Talk:John von Neumann

I'm not sure about what exactly a "von Neumann Machine" is, officially. I've found some websites which describe it as a type of computer architecture (eg [[1] (http://www.shef.ac.uk/psychology/gurney/notes/l1/section3_2)] and [[2] (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/V/Von_Neumann_machine)]), and I've found others which describe it as a conceptual self-replicating machine (eg, [[3] (http://www.homoexcelsior.com/omega.db/datum/engineering/von_neumann_machine/67)], [[4] (http://www.brook.edu/es/dynamics/models/history.htm)]) Perhaps this is a case where von Neumann came up with two separate ideas and people took to calling them by the same name? -BD

I knew the term only in the first meaning, but looking through a Google search, it seems that a sizeable minority of writers also use it in the second meaning. Maybe this second group is confused, but I'm not sure. --AxelBoldt

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Yes, I believe the term is being used to describe two different contributions by von Neumann, one in computer architecture and the other in automata theory.

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I thought there were initially five faculty in the Institute of Advanced Study, not four. viz., Einstein, Von Neumann, Weyl, Veblen, and Alexander. --Dominus 04:56 Apr 20, 2003 (UTC)