Weiye Kuang

September 15, 2019

Extended Definition

Von Neumann Architecture

The Von Neumann architecture is not the style and design of a building. In fact,

It is the most common computer architecture. Nowadays, all computers more or less

are based on this design. In this essay, I will tell you what the Von Neumann

architecture is.

The Von Neumann architecture is a computer architecture designed by John

von Neumann and others, consisting of four main sub-systems: Memory, Arithmetic

and Logic Unit (ALU), Control Unit, and Input / Output System (I/O). Each subsystem

has its own function. Memory which contains many cells of a fixed size is used to

store data and instructions. When the computer is running, both program and data

are stored in the memory. The ALU performs logical operations and mathematical

operations. The Control Unit fetches instruction, decodes it and executes it when the

computer is working. People input something and the computers display the output

are based on the Input / Output systems.

 Then, how do the computers work? At first, the instruction is fetched from the

Memory. After the instruction is fetched, the Control Unit decodes the instruction.

Then, the decoded instruction is moved to the relevant function unit of CPU to

perform the actions required by the instruction. Finally, once the program is stop, the

results are moved to the memory across the bus and stored in the memory.

The Von Neumann architecture was first published in 1945. In that year, in the

document First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, John von Neumann, a

mathematician and physicist, described his design architecture for an electronic

digital computer, which consists of a central arithmetic part CA, a central control

part CC, various forms of memory M, input I, and output O. The key design of his

architecture is a uniform memory stores both data and instructions. In the document,

he mentioned that "The orders which are received by CC come from M, i.e. from the

same place where the numerical material is stored." (Sec. 14.0) And this design is

called Von Neumann architecture.

Compared to the Harvard architecture, another famous computer architecture,

in which machine instructions and data are stored in separate memory units and are

connected with different buses, Von Neumann architecture is much simpler and easy
to design. Since in Von Neumann architecture, the same memory and bus are used

to store and transfer both instructions and data, it only needs one set of buses for

both instructions fetch and data transfer. However, the shared buses and memory

units also lead to the design’s limitation, which is called Von Neumann bottleneck. In

Von Neumann architecture, only one bit of information can be accessed at the same

time. If you want a computer in Von Neumann architecture to perform an operation

on some data in the memory, the computer at first moves the data across the bus

into CPU. After the operation is finished, the computer transfers the output into the

memory across the same bus. Then the computer cannot fetch new data unless it

has written the output into the memory. So the CPU also has to wait for needed data

to move from memory. As a result, the processing speed is limited.

In conclusion, Von Neumann architecture, one of the most famous computer

architecture in the world, is the basis of our laptops and desktops.

Cited Work

Godfrey, Michael. (1993). First Draft Report on the EDVAC by John von Neumann.

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 15. 27-43.