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Computer Architecture
Published in Bogdan M. Wilamowski, J. David Irwin, Fundamentals of Industrial Electronics, 2018
Program instructions and data are stored and retrieved from the memory of the computer. If a single memory is used for both, as is the case in most general-purpose computers and illustrated in Figure 23.3a, the computer is said to have a Von Neumann architecture, after Jon Von Neumann who is credited with developing the first stored program computer. A computer that uses one memory for instructions and a separate memory for data, as shown in Figure 23.3b, is referred to as having a Harvard architecture. Many microcontrollers fall into this category. In addition, a number of high-performance CPUs use Harvard architectures to enable instruction and data memories to be accessed concurrently.
Advanced Digital Concepts
Published in Dale Patrick, Stephen Fardo, Vigyan ‘Vigs’ Chandra, Electronic Digital System Fundamentals, 2020
Dale Patrick, Stephen Fardo, Vigyan ‘Vigs’ Chandra
Earlier computer designs were hardwired systems which could not perform any other function than for which they had been created. They were in a sense pre-programmed, to perform a specific operation or sequence, such as adding numbers, or calculating the trajectory of a missile. Such fixed purpose devices were expensive to maintain. With the advent of the ‘stored program’ computer it was possible to run a variety of programs on the same fixed hardware.
Neutronics Calculation Advances at Los Alamos: Manhattan Project to Monte Carlo
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2021
Avneet Sood, R. Arthur Forster, B. J. Archer, R. C. Little
Although the ENIAC was not built as a stored-program computer, it was flexible enough that it eventually evolved into one.39,41 The ENIAC was best described as a collection of electronic adding machines and other arithmetic units that were originally controlled by a web of large electrical cables.42 The ENIAC was far more difficult to “program” than modern computers. There were no operating systems, programming languages, or compilers available. It was programmed by a combination of plug board wiring and three portable function tables. Each function table had 1200 ten-way switches used for entering tables of numbers. There were about 40 plug boards, each several feet in size. A number of wires had to be plugged in for each single instruction of a problem. A typical problem required thousands of connections that took several days to do and many more days to check out.