Alan Turning is often described as the father of computer science. He was an influential computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist. His work laid foundation for algorithm and computation with Turning Machine.
This blog post explores the idea of Turning Machine, which is a hypothetical machine but can simulate any complicated computer algorithm.
Turning machine is an abstract model that consists of an infinitely-long tape which acts like the memory in a typical computer or any other storage devices. It is consisted of four parts:
- A tape that is divided into cells, one next to the other;
- A head that can read and write symbols on the tape;
- A state register that stores the state of the Turning machine;
- A finite table of instructions.
- Read the symbol on the square under the head;
- Edit the symbol by writing a new symbol or erasing it;
- Move the tape left or right by one square so that the machine can read and edit the symbol on a neighboring square.
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Picture References:1.https://www.google.com/search?q=alan+turing&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQxLfqqr_PAhWI5SYKHQmuDXsQ_AUICCgB&biw=1280&bih=627&dpr=2#imgrc=_JwUeA8tUcu3AM%3A
2.http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/553128/Alan-Turing-Notebook-crack-the-Enigma-Code-auction-1-million
Writing References:
1. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/13/alan-turings-notebook-sells-for-more-than-1m-at-new-york-auction
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
3. https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/turing-machine/one.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine
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The picture above shows the Turning's original handwriting detailing his work on the foundations of mathematical notation and computer science. The notebook was sold for for $1,025,000 (£698,000) in a sale of fine books and manuscripts at Bonhams auction house.
This a perfect article that tells us about the father of computing and all the work he did, Do you think that if he didn't come up until one we would be the same without him ?Would another come in his place or would we still live without computing and all the technology we have in our lives these days ?
ReplyDeleteGreat post Cathy! It was great learning more about the Turning machine after we talked about the basics in class. It's interesting how his design had an infinite memory tape while current machines have a finite amount of memory. It makes you wonder whether an infinite memory tape is purely theoretical or if it has the potential to be achieved someday.
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