Simulating Turing machines on Maurer machines

Maurer machines are much closer to real computers than Turing machines. Computer instructions play a prominent part in Maurer machines. We show a straightforward way to simulate Turing machines on a Maurer machine. It illustrates that the instruction implicitly executed by a Turing machine on a test or write step must be capable of reading or overwriting the contents of any cell from the infinite number of cells on the tape of the Turing machine. Real computers do not have such instructions. We show two ways to get rid of this kind of infinity.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: JAPLL
• Authors: Jan A. Bergstra, C. A. Middelburg
• Keywords: JAPLL 2008, Machine, Maurer Machine, Turing