Stored-program computer

A computer that stores instructions and data in memory, allowing programs to be changed or selected without rewiring the machine.

Central processing unit: The processor component that executes instructions and coordinates a computer’s operations. It fetches and executes the instructions held in memory.
EDVAC: An early electronic computer designed around stored instructions and data in memory. Its design helped establish the stored-program approach.
Binary number: A number represented using only the digits zero and one. Computers encode instructions and data as binary patterns.
Software: Programs and associated data that direct a computer’s operations. Separating programs from wiring made software a distinct, changeable part of computing.
Computer memory: Hardware that stores data and instructions for a computer to use. It holds both the program and the data the program operates on.
First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC: John von Neumann’s 1945 report describing the logical design of the EDVAC. It circulated a clear account of a stored-program computer’s organization.
Machine code: The binary instruction language directly executed by a processor. Stored programs ultimately consist of machine-code instructions.
Computer programming: The process of creating instructions that computers execute to perform tasks. Stored instructions made changing a machine’s behavior primarily a programming task.
Instruction cycle: The repeated process by which a processor fetches, decodes, and executes instructions. It describes how stored instructions become computer operations.
Manchester Baby: A British experimental computer that ran its first stored program in June 1948. It demonstrated stored-program operation in a working electronic machine.

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