What (who) is Von Neumann - definition

<person> /jon von noy'mahn/ Born 1903-12-28, died 1957-02-08. A Hungarian-born mathematician who did pioneering work in quantum physics, game theory, and computer science. He contributed to the USA's Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb. von Neumann was invited to Princeton University in 1930, and was a mathematics professor at the {Institute for Advanced Studies} from its formation in 1933 until his death. From 1936 to 1938 Alan Turing was a visitor at the Institute and completed a Ph.D. dissertation under von Neumann's supervision. This visit occurred shortly after Turing's publication of his 1934 paper "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungs-problem" which involved the concepts of logical design and the universal machine. von Neumann must have known of Turing's ideas but it is not clear whether he applied them to the design of the IAS Machine ten years later. While serving on the BRL Scientific Advisory Committee, von Neumann joined the developers of ENIAC and made some critical contributions. In 1947, while working on the design for the successor machine, EDVAC, von Neumann realized that ENIAC's lack of a centralized control unit could be overcome to obtain a rudimentary stored program computer. He also proposed the fetch-execute cycle. His ideas led to what is now often called the von Neumann architecture. von Neumannmbsclass/is2000/hall_of_fame/vonneuma.htm">http://sis.pitt.edu/John von Neumannmbsclass/is2000/hall_of_fame/vonneuma.htm. von Neumannhistory/VonNeumann.html">http://ei.cs.vt.edu/John von Neumannhistory/VonNeumann.html. von Neumannmike/comphist/54nord/">http://ftp.arl.mil/John von Neumannmike/comphist/54nord/. (2004-01-14)

<architecture, computability> A computer architecture conceived by mathematician John von Neumann, which forms the core of nearly every computer system in use today (regardless of size). In contrast to a Turing machine, a von Neumann machine has a random-access memory (RAM) which means that each successive operation can read or write any memory location, independent of the location accessed by the previous operation. A von Neumann machine also has a central processing unit (CPU) with one or more registers that hold data that are being operated on. The CPU has a set of built-in operations (its instruction set) that is far richer than with the Turing machine, e.g. adding two binary integers, or branching to another part of a program if the binary integer in some register is equal to zero (conditional branch). The CPU can interpret the contents of memory either as instructions or as data according to the {fetch-execute cycle}. Von Neumann considered parallel computers but recognized the problems of construction and hence settled for a sequential system. For this reason, parallel computers are sometimes referred to as non-von Neumann architectures. A von Neumann machine can compute the same class of functions as a universal Turing machine. [Reference? Was von Neumann's design, unlike Turing's, originally intended for physical implementation?] von Neumann architecturetevans/VonNeuma.htm">http://salem.mass.edu/von Neumann architecturetevans/VonNeuma.htm. (2003-05-16)

The von Neumann architecture — also known as the von Neumann model or Princeton architecture — is a computer architecture based on a 1945 description by John von Neumann, and by others, in the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. The document describes a design architecture for an electronic digital computer with these components: