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{{short description|Computer that stores program instructions in electronically or optically accessible memory}}
A '''stored-program computer''' is a [[computer]] that stores [[Instruction (computer science)|program instructions]] in electronically, electromagnetically, or optically accessible memory.<ref>{{Citation | last = Allison | first = Joanne | title = Stored-program Computers | year = 1997 | url = http://www.computer50.org/mark1/stored.html | access-date = 24 August 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110927012816/http://www.computer50.org/mark1/stored.html | archive-date = 27 September 2011}}</ref> This contrasts with systems that stored the program instructions with [[plugboard]]s or similar mechanisms.
The definition is often extended with the requirement that the treatment of programs and data in memory be interchangeable or uniform.<ref name="GilreathLaplante2003">{{cite book|author1=William F. Gilreath|author2=Phillip A. Laplante|title=Computer Architecture: A Minimalist Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9DuC35atMu0C&pg=RA1-PA24|year=2003|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4020-7416-5|page=24}}</ref><ref name="Reilly2003">{{cite book|author=Edwin D. Reilly|title=Milestones in computer science and information technology|url=https://archive.org/details/milestonesincomp0000reil|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-57356-521-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/milestonesincomp0000reil/page/245 245]}}</ref><ref name="POCA">{{cite book|first=Miles J.|last=Murdocca|author2=Vincent P. Heuring |year=2000|title=Principles of Computer Architecture|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=0-201-43664-7|pages=5}}</ref>
== Description ==
In principle, stored-program computers have been designed with various architectural characteristics. A computer with a [[von Neumann architecture]] stores program data and instruction data in the same memory, while a computer with a [[Harvard architecture]] has separate memories for storing program and data.<ref name="Page2009">{{cite book|author=Daniel Page|title=A Practical Introduction to Computer Architecture|year=2009|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-84882-255-9|page=148}}</ref><ref name="Balch2003">{{cite book|author=Mark Balch|title=Complete digital design: a comprehensive guide to digital electronics and computer system architecture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFSRT-OIxyoC&pg=PA149|access-date=18 May 2011|year=2003|publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional|isbn=978-0-07-140927-8|page=149}}</ref> However, the term ''stored-program computer'' is sometimes used as a synonym for the von Neumann architecture.<ref name="Page2009b">{{cite book|author=Daniel Page|title=A Practical Introduction to Computer Architecture|year=2009|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-84882-255-9|page=153|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X1m1tNcfWQYC&pg=PA153}}</ref><ref name="Grattan-Guinness2003">{{cite book|author=Ivor Grattan-Guinness|author-link=Ivor Grattan-Guinness|title=Companion encyclopedia of the history and philosophy of the mathematical sciences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hDvzITtfdAC&pg=PA705|year=2003|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-7396-6|page=705}}</ref> [[Jack Copeland]] considers that it is "historically inappropriate, to refer to electronic stored-program digital computers as 'von Neumann machines{{'"}}.<ref>{{
== History ==
The concept of the stored-program computer can be traced back to the 1936 theoretical concept of a [[universal Turing machine]].<ref name="Copeland2006">{{cite book|author=B. Jack Copeland|author-link=B. Jack Copeland|title=Colossus: the secrets of Bletchley Park's codebreaking computers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gfL4ky-TQOMC&pg=PA104|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-284055-4|page=104}}</ref> Von Neumann was aware of this paper, and he impressed it on his collaborators.<ref name="Teuscher2004">{{cite book|author=Christof Teuscher|title=Alan Turing: life and legacy of a great thinker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IIsoRqw9hgC&pg=PA321|year=2004|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-540-20020-8|page=321–322}}</ref>
Many early computers, such as the [[Atanasoff–Berry computer]], were not reprogrammable. They executed a single hardwired program. As there were no program instructions, no program storage was necessary. Other computers, though programmable, stored their programs on [[punched tape]], which was physically fed into the system as needed, as was the case for the [[Zuse Z3]] and the [[Harvard Mark I]], or were only programmable by physical manipulation of switches and plugs, as was the case for the [[Colossus computer]].
In 1936, [[Konrad Zuse]] anticipated in two patent applications that machine instructions could be stored in the same storage used for data.<ref>{{citation |title=
=== The first stored-program computers ===
Several computers could be considered the first stored-program computer, depending on the criteria.<ref
* [[IBM SSEC]], was designed in late 1944 and became operational in January 1948 but was [[electromechanical]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Emerson W. Pugh|author2=Lyle R. Johnson|author3=John H. Palmer|title=''IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems''|url=https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh|url-access=registration|date=1991|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-51720-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh/page/15 15]}}</ref>
* In April 1948, modifications were completed to [[ENIAC]] to function as a stored-program computer, with the program
|title=ENIAC in Action:Making and Remaking the Modern Computer
|year=2016
|publisher=MIT Press
|isbn=978-0-262-03398-5
|pages=153, 157, 164, 174, 194}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Haigh |first=Thomas |url=https://eniacinaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/EngineeringtheMiracleoftheENIAC-Published.pdf |title=Engineering "The Miracle of the ENIAC": Implementing the Modern Code Paradigm |year=2014 |language=en}}</ref> This claim is disputed by some computer historians.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh8SEAAAQBAJ&dq=ENIAC+Stored+Program&pg=PA987 | title=Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing | isbn=9783030409746 | last1=Bruderer | first1=Herbert | date=4 January 2021 | publisher=Springer }}</ref>
* [[APEXC|ARC2]], a relay machine developed by [[Andrew Donald Booth|Andrew Booth]] and [[Kathleen Booth]] at [[Birkbeck, University of London]], officially came online on 12 May 1948.<ref name="birkbeck">{{cite journal|last1=Campbell-Kelly|first1=Martin|title=The Development of Computer Programming in Britain (1945 to 1955)|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|date=April 1982|volume=4|issue=2|pages=121–139|doi=10.1109/MAHC.1982.10016|s2cid=14861159}}</ref> It featured the first [[drum memory|rotating drum storage device]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Lavington|editor1-first=Simon|title=Alan Turing and his Contemporaries: Building the World's First Computers|date=2012|publisher=British Computer Society|___location=London|isbn=9781906124908|page=61}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Johnson|first1=Roger|title=School of Computer Science & Information Systems: A Short History|url=http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/site/assets/files/1029/50yearsofcomputing.pdf|website=Birkbeck College|publisher=University of London|access-date=23 July 2017|date=April 2008}}</ref>
* [[Manchester Baby]], a developmental, fully electronic computer that successfully ran a stored program on 21 June 1948. It was subsequently developed into the [[Manchester Mark 1]], which ran its first program in early April 1949.
* [[Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator]], EDSAC, which ran its first programs on 6 May 1949, and became a full-scale operational computer that served a user community beyond its developers.
* [[EDVAC]], conceived in June 1945 in ''[[First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC]]'', but not delivered until August 1949. It began actual operation (on a limited basis) in 1951.
* [[BINAC]], delivered to a customer on 22 August 1949. It worked at the factory but there is disagreement about whether or not it worked satisfactorily after being delivered. If it had been finished at the projected time, it would have been the first stored-program computer in the world. It was the first stored-program computer in the U.S.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hally
* In 1951, the [[Ferranti Mark 1]], a cleaned-up version of the Manchester Mark 1, became the first commercially available electronic digital computer.
* [[Manchester University Transistor Computer]] , is generally regarded as the first transistor-based stored-program computer having become operational in November 1953. <ref name="fransman"> T Kilburn, R L Grimsdale and D C Webb (1956), [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_6DMnS1Y12cC&pg=PA19 ''A transistor digital computer with a magnetic drum store''], [[Cambridge University Press|CambridgProc. IEE Vol. 103, Part B, Supp. 1-3. 1956. Pages 390 – 406e University Press]]</ref> <ref>R L Grimsdale [https://www.computerconservationsociety.org/resurrection/res13.htm#c The Transition from Valves to Computers], Resurrection volume 13, Computer Conservation Society</ref>▼
* The [[Bull Gamma 3]] (1952) and [[IBM 650]] (1953) were the first mass produced commercial computers, respectively selling about 1200 and 2000 units.
▲* [[Manchester University Transistor Computer]]
===Telecommunication===
The concept of using a stored-program computer for switching of telecommunication circuits is called [[stored program control]] (SPC). It was instrumental to the development of the first [[electronic switching system]]s by [[American Telephone and Telegraph]] (AT&T) in the [[Bell System]],<ref>{{cite book |first1=D.H. |last1=Carbaugh
==See also==
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