Register Machine Model of Computation: Difference between revisions

The '''Register Machine Model''' is a ''model of computation'' used to describe the computability of different equations. It is a sub-type of a class of computation models called ''Random Access Machines'' (RAMs), which also includes the related ''Stack Machine'' model. It is one of many highly diverse models, some of which - including many register machines - are ''Turing-Equivalent'', that is to say, they can compute the same set of propositions as a Universal Turing Machine. The relevance of the Register Machine model is that is it the easiest of all models to approximate in electronic hardware, and in fact the model was developed to describe the first programmable computer systems in mathematical terms, in order to demonstrate that they were Turing-equivalent.

A ''model of computation'' is a mathematical formalism that describes a mechanical process ('mechanical' in the sense of deterministic and rules-based, not necessarily mechanized or electronic) for performing computations. The idea of such formalisms arose in the early 20th century, when several mathematicians - most notably Alfred Whitehead, David Hilbert, and Bertrand Russell - began to speculate on whether it was possible to develop a mechanical system for deriving mathematical proofs. The earliest computational models, both developed in the early 1920s, were ''recursive function theory'' and ''recursive set theory'', both of which were used for developing a set of rules for performing computations and proving theorems.