A New Approach to Abstract Machines - Introduction to the Theory of Configuration Machines

An abstract machine is a theoretical model designed to perform a rigorous study of computation. Such a model usually consists of configurations, instructions, programs, inputs and outputs for the machine. In this paper we formalize these notions as a very simple algebraic system, called a configuration machine. If an abstract machine is defined as a configuration machine consisting of primitive recursive functions then the functions computed by the machine are always recursive. The theory of configuration machines provides a useful tool to study universal machines.