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--[[User:TedColes|TedColes]] ([[User talk:TedColes|talk]]) 12:45, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
:You bring up some good points. Honestly, I don't know enough about individual early machines to reply to all of them.
:* To your first point, (Was the virtual machine described in Turing’s 1936 ‘Computable numbers’ paper[1], a stored-program machine?), no, a Turning machine can be implemented with a paper tape system or even [http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/510/whatisanalg.html toilet paper]. No electronic storage is necessary.
:* ''Turing’s 1946 [[Automatic Computing Engine]] was undoubtedly a stored–program computer design in the modern sense.'' - *Nod*. [http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/archive/infopages/london1st.html This] says it was the 3rd stored program computer in Britain. [[User:Raul654|Raul654]] ([[User talk:Raul654|talk]]) 15:44, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
::I have not been clear enough.
::*The Universal Turing Machine as described by Turing in 1936 was only virtual and did not have any storage medium specified. It was called a 'tape' only to illustrate that one cell could be accessed at a time. My point is that the idea of instructions and data sharing the same storage medium and instructions being modifiable, both exist in this design. So it does not fit the definition of being electronic, but does have a strong case for being a very influential source of the idea.
::*Turing's 1945/6 paper describing the Automatic Computing Engine design was also a virtual machine, as the Pilot ACE to which the above quotation refers was a substantially cut-down version of what he had proposed. It did indeed come after the SSEM and Manchester Mark 1 and the EDSAC.
::This article ought to be well informed about early developments if it is to achieve credibility and if the redirect from 'Stored program' to 'Von Neuman machine' is to be abolished. --[[User:TedColes|TedColes]] ([[User talk:TedColes|talk]]) 17:21, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
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