TURING MACHINE Definition & Meaning

Turing machine

[toor-ing muh-sheen, tyoor-]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Mathematics.

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.

Turing machine

noun

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

Turing machine

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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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of Turing machine¹

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

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

In the early 1980s, the American physicist Paul Benioff published a paper demonstrating that a quantum-mechanical model of a Turing machine—a computer—was theoretically possible.

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In the 1940's a secret Turing machine was used to break German military codes so German submarines could be sunk and the crews drowned.

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The quantum states of the atoms in the lattice embody a Turing machine, containing the information for each step of a computation to find the material's spectral gap.

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We must move beyond the idea of a computer as a fast but otherwise traditional 'Turing machine', churning through calculations bit by bit in a sequential, precise and reproducible manner.

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Even today, it’s difficult to have a serious discussion about information technology without eventually hitting on Turing machines, Turing tests or some other concept that he invented.

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Turing Turing test

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