双语畅销书《艾伦图灵传》第8章:水银延时线(39)
Discussion of this visionary cooperation of British brain and hand was postponed until the meeting of the Executive Committee on 19 March.
This time Alan was invited to attend, and after being dauntingly introduced by Womersley as 'an expert in the field of mathematical logic', he did his best to explain the ACE as simply as possible.
这次图灵应邀参加了会议，在被沃默斯利介绍成令人生畏的"数理逻辑领域顶级专家"之后，他尽量简单地介绍了ACE。It was a particularly clear account, in which he began by saying
这是一段非常清楚的表达，他在开头说道：
that if a high overall computing speed was to be obtained it was necessary to do all operations automatically.
总而言之，如果想提高计算速度，就必须实现自动化操作。It was not sufficient to do the arithmetical operations at electronic speeds: provision must also be made for the transfer of data (numbers, etc.) from place to place.
对于算术运算而言，光有电子速度是不够的，还要对数据进行移动和传输，于是就有了两个更进一步的需求：This led to two further requirements—'storage' or 'memory' for the numbers not immediately in use, and means for instructing the machine to do the right operations in the right order.
要"存储"或者说"记忆"那些暂时不用的数据，还要有一套方法来保证机器能按照正确的顺序执行正确的操作。There were then four problems, two of which were engineering problems and two mathematical or combinatory.
这就引入了四个课题，其中两个是工程课题，还有两个是数学课题。Problem (1) (Engineering) To provide a suitable storage system.
课题1（工程）研究适合该设备的存储系统。Problem (2) (Engineering) To provide high speed electronic switching units.
课题2（工程）研究高速的电子开关组件。Problem (3) (Mathematical) To design circuits for the ace, building these circuits up from the storage and switching units described under Problems 1 and 2.
课题3（数学）基于上述的存储系统和开关组件，设计ACE的电路。Problem (4) (Mathematical) To break down the computing jobs which are to be done on the ace into the elementary processes which the ace is designed to carry out.
课题4（数学）将ACE所要解决的问题，分解成ACE能够执行的基本操作……devise tables of instructions which translate the jobs into a form which is understood by the machine.
构造指令表，也就是将问题转化成机器能够理解的形式。
