Von Neumann's resume

John von Neumann

The 20th century is about to pass, and the 21st century is coming. When we stand at the threshold of the turn of the century and look back on the glorious development of science and technology in the 20th century, we cannot but mention von Neumann, one of the most outstanding mathematicians of the 20th century. As we all know, the electronic computer invented in 1946 has greatly promoted the progress of science and technology and social life. In view of the key role von Neumann played in the invention of electronic computers, he is hailed by Westerners as the "Father of Computers". In economics, he also made breakthrough achievements and is known as the "Father of Game Theory." In the field of physics, "The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics" written by von Neumann in the 1930s has proven to be of extremely important value to the development of atomic physics. He also has considerable attainments in chemistry and received a university degree from the Department of Chemistry at the Higher Institute of Technology in Zurich. Like Hayek, who was also a Jew, he is worthy of being one of the greatest all-rounders of the last century.

John Von Nouma (1903-1957), a Hungarian American, was born in Budapest, Hungary on December 28, 1903. His father was a banker and his family was wealthy. Pay attention to the education of your children. Von Neumann was extremely smart since he was a child, had a wide range of interests, and had a photographic memory of what he read. It is said that when he was 6 years old, he could chat with his father in ancient Greek and mastered seven languages ??in his life. He is the best at German, but when he is thinking about various ideas in German, he can also translate them into English at the speed of reading. He is familiar with the books and papers he has read. Able to retell the content quickly and accurately, and can still do so years later. From 1911 to 1921, while studying at the Lutheran High School in Budapest, von Neumann emerged as a prominent figure and was highly regarded by his teacher. Under the individual guidance of Mr. Feicht and in cooperation with him, von Neumann published his first mathematical paper. At this time, von Neumann was less than 18 years old. From 1921 to 1923, he studied at the University of Zurich. Soon he obtained a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Budapest with honors in 1926. At this time, von Neumann was only 22 years old. From 1927 to 1929, von Neumann served as a mathematics lecturer at the University of Berlin and the University of Hamburg. In 1930, he accepted the position of visiting professor at Princeton University and traveled west to the United States. In 1931, he became one of the first tenured professors at Princeton University in the United States. At that time, he was less than 30 years old.

In 1933, he transferred to the Institute of Advanced Studies of the school and became one of the first six professors, and worked there all his life. Von Neumann is an honorary doctorate from Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, the University of Istanbul, the University of Maryland, Columbia University and the Higher Technical School of Munich. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the National Academy of Natural Sciences of Peru and the National Academy of Forestry in Italy. In 1954, he served as a member of the United States Atomic Energy Commission; from 1951 to 1953, he served as president of the American Mathematical Society.

In the summer of 1954, von Neumann was diagnosed with cancer. He died in Washington on February 8, 1957, at the age of 54.

Von Neumann conducted pioneering work in many fields of mathematics and made significant contributions. Before World War II, he was mainly engaged in research on operator theory and set theory. The 1923 paper on transfinite ordinal numbers in set theory showed von Neumann's unique way and style of dealing with set theory problems. He axiomatized the assembly theory, and his axiomatic system laid the foundation of axiomatic set theory. Starting from axioms, he used algebraic methods to derive many important concepts, basic operations, and important theorems in set theory. Especially in a paper in 1925, von Neumann pointed out that there are undecidable propositions in any axiomatic system.

In 1933, von Neumann solved Hilbert's fifth problem, which proved that the local Euclidean compact group is a Lie group. In 1934, he unified the theory of compact groups with Bohr's theory of nearly periodic functions. He also had a profound understanding of the structure of general topological groups and found out that its algebraic structure and topological structure are consistent with the real numbers. He conducted pioneering work on operator algebra and laid its theoretical foundation, thus establishing operator algebra as a new branch of mathematics. This branch is called von Neumann algebra in contemporary relevant mathematical literature. This is a natural generalization of matrix algebra in finite dimensional spaces. Von Neumann also founded game theory, another important branch of modern mathematics. In 1944, he published the foundational and important paper "Game Theory and Economic Behavior". The paper contains a purely mathematical explanation of game theory and a detailed description of practical game applications. The article also contains teaching ideas such as statistical theory. Von Neumann has done important work in the fields of lattice theory, continuous geometry, theoretical physics, dynamics, continuum mechanics, meteorological calculations, atomic energy and economics.

Von Neumann's greatest contribution to mankind is his pioneering work in computer science, computer technology and numerical analysis.

The ENIAC machine is now generally considered to be the world's first electronic computer. It was developed by American scientists and started operating in Philadelphia on February 14, 1946. In fact, the "Colosas" computer developed by British scientists such as Tommy and Flowers preceded the advent of the ENIAC machine by more than two years. It began operation at Bletchley Park on January 10, 1944. The ENIAC machine proves that electronic vacuum technology can greatly improve computing technology. However, the ENIAC machine itself has two major shortcomings: (1) It has no memory; (2) It uses a wiring board for control, which even takes several days to connect, and the calculation speed is also slow. It was offset by this work. Mowgli and Eckert of the ENIAC machine development team obviously felt this, and they also wanted to start developing another computer as soon as possible for improvement.

In 1944, Neumann participated in the development of the atomic bomb, which involved extremely difficult calculations. In the study of nuclear reaction processes, a "yes" or "no" answer is given to the propagation of a reaction. Solving this problem usually requires billions of mathematical operations and logical instructions. Although the final data does not need to be very accurate, all intermediate operations are indispensable and must be as accurate as possible. The Los Alamos laboratory where he worked hired more than a hundred female computers for this purpose. Using desktop computers to calculate from morning to night was still far from meeting the needs. Endless numbers and logical instructions suck away people's wisdom and energy like a desert.

Neumann, who was troubled by computers, learned about the ENIAC computer development plan by chance. From then on, he devoted himself to the grand cause of computer development and established the greatest achievements in his life. .

One day in the summer of 1944, Neumann, who was waiting at the train station, happened to meet Goldstein and had a brief conversation with him. At that time, Goldstein was the military director of the U.S. Ballistics Laboratory, and he was participating in the development of the ENIAC computer. During the conversation, Goldstein told Neumann about the development of ENIAC. The far-sighted Neumann was attracted by this development plan, and he realized the far-reaching significance of this work.

After Von Neumann was introduced to the ENIAC machine development team by Lieutenant Goldstin of the ENIAC machine development team, he led this group of innovative young scientific and technological personnel to march towards higher goals. ． In 1945, based on discussions with colleagues, they published a brand new "stored program universal electronic computer solution" - EDVAC (the abbreviation of Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). In this process, von Neumann showed his strong basic knowledge of mathematics and gave full play to his advisory role and ability to explore problems and comprehensive analysis. Neumann drafted a 101-page summary report titled "Draft Report on EDVAC." The report presented broadly and specifically new ideas in building electronic computers and programming. This report is an epoch-making document in the history of computer development. It announces to the world that the era of electronic computers has begun.

The EDVAC plan clearly established that the new machine is composed of five parts, including: arithmetic unit, logic control device, memory, input and output equipment, and described the functions and interrelationships of these five parts. In the report, Neumann further demonstrated the two major design ideas in EDVAC, setting a milestone for computer design.

One of the design ideas is the binary system. Based on the bistable working characteristics of electronic components, he suggested using the binary system in electronic computers. The report mentioned the advantages of binary and predicted that the adoption of binary will greatly simplify the logic circuit of the machine.

Practice has proven the correctness of Neumann’s prediction. Nowadays, the application of logic algebra has become an important means of designing electronic computers. The main logic circuits used in EDVAC have always been used, but the engineering methods for realizing logic circuits and the analysis methods of logic circuits have been improved.

Program memory is another masterpiece of Neumann. Through the investigation of ENIAC, Neumann keenly grasped its biggest weakness - no real memory. ENIAC only has 20 temporary registers, its program is plug-in, and the instructions are stored in other circuits of the computer. In this way, before solving the problem, you must first know all the required instructions and connect the corresponding circuits manually. This preparation can take hours or even days, while the calculation itself only takes a few minutes. There is a big contradiction between the high speed of calculation and the manual process of programming.

In response to this problem, Neumann proposed the idea of ????program memory: store the operation program in the memory of the machine. The programmer only needs to find the operation instructions in the memory, and the machine will calculate by itself. In this way, There is no need to reprogram each problem, thus greatly speeding up the calculation process. This idea marks the realization of automatic calculation and the maturity of electronic computers, and has become a basic principle of electronic computer design.

In July and August 1946, von Neumann, Goldstine, and Bucks proposed the IAS computer for the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University based on the EDVAC plan. A more complete design report "A Preliminary Study on Electronic Computer Logic Design" was published. The above two documents with both theory and specific design set off a "computer craze" for the first time in the world. Their comprehensive design idea is the famous "Von Neumann machine", the center of which is storage. Programming principle - instructions and data are stored together. This concept is known as "a milestone in the history of computer development". It marks the true beginning of the electronic computer era and guides future computer design. Naturally, everything is always developing. With the advancement of science and technology, today people He also recognized the shortcomings of the "von Neumann machine", which hindered the further improvement of computer speed, and proposed the idea of ??"non-von Neumann machine"

Von Neumann machine. He also actively participated in the promotion of applied computers and made outstanding contributions to programming and numerical calculations. Von Neumann won the Potzer Prize of the American Mathematical Society in 1937 and the Medal of Merit from the President of the United States in 1947. , U.S. Navy Outstanding Citizen Service Award; won the U.S. President's Medal of Freedom, the Einstein Memorial Award and the Fermi Award in 1956.

After von Neumann's death, the unfinished manuscript was published in 1958. Published under the name "Computers and the Human Brain". His main works are collected in the six volumes of "The Complete Works of von Neumann", published in 1961.

In addition, von Neumann published in the 1940s. His book "Game Theory and Economic Behavior" established him as a monument in the field of economics and decision science. He was recognized by economists as the father of game theory. At that time, the young John Nash began to study and develop this theory while studying at Princeton. A field, and won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his outstanding contributions to game theory.