Editing Deterministic system (section)

==In computer science==

A deterministic [[model of computation]], for example a [[deterministic Turing machine]], is a model of computation such that the successive states of the machine and the operations to be performed are completely determined by the preceding state.

A [[deterministic algorithm]] is an algorithm which, given a particular input, will always produce the same output, with the underlying machine always passing through the same sequence of states. There may be non-deterministic algorithms that run on a deterministic machine, for example, an algorithm that relies on random choices. Generally, for such random choices, one uses a [[pseudorandom number generator]], but one may also use some external physical process, such as the last digits of the time given by the computer clock.

A ''pseudorandom number generator'' is a deterministic algorithm, that is designed to produce sequences of numbers that behave as random sequences. A [[hardware random number generator]], however, may be non-deterministic.