alan Turings 1936 paper on computable numbers, he describes a machine that has an infinitely long tape upon which it writes, reads and alters symbols. He further shows that a machine with the correct minimal set of operations can calculate anything that is computable, no matter the complexity. The machine consists of a line of cells known as a "tape" that can be moved back and forth, an active element known as the "head" that possesses a property known as "state" and that can change the property known as "color" of the active cell underneath it, and a set of instructions for how the head should modify the active cell and move the tape (Wolfram 2002, pp. 78-81). The head of the turing machine is something that can read and write symbols on the tape and move the tape left and right one (and only one) cell at a time. In some models the head moves and the tape is stationary. The word "state" can mean two things. Most commentators after Turing have used "state" to mean the name/designator of the current instruction to be performedi.e. the contents of the state register. But Turing (1936) made a strong distinction between a record of what he called the machine's "mconfiguration", (its internal state) and the machine's (or person's) "state of progress" through the computation - the current state of the total system. What Turing called "the state formula" includes both the current instruction and all the symbols on the tape. (Wikipaedia) At each step, the machine may modify the color of the active cell, change the state of the head, and then move the tape one unit to the left or right.

In this figure, a state is represented by a square containing a pointer indicating any of three possible directions; the property of 'colour' is represented by the colour of the square; and an instruction is represented by two squares in a column, with the top one representing a possible colour and state of the active cell and the bottom one giving the new state and colour of the active cell together with the direction the tape should be moved. The special state 0 (with no pointer) indicates a state at which the Turing machine should halt, i.e., cease computation. A Turing machine can run forever, enter a loop, or reach a particular state or set of conditions (i.e., the head will ever reach a given position, a given pattern will be produced on the tape, etc.) at which it is prescribed to halt.
Submitted by: Maryam Qadeer MD-012

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