In 1945, Turing was invited to the National Physics Laboratory, where he designed the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE). This was the first complete specification of an all-purpose electronic digital computer. If Turing's design had been built as he planned, it would have had much more memory and been much faster than other computers of the time, but the NPL thought the engineering it required was too difficult and a smaller "Pilot Model" was built instead.
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In 1952, Turing was found to be homosexual, a crime according to British law. He was convicted and given the choice of going to prison or a year of estrogen injections. He chose the latter option and returned to various academic pursuits. Turing's conviction removed his security clearance, which prevented him from continuing his work on cryptography at Bletchley Park.
Alan Turing died on June 7, 1954 due to cyanide poisoning. The remains of an apple were found next to his body, and the death was ruled a suicide. However, no evidence was presented that showed Turing had intended to take his life, and other causes of death which could not be ruled out include the inhalation of cyanide from his laboratory or murder by the secret services.
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