26 Feb
2015
26 Feb
'15
6:19 a.m.
On 2015-Feb-25, at 9:11 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
On 02/25/2015 08:33 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
I was alluding to the never-ending dispute/question as to the origins of the
stored-program concept.
I'm agnostic about it myself, as no one (now) really knows who said what in the
meetings leading to von Neuman's production of "Draft Report on the EDVAC".
He got the credit as his name was on the draft and it 'unintentionally' was
distributed. IIRC from readings, vN himself didn't claim unique credit while
Eckert/Mauchly claimed some degree of credit. On the other hand, (again IIRC) Goldstine
was in those meetings, so would be a first-hand source.
Brief clip from a 1966 documentary about von
Neumann:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po3vwMq_2xA
Goldstine presenting while standing in front of the IAS machine, which appears to be
decommissioned and in storage.
Fuel for the eternal fire: Goldstine seems to be pretty definite in attributing the
stored-program concept to Johnny.
Well, I'm not sure the stored program concept was unique to von Neumann, it
was one of those concepts that was entirely ripe at that time. Stored program
is meaningless without a decent storage component. Delay lines had a bunch
of problems, Williams tubes were pretty limited, and drums were really slow,
but you got more capacity. And, then, of course, core obsoleted all of the
above, but that was well after the stored program concept was reality.
But, something that still bears von Neumann's name is the concept of a
unified memory for both data and instructions.
Yes . . which many consider a misattribution.
There is another interpretation of "von Neumann architecture": that of the IAS
machine which went bit-parallel, breaking from the more prevalent bit-serial design of the
first S-P machines, to become the more common form, and which might be said to be adding
to the confusion over the designation.
The computer in the video clip is the IAS, the
cylinders along the bottom
are Williams tubes, there's a row down each side of the machine. It is
on display at the Smithsonian.
Found the full doc, indeed it mentions the location shown as a Smithsonian warehouse.
I didn't know or had forgotten it was at the Smith.