Computing · 1945

Stored-program architecture

Keep the program in the same memory as the data.

John von Neumann's First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC described a machine storing instructions alongside data, so programs could be loaded and modified like numbers. Nearly every computer built since follows this plan.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

ENIAC 1945
Turing machine 1936

What it led to 4

Manchester Baby 1948
EDSAC 1949
UNIVAC I 1951
Magnetic-core memory 1953

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Fastest computer in the world Latest: 2.2×10¹⁸ operations per second (2026) Source: Wikipedia: List of fastest computers; Wikipedia: History of supercomputing

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6