{"id":14786,"date":"2017-04-06T13:24:55","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T13:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/von-neumann-architecture\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T11:41:27","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T11:41:27","slug":"von-neumann-architecture","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture","title":{"rendered":"Von Neumann Architecture"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_von_neumann_architecture_mean\">What Does Von Neumann Architecture Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A von Neumann architecture machine, designed by physicist and mathematician John von Neumann (1903\u20131957) is a theoretical design for a stored program computer that serves as the basis for almost all modern computers. A von Neumann machine consists of a central processor with an arithmetic\/logic unit and a control unit, a memory, mass storage, and input and output.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_von_neumann_architecture\">Techopedia Explains Von Neumann Architecture<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The von Neumann machine was created by its namesake, John von Neumann, a physicist and mathematician, in 1945, building on the work of Alan Turing. The design was published in a document called &#8220;First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The report described the first stored-program computer. Earlier computers, such as the ENIAC, were hard-wired to do one task. If the computer had to perform a different task, it had to be rewired, which was a tedious process. With a stored-program computer, a general purpose computer could be built to run different programs.<\/p>\n<p>The theoretical design consists of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A central processor consisting of a control unit and an arithmetic\/logic unit<\/li>\n<li>A memory unit<\/li>\n<li>Mass storage<\/li>\n<li>Input and output<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The von Neumann design thus forms the basis of modern computing. A similar model, the Harvard architecture, had dedicated data address and buses for both reading and writing to memory. The von Neumann architecture won out because it was simpler to implement in real hardware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Von Neumann Architecture Mean? A von Neumann architecture machine, designed by physicist and mathematician John von Neumann (1903\u20131957) is a theoretical design for a stored program computer that serves as the basis for almost all modern computers. A von Neumann machine consists of a central processor with an arithmetic\/logic unit and a control [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[241,217],"class_list":["post-14786","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-computer-science","definitioncat-hardware"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Von Neumann Architecture? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Von Neumann Architecture and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Von Neumann Architecture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Von Neumann Architecture and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-20T11:41:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Von Neumann Architecture\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-06T13:24:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-20T11:41:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture\"},\"wordCount\":236,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/32480\/von-neumann-architecture\",\"name\":\"What is Von Neumann Architecture? 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