A Turing machine is an idealized model of computation consisting of a finite-state control, an infinite tape holding information, and a read head positioned somewhere over the tape. Turing machines are used in computability theory to reason about the limits of computation, to provide a formal definition for an algorithm, and to provide formal models for nondeterminism.
Wiki
A Turing machine is a device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer.
Turing machines are not physical objects but mathematical ones. A Turing machine is a kind of state machine. At any time the machine is in any one of a finite number of states. Instructions for a Turing machine consist in specified conditions under which the machine will transition between one state and another.
The tape is used to store data. In addition, it can also store a series of transitions (a small programs) and thus, the head can run sub-programs.
By analogy with modern computers, the tape is the memory and the head is the microprocessor.
Tag usage
The tag turing-machines can be used for programming related problems in implementing features of a turing machine. The tag can also be used for algorithmic problems related to turing machine. Try to avoid theoretical and research based questions on Stack Overflow.
Please note https://cstheory.stackexchange.com is another stack exchange website which you can use to ask theoretical and conceptual problems with tag turing-machines
