CSC-4890

Introduction to the Theory of

Computation
Slides with thanks from Costas Busch
http://www.csc.lsu.edu/~busch/courses/t
heorycomp/fall2015/
Costas Busch - LSU 1
 General Info about Course

Books
•John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, Jeffrey D. Ullman, Introduction to
Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation

•Daniel I. A. Cohen, Introduction to Computer Theory

•Introduction to the Theory of Computation, Michael Sipser

•An Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata, Peter Linz

Other stuff
My own lecture notes!!!

Costas Busch - LSU 2

 Course Goals
Provide computation Models
Analyze power of Models
Answer Intractability questions:
What computational problems
can each model solve?

Answer Time Complexity questions:

[Not How much time we need to

Covered] solve the problems?
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A widely accepted model of computation

CPU memory

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The different components of memory

temporary memory

input
CPU
output

Program memory

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 Example: f ( x)  x 3

temporary memory

input
CPU
output
Program memory
compute xx
compute x x
2
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 f ( x)  x 3

temporary memory
input
x2
CPU
output
Program memory
compute xx
compute x x
2
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 temporary memory f ( x)  x 3
z  2*2  4
f ( x)  z * 2  8
input
x2
CPU
output
Program memory
compute xx
compute x x
2
Costas Busch - LSU 8
 temporary memory f ( x)  x 3
z  2*2  4
f ( x)  z * 2  8
input
x2
CPU
f ( x)  8
Program memory output
compute xx
compute x x
2
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 Automaton
temporary memory

Automaton
input
CPU
output

Program memory

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 Automaton
temporary memory

Automaton
input

output
transition

state

CPU+ProgramMem = States + Transitions

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 Different Kinds of Automata
Automata are distinguished by the temporary memory

• Finite Automata: no temporary memory

• Pushdown Automata: stack

• Turing Machines: random access memory

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Memory affects computational power:

More flexible memory

results to
The solution of more computational
problems

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 Finite Automaton

temporary memory

input
Finite
Automaton
output
Example: Elevators, Vending Machines,
Lexical Analyzers
(small computing power)
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 Pushdown Automaton
Temp.
memory Stack Push, Pop

Pushdown input

Automaton
output

Example: Parsers for Programming Languages

(medium computing power)
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 Turing Machine

Temp.
memory Random Access Memory

input
Turing
Machine
output

Examples: Any Algorithm

(highest known computing power)
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 Power of Automata
Simple More complex Hardest
problems problems problems

Finite Pushdown Turing

Automata Automata Machine

Less power More power

Solve more
computational problems
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Turing Machine is the most powerful
known computational model

Question: can Turing Machines solve

all computational problems?

Answer: NO
(there are unsolvable problems)
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Time Complexity of Computational Problems:

P problems:
(Polynomial time problems)

Solved in polynomial time

NP-complete problems:
(Non-deterministic Polynomial time problems)
Believed to take exponential
time to be solved

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