1,978 research outputs found
Computing with cells: membrane systems - some complexity issues.
Membrane computing is a branch of natural computing which abstracts computing models from the structure and the functioning of the living cell. The main ingredients of membrane systems, called P systems, are (i) the membrane structure, which consists of a hierarchical arrangements of membranes which delimit compartments where (ii) multisets of symbols, called objects, evolve according to (iii) sets of rules which are localised and associated with compartments. By using the rules in a nondeterministic/deterministic maximally parallel manner, transitions between the system configurations can be obtained. A sequence of transitions is a computation of how the system is evolving. Various ways of controlling the transfer of objects from one membrane to another and applying the rules, as well as possibilities to dissolve, divide or create membranes have been studied. Membrane systems have a great potential for implementing massively concurrent systems in an efficient way that would allow us to solve currently intractable problems once future biotechnology gives way to a practical bio-realization. In this paper we survey some interesting and fundamental complexity issues such as universality vs. nonuniversality, determinism vs. nondeterminism, membrane and alphabet size hierarchies, characterizations of context-sensitive languages and other language classes and various notions of parallelism
Networks of Bio-inspired Processors
The goal of this work is twofold. Firstly, we propose a uniform view of three types of accepting networks of bio-inspired processors: networks of evolutionary processors, networks of splicing processors and networks of genetic processors. And, secondly, we survey some features of these networks: computational power, computational and descriptional complexity, the existence of universal networks, eciency as problem solvers and the relationships among them
Complexity of Small Universal Turing Machines: A Survey
We survey some work concerned with small universal Turing machines, cellular automata, tag systems, and other simple models of computation. For example it has been an open question for some time as to whether the smallest known universal Turing machines of Minsky, Rogozhin, Baiocchi and Kudlek are efficient (polynomial time) simulators of Turing machines. These are some of the most intuitively simple computational devices and previously the best known simulations were exponentially slow. We discuss recent work that shows that these machines are indeed efficient simulators. In addition, another related result shows that Rule 110, a well-known elementary cellular automaton, is efficiently universal. We also discuss some old and new universal program size results, including the smallest known universal Turing machines. We finish the survey with results on generalised and restricted Turing machine models including machines with a periodic background on the tape (instead of a blank symbol), multiple tapes, multiple dimensions, and machines that never write to their tape. We then discuss some ideas for future work
The complexity of small universal Turing machines: a survey
We survey some work concerned with small universal Turing machines, cellular
automata, tag systems, and other simple models of computation. For example it
has been an open question for some time as to whether the smallest known
universal Turing machines of Minsky, Rogozhin, Baiocchi and Kudlek are
efficient (polynomial time) simulators of Turing machines. These are some of
the most intuitively simple computational devices and previously the best known
simulations were exponentially slow. We discuss recent work that shows that
these machines are indeed efficient simulators. In addition, another related
result shows that Rule 110, a well-known elementary cellular automaton, is
efficiently universal. We also discuss some old and new universal program size
results, including the smallest known universal Turing machines. We finish the
survey with results on generalised and restricted Turing machine models
including machines with a periodic background on the tape (instead of a blank
symbol), multiple tapes, multiple dimensions, and machines that never write to
their tape. We then discuss some ideas for future work
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