Aspray - John Von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing

History of Computing

I. Bernard Cohen and William Aspray, editors

Editorial Board: Bernard Galler, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; J. A. N. Lee, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia; Arthur Norberg, Charles Babbage Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Brian Randell, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne; Henry Tropp, Humboldt State College, Areata, California; Michael Williams, University of Calgary, Alberta; Heinz Zemanek, Vienna

Memories that Shaped an Industry, Emerson W. Pugh, 1984

The Computer Comes of Age, R. Moreau, 1984

Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer, Maurice V. Wilkes, 1985

Ada: A Life and Legacy, Dorothy Stein, 1985

IBMs Early Computers, Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, and Emerson W. Pugh, 1986

A Few Good Men from Univac, David E. Lundstrom, 1987

Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry, John Hendry, 1990

Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Muller, Charles Babbage and Georg and Edvard Scheutz, Michael Lindgren, 1990

John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing, William Aspray, 1990

IBMs 360 and Early 370 Systems, Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer, 1990

John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing

William Aspray

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

1990 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aspray, William.

John von Neumann and the origins of modern computing / William Aspray.

p. cm.(History of Computing)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0262011212

1. Electronic digital computersHistory. 2. Von Neumann, John, 19031957.

I. Title. II. Series.

Contents

This book makes extensive use of archival materials. In order to shorten citations, every archival collection has been given a four-letter code, which is used in the notes to the text.

The MIT Press series in the History of Computing is devoted to the history of computers and information processing in the broadest terms. The series encompasses all aspects of modern computingsystems, hardware, and softwareas well as the preliminary development of data processing and the mechanization of calculation. Historically based inquiries into the social, political, philosophic, and economic as well as the technical aspects of the introduction and use of computers and information processing fall within our purview.

The series includes both general works and specialized monographs. Some of the volumes concentrate on a particular development, such as magnetic memory, while others trace in full the technical history of an industrial company of significance in the computer industry. While most of the books in the series deal with the twentieth century, and particularly the most recent part of this century, others trace anterior developments. Thus the series includes a biography of Ada, countess of Lovelace, and another on Georg and Edvard Scheutz, both associated with the work in the nineteenth century of Charles Babbage. The series also includes autobiographical studies of key figures in modern computing.

I. Bernard Cohen

William Aspray

An increasingly common phenomenon of the period since World War II is big science, in which tens or hundreds of researchers from many different institutions work together to produce a product. In writing this book, I feel as though I have participated in big history. Literally hundreds of people have participated in the research and writing of this book, and I cannot begin to acknowledge my credit to all of them. However, it would be a serious injustice not to mention a few people who have made special efforts to assist with this book. Garrett Birkhoff, Arthur Burks, Thomas Drucker, Herman Goldstine, and Carol Voelker have read the entire manuscript at least once and have given detailed criticisms. Others who have read and commented on parts of the manuscript close to their own interests include Cuthbert Hurd, Lyle Johnson, Peter Lax, Nicholas Metropolis, Frederik Nebeker, John Palmer, George Platzman, James Pomerene, Emerson Pugh, Joseph Smagorinsky, George Stibitz, Albert Tucker, Nicholas Vonneuman, and Marina Whitman.