On this day in 1936, British mathematician Alan Turing published a paper describing the a-machine, or automatic-machine, an early digital computer which would later come to be known as a Turing Machine. Alan Turing and his pioneering implementations of Turing Machines would play a pivotal role in code-breaking operations during WWII.
In the paper titled “On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem,” Turing presented a theoretical machine that could solve any problem that could be described by simple instructions encoded on a paper tape. In essence, the paper tapes contained programs, and the Turing Machine, which could solve difficult mathematical problems, was basically a computer.
Nowadays, PC gamers and enthusiasts may well know “Turing” more for the GPU family from Nvidia, named in his honour. It is rumoured we might see Nvidia Turing come to prominence once again with the launch of a revamped GeForce RTX 2060 12GB in the coming days or weeks.
PCs and technology
- Nvidia: read about Purdue’s Anvil Supercomputer
- Classical computing “will run out of steam” for many critical problems in the next decade, says IDC
- Researchers propose a simpler design for quantum computers
- Nvidia unveiled Nvidia Flare, a software development kit for federated learning used for AI applications in medical imaging, genetic analysis, oncology, and COVID-19 research
- Researchers shrink camera to the size of a salt grain
Gaming
- Cyberpunk 2077’s next major update will arrive early in 2022
- GOG is losing money and refocusing on “handpicked selection of games”
- Company of Heroes 3 pre-alpha returns with another week of free access
Tech business
- Online spending on Black Friday decreased for the very first time
- Costs for broadband expansion: network operators want to ask Netflix and Co. to pay
- EU tech firms file formal complaint against Microsoft for bundling OneDrive with Windows
- Samsung has no plans for a 2022 Galaxy Note – foldables are the priority
- Someone just paid more than $650,000 for a yacht that only exists in the metaverse
