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30 June 1945Primary source · 2 sourcesDebated

Von Neumann's EDVAC report describes the stored-program computer

A widely-shared report gives its author's name to an idea built by a whole team

On the timeline · around 30 June 1945 · The Electronic ComputerMechanical and Theoretical FoundationsThe Electronic ComputerVon Neumann's EDVAC report describes the stored-program computer19151925193519451950

Quick facts

Report author
John von Neumann
Circulated
30 June 1945, by Herman Goldstine
Core idea
Instructions and data stored together in one binary memory
Credit dispute
Eckert and Mauchly say the idea was developed jointly at the Moore School before von Neumann's report

What happened

While ENIAC was still being built, mathematician John von Neumann joined the Moore School team and, in an incomplete 101-page document circulated on 30 June 1945, wrote the first widely-read description of a stored-program computer: a machine holding both its instructions and its data in one memory, encoded in the same binary form, so it could read, and even modify, its own program while running. This is the design later called the 'von Neumann architecture,' still the basic layout of most computers today. The report drew on discussions von Neumann had with Eckert, Mauchly, and Herman Goldstine, but named only von Neumann as author when it circulated.

Why it matters

The stored-program idea solved ENIAC's central weakness, that reprogramming meant physically rewiring the machine, by letting programs live in memory and be swapped as easily as data. Because von Neumann's report spread widely under his name alone, it also created a lasting credit dispute: Eckert and Mauchly maintained they had worked out the concept independently at the Moore School well before his report, and historians have since acknowledged their role even as the term 'von Neumann architecture' remains standard.

How we know

The Computer History Museum's own blog on 'the neverending quest for firsts' lays out the credit dispute explicitly, describing how the report's wide, uncredited circulation obscured Eckert and Mauchly's contributions for years before historians corrected the record.

Sources

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