John von Neumann was a Hungarian born mathematician who, in a widely circulated 1945 report on the EDVAC computer, described a computer architecture in which a program's instructions are stored in the same memory as its data, rather than fixed by wiring as in earlier machines. This design, now called the von Neumann architecture, became the basis of nearly every general purpose computer built since. He also made foundational contributions to game theory, quantum mechanics and the Manhattan Project.
Facts
John von Neumann
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His 1945 First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC described the organization of logical elements that later machines follow.
Source Wikipedia: Computer architecture
John von Neumann's 1945 First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC described the stored-program architecture, with a single memory holding both instructions and data, that gives the von Neumann architecture its name and underlies most computer designs since.
Source Computer: A History of the Information MachineMartin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray
ENIAC, Systems Von Neumann consulted on ENIAC and its successor EDVAC, whose 1945 design report, describing the stored program architecture now named for him, he authored.
Source Computer: A History of the Information MachineMartin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray
Invented
Source Wikipedia: Merge sort
Source Wikipedia: Von Neumann architecture
Invented By
John von Neumann proved the minimax theorem underlying the algorithm in his 1928 game theory paper.
Sources
1. Computer: A History of the Information Machine
Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Basic Books, 1996
2. Wikipedia: John von Neumann
Wikimedia FoundationComputer science
He was a pioneer in building the mathematical framework of quantum physics, in the development of functional analysis, and in game theory, introducing or codifying concepts including cellular automata, the universal constructor and the digital computer.
Lead section, opening sentence
John von Neumann (Hungarian: Neumann János Lajos; December 28, 1903, February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer.
View the Source Wikipedia: Computer architecture
WikipediaAssociated With: Computer Architecture, History sectionQuote, Associated With: Computer Architecture, History section
John von Neumann's 1945 paper, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, which described an organization of logical elements.
Wikipedia: Von Neumann architecture
WikipediaInvented: Von Neumann Architecture, History sectionView the Source Wikipedia: Merge sort
Wikimedia FoundationInvented: Merge Sort, History sectionQuote, Invented: Merge Sort, History section
invented by John von Neumann in 1945
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