First draft of a report on the EDVACJohn Von Neumann
First draft of a report on the EDVAC
by John Von Neumann · first published 1945
11mentions
2recommended by
10HN commenters
2010–2026first – last mentioned
20% recommend80% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
The laws of thoughtGeorge Boole2014–2026
The laws of thought
George Boole
Recommended by 1 · mentioned by 141 recommend · 14 mention1 recommend · 141 recommend
As We May ThinkVannevar Bush2009–2026
As We May Think
Vannevar Bush
Recommended by 23 · mentioned by 8523 recommend · 85 mention23 recommend · 8523 recommend
2009–2026The mathematical theory of communication
Claude Elwood Shannon
Recommended by 47 · mentioned by 10347 recommend · 103 mention47 recommend · 10347 recommend
Following this article, is very interesting to read the "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" by Von Neumann (1945): http://web.mit.edu/STS.035/www/PDFs/edvac.pdf
on “A man who tried to redeem the world with logic (2015)” ↗I also like "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" which essentially goes into thinking sort of questions that we today take for granted. For instance: 1) What arithmetic operations should one put into hardware ? 2) Do we really need main memory ? 3)…
on “Ask HN: What if I missed the good stuff in my undergraduate education?” ↗…Hathaway Aiken A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits (1938) By Claude Shannon A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity (1943) By Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945) By John von Neumann As We May Think (1945) By Vannevar Bush A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948) By Claude Shannon Error Detecting and Error Correcting Codes (1950) By R. W. Hamming…
on “Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science” ↗…Electrical Engineering. Eckert and Mauchly and the other ENIAC designers were joined by John von Neumann in a consulting role; von Neumann summarized and discussed logical design developments in the 1945 First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDVAC
on “Google Acquires Boston Dynamics” ↗“Any error may vitiate the entire output of the device. For the recognition and correction of such malfunctions intelligent human intervention will in general be necessary.” — John von Neumann, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, 1945
on “Turing Complete User” ↗von Neumann, "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" Mimeograph: https://archive.org/details/firstdraftofrepo00vonn/ Retypeset: https://archive.org/details/vnedvac/
on “Creating a Computer Science Canon (2003) [pdf]” ↗In my opinion one of the great contributions of Von Neumann was the fact his "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" report was spread so quickly in academic circles. When Eckert and Mauchly attempted to apply to patent their ideas for the ENIAC, the courts decided that the report constituted prior publication, and…
on “The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann” ↗…polarized relays), with ferromagnetic materials, SRAM (with vacuum-tube flip-flops) and DRAM (with capacitors). His list covered very well the most important kinds of memories used later. The report “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC” written by John von Neumann in 1945 added to these alternatives the memories made with delay lines (an idea presumably taken from the discussions with the ENIAC team). Moreover, the von Neumann report…
on “Modern Baby: A pioneering computer from Manchester” ↗…were later invalidated. They claimed quite a few things that were later disproven in court or through historical study. At the least, Eniac was designed by the team at the Moore School. von Neumann's "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" was both a summary of discussions by the Eniac team as well as von Neumann's own original work proving and expanding on various aspects of those discussions. It's called the von Neumann architecture…
on “Alan Kay's answer to “Did the ENIAC have a BIOS”?” ↗No, the John von Neumann report ("First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC") is dated 30 June 1945 and it was widely circulated during the following months in typewritten copies. Freely-downloadable copies can be easily found now by searching the Internet. This 1945 report…
on “The birth of random-access memory” ↗…conversation about book collecting this weekend: we asked each other which of their books is so obscure or rare that it's unlikely anybody else you know owns a copy. For me, it's a printed copy of von Neumans "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC", the groundwork for modern computer architecture. Bought it from Kronecker Wallis, a tiny Spanish publisher.
on “Ask HN: What is the most obscure book you own?” ↗