RESET MACHINES

A reset tape has one read-write head which moves only left-to-right except that the head can be reset once to the left end and the tape rescanned; a multiple-reset machine has reset tapes as auxiliary storage and a one-way input tape. Linear time is no more powerful than real time for nondeterministic multiple-reset machines and so the family MULTI-RESET of languages accepted in real time by nondeterministic multiple-reset machines is closed under linear erasing. MULTI-RESET is closed under Kleene. It can be characterized as the smallest family of languages containing the regular sets and closed under intersection and linear-erasing homomorphic duplication or as the smallest intersection-closed semiAFL containing COPY = {ww | w in {a, b}*}. A circular tape is read full-sweep from left-to-right only and then reset to the left, any number of times; a nonwriting circular tape cannot be altered after the first sweep. For nondeterministic machines operating in real time, multiple reset tapes, circular tapes or nonwriting circular tapes have the same power. Languages in MULTI-RESET can be accepted in real time by nondeterministic machines using only three reset tapes or using only one reset tape and one nonwriting circular tape. © 1979.