雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第4章:彼岸新星(94)

Alan was not the only person to be thinking about mechanical computation in 1939.

在1939年，不是隻有艾倫一個人在思考能夠自動計算的機器。

There were a number of ideas and initiatives, reflecting the growth of new electrical industries.

電子工業的發展，產生了很多新的想法和方案。

Several projects were on hand in the United States.

在美國，遊戲已經開始了。

One of these was the 'differential analyser' that the American engineer Vannevar Bush had designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1930.

其中一個是美國工程師範內瓦·布什1930年在麻省理工學院設計的差分機，

This could set up physical analogues of certain differential equations – the class of problem of most interest in physics and engineering.

它可以爲某些方程式建立物理的模擬。

A similar machine had then been built by the British physicist D.R. Hartree out of Meccano components at Manchester University.

曼徹斯特大學的英國物理學家D.R.哈特里也製造了一個類似的機器。

This in turn had been followed by the commissioning of another differential analyser at Cambridge, where in 1937 the mathematical faculty had sanctioned a new Mathematical Laboratory to house it.

緊接着，劍橋也建造了一個差分機，1937年，數學系還批准了一個新的實驗室用來安置它，

One of Alan's fellow 'B-stars' of 1934, the applied mathematician M.V. Wilkes, had been appointed as its junior member of staff.

並安排應用數學家M.V.威爾克斯，艾倫1934年'B-stars'計劃的夥伴來負責這臺機器。

Such a machine would have been useless for the zeta-function problem.

但是，這些機器對ζ函數問題是沒有用的。

Differential analysers could simulate only one special kind of mathematical system, and that only to a limited and very approximate extent.

差分機只能模擬一種特定的問題，而且還有很多限制。

Similarly the Turing zeta-function machine would be entirely specific to the even more special problem on hand.

與此類似，圖靈的ζ函數機也只能處理一類特定的問題。

It had no connection whatever with the Universal Turing Machine. It could hardly have been less universal.

這與通用圖靈機完全不同，它很難推廣到其它問題。