Turing machine

American  

[toor-ing muh-sheen, tyoor-] / ˈtʊər ɪŋ məˌʃin, ˈtyʊər- /

noun

Mathematics.

1. a hypothetical device with a set of logical rules of computation: the concept is used in mathematical studies of the computability of numbers and in the mathematical theories of automata and computers.

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Turing machine British  

noun

1. a hypothetical universal computing machine able to modify its original instructions by reading, erasing, or writing a new symbol on a moving tape of fixed length that acts as its program. The concept was instrumental in the early development of computer systems

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Turing machine Scientific  

1. An abstract model of a computing device, used in mathematical studies of computability. A Turing machine takes a tape with a string of symbols on it as an input, and can respond to a given symbol by changing its internal state, writing a new symbol on the tape, shifting the tape right or left to the next symbol, or halting. The inner state of the Turing machine is described by a finite state machine. It has been shown that if the answer to a computational problem can be computed in a finite amount of time, then there exists an abstract Turing machine that can compute it.

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Etymology

Origin of Turing machine

After Alan M. Turing (1912–54), English mathematician, who described such a machine in 1936

Example Sentences

Conway was then able to prove that Life was in essence a Turing machine that in principle could do everything computers could.

From BBC • Oct. 20, 2014

By contrast, a quantum computer–the virtual Turing machine inside the hardware– “lasts” for about a millionth of a second.

From Forbes • Mar. 13, 2014

Other events are pegged to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the mathematician Alan Turing, whose universal Turing machine is the basis of today’s computers.

From New York Times • May 24, 2012

During the operation of a Brownian Turing machine the tape would have to be immersed in a solution containing many enzyme molecules, as well as extra O's, 1 's, A's and B's.

From Scientific American • Jun. 1, 2011

And there he might happily have stayed, pottering about with problems in mathematical logic, had not his invention of the Turing machine and World War II intervened.

From Time Magazine Archive