Johann (John) Von Neumann writes the "First Draft"

1945 AD
Von Neumann writes the "First Draft"

In June 1944, the Hungarian- American mathematician Johann (John) Von Neumann first became aware of ENIAC. Von Neumann, who was a consultant on the Manhattan Project, immediately recognized the role that could be played by a computer like ENIAC in solving the vast arrays of complex equations involved in designing atomic weapons.		John von Neumann Copyright (c) 1997. Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc.
a
A brilliant mathematician, Von Neumann crossed mathematics with subjects such as philosophy in ways that had never previously been conceived; for example, he was a pioneer of Game Theory, which continues to find numerous and diverse applications to this day.		Von Neumann was tremendously excited by ENIAC and quickly became a consultant to both the ENIAC and EDVAC projects. In June 1945, he published a paper entitled "First Draft of a report to the EDVAC," in which he presented all of the basic elements of a stored-program computer:

A memory containing both data and instructions. Also to allow both data and instruction memory locations to be read from, and written to, in any desired order.
A calculating unit capable of performing both arithmetic and logical operations on the data.
A control unit, which could interpret an instruction retrieved from the memory and select alternative courses of action based on the results of previous operations.

a

The key point made by the paper was that the computer could modify its own programs, in much the same way as was originally suggested by Charles Babbage for his Analytical Engine. The computer structure resulting from the criteria presented in the "First Draft" is popularly known as a von Neumann Machine, and virtually all digital computers from that time forward have been based on this architecture.
a
The "First Draft" was a brilliant summation of the concepts involved in stored-program computing; indeed, many believe it to be one of the most important documents in the history of computing. It is said that the paper was written in a way that possibly only von Neumann could have achieved at that time.		However, although there is no doubt that von Neumann made major contributions to the EDVAC design, the result of the "First Draft" was that he received almost all of the credit for the concept of stored-program computing, while Mauchly and Eckert received almost none. But Mauchly and Eckert discussed stored-program computers a year before von Neumann arrived on the scene, and Eckert wrote a memo on the subject six months before von Neumann had even heard about ENIAC.
a
It has to be said that there is no evidence that Von Neumann intended to take all of the credit for EDVAC and the stored program computing concept (not the least that his paper was titled "First Draft ...."), but it also cannot be denied that he didn't go out of his way to correct matters later.

a

These notes are abstracted from the book Bebop BYTES Back (An Unconventional Guide to Computers) Copyright Information