A Turing machine is a theoretical device that manipulates symbols contained on a strip of tape. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside of a computer. The "Turing" machine (its author called his machine an "a(utomatic)-machine") was described by Alan Turing in 1937. Turing machines are not intended as a practical...
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A Turing machine is a theoretical device that manipulates symbols contained on a strip of tape. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside of a computer. The "Turing" machine (its author called his machine an "a(utomatic)-machine") was described by Alan Turing in 1937. Turing machines are not intended as a practical computing technology, but rather as a thought experiment representing a computing machine (thus they have never actually been constructed). They help computer scientists understand the limits of mechanical computation.
A succinct definition of the thought experiment was given by Turing in his 1948 essay, "Intelligent Machinery". Referring back to his 1936 publication, Turing writes that the Turing machine, here called a Logical Computing Machine, consisted of:
..."an infinite memory capacity obtained in the form of an infinite tape marked out...
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