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Stored Program Concept
John von Neumann and Alan Turing both proposed the stored program concept in separate publications in 1945.
- A program must be resident in main memory to be executed
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Machine code instructions are fetched from main memory one-at-a-time, decoded and executed in the processor.
Further explanation
Stored program concept - a program must be in main memory in order for it to be executed. The instructions are fetched, decoded and executed one at a time
Building on the Von Neumann architecture we get the idea of how the stored program concept works. If you have ever loaded a game on a console you might notice that:
- you need to insert a disc
- the disc spins
- the game says loading
- the game plays
This is the stored program concept in motion! Let's take apart what is happening:
- You insert an optical disk (secondary storage) with the code on
- The code is loaded into main memory
- The processor fetches, decodes and executes instructions from main memory to play game
Von Neumann Architecture
In a von Neumann machine, a single store holds both instructions and the data that they are carried out on.
Additional Reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored-program_computer