TURING, Alan Mathison

Turing (Turing), Alan Mathison (1912 - 54) - brilliantly gifted English mathematician. At age 24, wrote a paper "On Computable Numbers", which was destined to play a vital role in the development of computational mathematics and computer science.

The work dealt with very difficult problems in mathematical logic - the description of tasks to Score is not able to solve even theoretically. Trying to find such a description, Turing used as an aid in a powerful, though there is only in his imagination, computing device, in which he anticipated the key features of modern computer.

Turing called his abstract mechanical device "universal machine", because she had to cope with any admissible, that is theoretically solvable problem - mathematical or logical. Data were entered in the car on the tape, divided into cells - cells.

Each cell contained a character that was either empty. The machine could not only handle the characters recorded on the tape, but to change them, erasing the old and new writing in accordance with instructions stored in its internal memory. Some idea of the Turing were eventually translated into real machines.

Alan Turing was involved in the postwar years in creating a powerful computer - the machine with programs stored in memory, a number of properties which he took from his hypothetical universal machine. Prototype computer ACE (Automatic Computing Engine - Automatic computing device) came into operation in May 1950, Mr.. Turing machine problems keen intellect (he even invented a test that he believed it possible to determine whether machine think).

Probably, Turing could have much to gain in this area, but that his townspeople ektsentrichnost. In 1954, engaged in a game, the meaning of which is to manufacture chemicals from common household products, Turing was cyanide, and adopted it.
He died at the age of 41 years.