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The efficiency of algorithms and machines: a survey of the complexity theoretic approach

Published: 04 June 1973 Publication History

Abstract

The credibility of computer science as a science depends to a large extent on the complexity theoretic results which are now emerging. In this survey the efficiency of algorithms and machines for finite tasks, i.e., tasks representable by functions with finite domain and range, will be examined.
The complexity of functions can be measured in several ways. Two useful measures to be discussed in this survey are the shortest length program for a function on a universal Turing machine and the smallest number of logical operations to compute a function.
Two storage-time tradeoff inequalities for the computation of functions on random-access general purpose computers will be stated. These imply that efficient use of these machines is possible only for algorithms using small storage and large time or the reverse. Intermediate amounts of storage and time generally imply inefficient operation.
  1. The efficiency of algorithms and machines: a survey of the complexity theoretic approach

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    AFIPS '73: Proceedings of the June 4-8, 1973, national computer conference and exposition
    June 1973
    936 pages
    ISBN:9781450379168
    DOI:10.1145/1499586
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 04 June 1973

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