Architecture · 1945 · John von Neumann
First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC
Decompose a programmable computer into arithmetic, control, memory, input, and output, with instructions represented in memory alongside data.
The central move
Decompose a programmable computer into arithmetic, control, memory, input, and output, with instructions represented in memory alongside data.
Why it had to exist
Early electronic machines were difficult to reconfigure and still treated control as something close to wiring. A general machine needed a reusable architecture for changing behavior without rebuilding the mechanism.
Where it leads
Logic and memory → stored instructions → instruction sets → software as a reusable artifact.