雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(46)
Already by May, when Jim Wilkinson joined in work on the ACE design, it had reached a Version V.
One difference was that this incorporated a hardware facility for conditional branching.
主要的改進是添加了一個新的硬件部件，以便實現條件轉移。It was quickly replaced by a transitional Version VI and then a Version VII.
這個版本很快就被過渡性的第六個版本取代，隨後又有了第七個版本。
By this time Alan was devoting more attention to speed of operation than he had done in the original report, at the cost of more hardware.
在這個階段，相比於報告中提到的內容，圖靈把更多的精力轉到研究添加硬件部件以提高機器的速度。In Version VII enough equipment was added to make it possible for an instruction to have the effect of a complete arithmetical operation, taking two numbers from store, adding them, and putting the result back into store.
在第七個版本中，圖靈引入了足夠的硬件部件，使得只需一條指令就能完成整個算術操作，從存儲器中讀取兩個數，把它們相加，然後把結果重新存儲起來。Again in the interest of speed, it was necessary to program the instructions so that as far as possible each instruction would be leaving its delay line just as the previous one had been executed.
同樣是爲了速度，圖靈還要求，在執行一條指令的同時，就要讀取下一條指令，這一點非常重要。Since different operations would take different lengths of time to complete, this made the construction of tables into a crossword-puzzle operation.
因爲不同指令的執行時間各不相同，所以這使指令表的結構變得非常複雜，It also led to a decision that every instruction should specify which instruction the 'head' was to take next, abandoning the idea of a natural stream of consecutive orders, flowing with only occasional interruptions.
而且每一條指令都需要告訴讀寫頭，下一條指令在哪裏。他放棄了自然的連續順序，取而代之的是許多偶然的中斷。It also increased the length of the instruction words from thirty-two to forty pulses, again requiring more equipment.
另外，這還導致每條指令的長度從32個脈衝增加到40個脈衝，所以還需要更多的硬件設備。In Version VII each such operation would take forty microseconds, but it would then take another forty microseconds to assemble the next instruction in the control circuits.
在第七版本中，每次運算需要40微秒，但還要再花40微秒把下一條指令載入控制電路。Again in the interest of speed, Alan wished to eliminate this period by duplicating part of the equipment so that each instruction could be assembled while the last was being performed.
爲了進一步提高速度，圖靈希望將一部分硬件設備變成雙份，使得一條指令執行時，下一條指令可以同時載入，這樣就能節省一倍的時間。
