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I have searched the article (and another one that the author linked) for the clarity regarding what, specifically, were the original contributions of von Neuman

I have searched the article (and another one that the author linked) for the clarity regarding what, specifically, were the original contributions of von Neumann to the computer science. The best I could gather was that he was a "generalist" and that he popularized the principles developed during the work on ENIAC and EDVAC wider, than the engineers who designed those machines intended (to their displeasure). The specifics of computer architecture do not seem to be his idea. I welcome corrections to the impression that I've formed. Program stored in the same memory as data, particularly, strikes me as mixed blessing, given that it has proved over the years to be a never-drying wellspring of security vulnerabilities.

OskarS 3y ago
It may seem like a mixed blessing now, but without von Neumann architectures computers would not be what they are now. It's an ingenious, and non-obvious idea, that there should be no essential distinction between "program" and "data" (indeed, Turing machines are based on this idea as well). von Neumann was enormously important in early Computer Science, his contributions cannot be understated. Indeed, Knuth credits him with the one of the most fundamental concepts in all of programming, subroutines (Turing had similar ideas in England around the same time). For more specific examples, von Neumann also came up with the concept of the PRNG, and the first practical algorithm (the "middle square" method). PRNGs are not obvious: before von Neumann, people had only tried generating random numbers using a table or primitive hardware RNGs. He was the one who came up with the idea to generate random numbers using arithmetic methods already present in computers. He also came up with the worlds first practical computer algorithm for sorting, merge sort. There's a huge number of other examples, early CS is riddled with ideas that can from von Neumann.
- Mikhail_K 3y ago
  > without von Neumann architectures computers would not be what they are now. He did not develop that architecture. It is not his idea. The article is pretty clear on that. The subroutines were not original, as Turing also came up with them.
  - OskarS 3y ago
    Man, I did not think there were von Neumann truthers out there (seems like a particularly small hill to die on), but you live and you learn, I guess.
    - Mikhail_K 3y ago
      You mean, you don't care whether your pompous lecture about von Neuman's greatness is actually true?

OskarS 3y ago

It may seem like a mixed blessing now, but without von Neumann architectures computers would not be what they are now. It's an ingenious, and non-obvious idea, that there should be no essential distinction between "program" and "data" (indeed, Turing machines are based on this idea as well). von Neumann was enormously important in early Computer Science, his contributions cannot be understated. Indeed, Knuth credits him with the one of the most fundamental concepts in all of programming, subroutines (Turing had similar ideas in England around the same time). For more specific examples, von Neumann also came up with the concept of the PRNG, and the first practical algorithm (the "middle square" method). PRNGs are not obvious: before von Neumann, people had only tried generating random numbers using a table or primitive hardware RNGs. He was the one who came up with the idea to generate random numbers using arithmetic methods already present in computers. He also came up with the worlds first practical computer algorithm for sorting, merge sort. There's a huge number of other examples, early CS is riddled with ideas that can from von Neumann.

Mikhail_K 3y ago
> without von Neumann architectures computers would not be what they are now. He did not develop that architecture. It is not his idea. The article is pretty clear on that. The subroutines were not original, as Turing also came up with them.
- OskarS 3y ago
  Man, I did not think there were von Neumann truthers out there (seems like a particularly small hill to die on), but you live and you learn, I guess.
  - Mikhail_K 3y ago
    You mean, you don't care whether your pompous lecture about von Neuman's greatness is actually true?