雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第8章:水銀延時線(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.
這次圖靈應邀參加了會議，在被沃默斯利介紹成令人生畏的"數理邏輯領域頂級專家"之後，他儘量簡單地介紹了ACE。It was a particularly clear account, in which he began by saying
這是一段非常清楚的表達，他在開頭說道：
that if a high overall computing speed was to be obtained it was necessary to do all operations automatically.
總而言之，如果想提高計算速度，就必須實現自動化操作。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.
對於算術運算而言，光有電子速度是不夠的，還要對數據進行移動和傳輸，於是就有了兩個更進一步的需求：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"存儲"或者說"記憶"那些暫時不用的數據，還要有一套方法來保證機器能按照正確的順序執行正確的操作。There were then four problems, two of which were engineering problems and two mathematical or combinatory.
這就引入了四個課題，其中兩個是工程課題，還有兩個是數學課題。Problem (1) (Engineering) To provide a suitable storage system.
課題1（工程）研究適合該設備的存儲系統。Problem (2) (Engineering) To provide high speed electronic switching units.
課題2（工程）研究高速的電子開關組件。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.
課題3（數學）基於上述的存儲系統和開關組件，設計ACE的電路。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.
課題4（數學）將ACE所要解決的問題，分解成ACE能夠執行的基本操作……devise tables of instructions which translate the jobs into a form which is understood by the machine.
構造指令表，也就是將問題轉化成機器能夠理解的形式。
