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Lot 169
BURKS, ARTHUR W., HERMAN H. GOLDSTINE, and JOHN VON NEUMANN. Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument. [Princeton: Institute for Advanced Studies, September 1947.]
4 June 2014, 13:00 EDT
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BURKS, ARTHUR W., HERMAN H. GOLDSTINE, and JOHN VON NEUMANN.
Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument. [Princeton: Institute for Advanced Studies, September 1947.]
4to. [6], 42 ll. Reproduced typescript. Original buff printed wrappers. Some creasing to backstrip, tiny tear from lower edge of front wrapper, few soft creases.
Provenance: James R. Swain (ownership inscription to front wrapper).
THE FIRST MAJOR PUBLICATION ON THE DESIGN ARCHITECTURE FOR STORED-PROGRAM COMPUTERS, also known as the von Neumann or Princeton architecture and THE FOUNDATION FOR MODERN GENERAL-PURPOSE DIGITAL COMPUTING, second edition. This paper was preceded by Von Neumann's "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" but the present is the first regularly distributed work, albeit still in mimeograph form. The "stored program concept" is the notion that instructions, just like data, can be reduced to numerical format and stored in the internal memory of the computer. It has been called the single largest innovation in the history of the computer; among other things, this critical breakthrough: greatly simplified the preparation and revision of computer programs; permitted ready use of standard "subroutines" or packages of calculations; and accommodated complex problem solving by allowing the interim results of the ongoing processing of data to determine what course the program would follow—in a sense, allowing the computer to "modify its own program."
The innovation is described here in disarmingly simple language: "1.3. Conceptually we have discussed above two different forms of memory: storage of numbers and storage of orders. If, however, the orders to the machine are reduced to a numerical code and if the machine can in some fashion distinguish a number from an order, the memory organ can be used to store both numbers and orders."
The first edition of this paper appeared in July 1946; this edition contains an expanded account of the arithmetic processes and a report of further experiments. Following the Preliminary Discussion, Goldstine and Von Neumann wrote the three-volume companion, Planning and Coding of Problems for an Electronic Computing Instrument (see the following lot). These four papers together were the only source on this topic available until 1950 and 1951 with the distribution of Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill's Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer. Origins of Cyberspace 959.
4to. [6], 42 ll. Reproduced typescript. Original buff printed wrappers. Some creasing to backstrip, tiny tear from lower edge of front wrapper, few soft creases.
Provenance: James R. Swain (ownership inscription to front wrapper).
THE FIRST MAJOR PUBLICATION ON THE DESIGN ARCHITECTURE FOR STORED-PROGRAM COMPUTERS, also known as the von Neumann or Princeton architecture and THE FOUNDATION FOR MODERN GENERAL-PURPOSE DIGITAL COMPUTING, second edition. This paper was preceded by Von Neumann's "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" but the present is the first regularly distributed work, albeit still in mimeograph form. The "stored program concept" is the notion that instructions, just like data, can be reduced to numerical format and stored in the internal memory of the computer. It has been called the single largest innovation in the history of the computer; among other things, this critical breakthrough: greatly simplified the preparation and revision of computer programs; permitted ready use of standard "subroutines" or packages of calculations; and accommodated complex problem solving by allowing the interim results of the ongoing processing of data to determine what course the program would follow—in a sense, allowing the computer to "modify its own program."
The innovation is described here in disarmingly simple language: "1.3. Conceptually we have discussed above two different forms of memory: storage of numbers and storage of orders. If, however, the orders to the machine are reduced to a numerical code and if the machine can in some fashion distinguish a number from an order, the memory organ can be used to store both numbers and orders."
The first edition of this paper appeared in July 1946; this edition contains an expanded account of the arithmetic processes and a report of further experiments. Following the Preliminary Discussion, Goldstine and Von Neumann wrote the three-volume companion, Planning and Coding of Problems for an Electronic Computing Instrument (see the following lot). These four papers together were the only source on this topic available until 1950 and 1951 with the distribution of Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill's Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer. Origins of Cyberspace 959.