When you compute, thank von Neumann

What do you get by multiplying 85,924,107 by 96,300,976? How about dividing 70,999,006 by 60,805? Go ahead, do the math. And do it in your head.

Why not begin 2004 with a salute to the computer pioneer who could multiply and divide 8-digit numbers in his head -- at age 6?

John von Neumann, who would have been 100 years old on Dec. 28, helped invent the "architecture" used in all home and office computers today. It's actually called the "von Neumann architecture," and that desktop or laptop computer technically is a "von Neumann machine."

A computer's architecture is the basis for its design, how the central processing unit, memory, and other hardware is wired together. Just as an architect's ideas about design of a building serve as the basis for blueprints, computer architecture is the basis for a computer's design specifications.

Von Neumann computers have five parts -- a control unit, an arithmetic-logic unit, an input/output unit, a "bus" or electronic connection for carrying data between the parts, and memory.

They use the same storage device for both program instructions and data that users input. Another early design framework, the "Harvard architecture," used separate storage devices.

Von Neumann's idea of treating program instructions and data made it easy to change the program instructions, leading to computers that could be reprogrammed. Some computer viruses exploit that feature by copying themselves into programs.

The idea emerged while von Neumann worked on a successor to the fabled ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). The first all-electronic computer, it was built for the U.S. Army in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the era before microprocessors, ENIAC used light bulb-like vacuum tubes instead of transistors -- 18,000 of them -- and packed less computing power into its 18 tons than an old entry-level laptop.

Von Neumann led the team that used experience with ENIAC to develop EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), which had the new architecture and often is regarded as the mother of all modern computers.

Little Johnny was a child prodigy who often entertained family guests with his photographic memory. A guest would pick a page from the telephone directory, and the kid would eyeball it for a minute. Johnny then could recite all the names, addresses and phone numbers in order, or answer any question about the page.

And he grew into one of the greatest scientific geniuses of all time.

The Financial Times picked von Neumann as its "Man of the 20th Century." He worked with Albert Einstein at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, helped design the first nuclear weapons, pioneered new areas of math and physics, and became an influential adviser to top government military officials.

Von Neumann supposedly was the inspiration for Dr. Strangelove, a character in the classic 1963 film, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

He died young, of bone cancer, in 1957.

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