von Neumann machine

von Neumann machine

 the basic design of the modern, or classical, computer. The concept was fully articulated by three of the principal scientists involved in the construction of ENIAC during World War II—Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine, and John von Neumann (von Neumann, John)—in “Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument” (1946). Although many researchers contributed ideas directly or indirectly to the paper, von Neumann was the principal author, and it is frequently cited as the birth certificate of computer science.

      Among the principles enunciated in the paper were that data and instructions should be kept in a single store and that instructions should be encoded so as to be modifiable by other instructions. This was an extremely critical decision, because it meant that one program could be treated as data by another program. The German engineer Konrad Zuse had considered and rejected this possibility as too dangerous for his Zuse computers (Zuse computer). But its inclusion by von Neumann's group made possible high-level computer programming languages (computer programming language) and most of the advances in software of the following 50 years. Subsequently, computers with stored programs were known as von Neumann machines.

      One problem that the stored-program idea solved was the need for rapid access to instructions. ENIAC had used plugboards, which had the advantage of enabling the instructions to be read electronically, rather than by much slower mechanical card readers, but it also had the disadvantage of making ENIAC very hard to program. But if the instructions could be stored in the same electronic memory that held the data, they could be accessed as quickly as needed. One immediately obvious consequence was that future computers would need a lot more memory than ENIAC.

Paul A. Freiberger Michael R. Swaine
 

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Von Neumann machine — may refer to:.* Von Neumann architecture, a conceptual model of a computer architecture * Self replicating machines, a class of machines that can replicate themselves ** Universal Constructors, self replicating cellular automata ** Von Neumann… …   Wikipedia

  • von Neumann machine — Named after the mathematician John von Neumann (1903–57), a von Neumann machine is a computer built around (i) a control unit, an arithmetic and logic unit, a memory, and input and output facilities; (ii) a way of storing programs in memory; and… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • von Neumann machine — noun any digital computer incorporating the ideas of stored programs and serial counters that were proposed in 1946 by von Neumann and his colleagues • Hypernyms: ↑digital computer …   Useful english dictionary

  • von Neumann machine — noun a) Any computer that has a central processing unit and can store programs in memory b) Any machine that is capable of self replication …   Wiktionary

  • Von Neumann (disambiguation) — von Neumann may refer to:* von Neumann (crater), a lunar impact crater * von Neumann (surname), a German surnameee also* von Neumann algebra * von Neumann architecture * von Neumann conjecture * von Neumann entropy * von Neumann machine * von… …   Wikipedia

  • Von Neumann architecture — The term Von Neumann architecture, aka the Von Neumann model, derives from a computer architecture proposal by the mathematician and early computer scientist John von Neumann and others, dated June 30, 1945, entitled First Draft of a Report on… …   Wikipedia

  • von Neumann, John — orig. Johann Von Neumann born Dec. 3, 1903, Budapest, Hung. died Feb. 8, 1957, Washington, D.C., U.S. Hungarian born U.S. mathematician. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Budapest, he emigrated to the U.S. to teach at Princeton… …   Universalium

  • Von Neumann — John von Neumann Pour les articles homonymes, voir Neumann. John von Neumann …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Von Neumann cellular automaton — Von Neumann cellular automata are the original expression of cellular automata, the development of which were prompted by suggestions made to John von Neumann by his close friend and fellow mathematician Stanisław Ulam. Their original purpose was …   Wikipedia

  • Von Neumann universal constructor — John von Neumann s Universal Constructor is a self replicating machine in a cellular automata environment. It was designed in the 1940s, without the use of a computer. The fundamental details of the machine were published in von Neumann s book… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”