Each tape has its own head for reading and writing.
Initially, the input appears on tape 1, and the others start out blank.
[1] This model intuitively seems much more powerful than the single-tape model, but any multi-tape machine—no matter how many tapes—can be simulated by a single-tape machine using only quadratically more computation time.
[2] Thus, multi-tape machines cannot calculate any more functions than single-tape machines,[3] and none of the robust complexity classes (such as polynomial time) are affected by a change between single-tape and multi-tape machines.
-tape Turing machine can be formally defined as a 7-tuple
All the heads start on the leftmost position of the tapes.
has started, the computation proceeds according to the rules described by the transition function.
The computation continues until it enters the accept states, at which point it halts.
Two-stack Turing machines have a read-only input and two storage tapes.
If a head moves left on either tape a blank is printed on that tape, but one symbol from a "library" can be printed.