The Powder Toy Turing Machine

The Turing machine:

            The Turing machine is a theoretical device, designed to test the limits of computing. The design consists of a read / writes head that scans an infinite tape, reading and editing the machine’s state value and the tape itself. Each machine has a finite ‘grid’ of pre-set instructions – for each possible combination of state and current “letter” on the tape, an action takes place: the head changes / leaves the current letter on the tape, moves / leaves the position of the tape and defines the new state. Any letter on the tape not previously defined is the empty letter. The input tape can contain a finite number of non-empty letters. In theory, this machine can compute anything any modern computer can. (Woo - the powder toy played on a tape!)

My Version:

            The machine was never planned to be built – no one can make an infinite tape. My design has 69 tape cells (the program cannot move the read / write head off the tape – the r/w head just stops), five useful states (001 through 110), one halt state (state 000), one explode state (111), eight letters (000 through 111), a tape editor, a built in bomb and a manual halt button with the clock. The large grid is (you guessed it) the machine logic. The rows represent states, 001 at the top, 110 at the bottom, under the comments. The columns represent the current letter, 000 on the left and 111 on the right. My design is limited, as TPT is, and runs slowly on some systems.

Code:

            The code (as said in my big comment) has the format: |000|000|00| where the bits represent | state | replacement letter | direction to move the r / w head |. The direction of the r / w head remains in the same position with 00 (or if trying to move off the tape), moves right with 01, left with 10 and the machine is destroyed with 11. Remember “state, replace, direction.”

            Bimmo_devices