Biography
John von Neumann
- Born
- 28 December 1903
- Died
- 8 February 1957
- Nationality
- Hungarian-American
- Known for
- The stored-program computer architecture, Game theory, Foundational work across mathematics
John von Neumann shaped the computer more than almost anyone who never built one. In 1945 he wrote a report describing a design in which a computer stores its instructions and its data together in the same memory, and a single processor works through them. That stored-program idea, now called the von Neumann architecture, is the basic plan of nearly every computer built since.
He arrived at computing already famous. Born in Budapest in 1903, von Neumann was a mathematical prodigy who made deep contributions to pure mathematics, quantum physics and economics before he turned to machines. He founded the field of game theory, and he worked on the Manhattan Project during the Second World War. His speed of thought and memory became the stuff of legend among colleagues who were themselves among the best in the world.
His involvement with computers came through the need to solve enormous calculations for physics and weapons work. Seeing the early electronic machines, he grasped what they could become and set down the design that made them general-purpose. He spent his final years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, building one of the first computers to use his architecture, before his early death in 1957.
Frequently asked
What is the von Neumann architecture?
It is the design in which a computer holds both its instructions and its data in the same memory, and a processor reads and carries them out step by step. Almost every computer built since the 1940s follows this design.
What did John von Neumann invent?
He did not build a computer himself, but his 1945 report set out the stored-program architecture that nearly all computers use. He also founded game theory and made major contributions to mathematics, quantum physics and the design of the atomic bomb.
Was von Neumann a genius?
He was widely regarded as one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the twentieth century, known for a photographic memory and speed of calculation that astonished colleagues across several fields.