Ask a Teacher
Who is the father of modern computer? |
John von Neumann: The Father of the Modern Computer The principal feature of a von Neumann computer is that the program and any data are both stored together, usually in a slow-to-access storage medium such as a hard disk, and transferred as required to a faster, and more volatile storage medium (RAM) for execution or processing by a central processing unit (CPU). Since this how practically all present day computers work, the term "von Neumann architecture" is rarely used now, but it was in common parlance in the computing profession through to the early 1970s. When von Neumann proposed this architecture in 1945, it was a radical idea. Prior to then, programs were viewed as essentially part of the machine, and hence different from the data the machine operated on. A common approach was to input the program by some physical means, such as wiring a plugboard, and then feeding in the data for the program to act upon. |