Von Neumann's resume
The 2th century is coming, and the 21st century is coming. When we stand at the threshold of the turn of the century and review the brilliant development of science and technology in the 2th century, we can't help but mention von Neumann, one of the most outstanding mathematicians in the 2th century. As we all know, the electronic computer invented in 1946 greatly promoted the progress of science and technology and social life. In view of von Neumann's invention, In the field of physics, the Mathematical Basis of Quantum Mechanics written by von Neumann in 193s has been proved to be of great value to the development of atomic physics. He also has considerable attainments in chemistry, and has obtained a university degree from the Department of Chemistry of Zurich Institute of Technology. Like Hayek, a Jew, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest all-rounders in the last century.
John Von Nouma (193-1957), an American Hungarian, was born in Budapest, Hungary on December 28th, 193. His father was a banker, and his family was well-off, and he paid great attention to the education of his children. Von Neumann was brilliant since childhood, with a wide range of interests, and he never forgets his reading. It is said that he was able to chat with his father in ancient Greek when he was 6 years old. He has mastered seven languages in his life. He is good at German, but he can translate it into English at the speed of reading when he thinks about various ideas in German. He can quickly repeat the contents of books and papers he has read verbatim, and he can still do so after several years. From 1911 to 1921, when von Neumann was studying at Lucerne Middle School in Budapest, He rose to prominence and was highly valued by his teachers. Under the individual guidance of Mr. Fechter, he co-published his first mathematics paper. At this time, von Neumann was less than 18 years old. From 1921 to 1923, he studied at the University of Zurich. In 1926, he quickly obtained a doctorate in mathematics from Budapest University with excellent results. At this time, von Neumann was only 22 years old. From 1927 to 1929, von Neumann was in Berlin one after another. In 193, he accepted the position of visiting professor at Princeton University and traveled to the United States. In 1931, he became the first batch of tenured professors at Princeton University in the United States, when he was less than 3 years old. In 1933, he transferred to the Institute of Advanced Studies and became one of the first six professors, where he worked all his life. Von Neumann was an honorary doctor of Princeton University, Pennsylvania University, Harvard University, Istanbul University, Maryland University, Columbia University and Munich Institute of Advanced Technology. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the National Academy of Natural Sciences of Peru and the National Forestry Institute of Italy. In 1954, he was a member of the American Atomic Energy Commission. From 1951 to 1953, he was the president of the American Mathematical Society.
In the summer of 1954, von Neumann was diagnosed with cancer, and died in Washington on February 8, 1957 at the age of 54.
Von Neumann made pioneering work in many fields of mathematics and made great contributions. Before World War II, he was mainly engaged in operator theory, operator theory and operator theory. It shows Von Neumann's unique way and style in dealing with set theory. He axiomatized the set theory, and his axiomatic system laid the foundation of axiomatic set theory. Starting from axioms, he derived many important concepts, basic operations and important theorems in set theory by algebraic methods. Especially in a paper in 1925, Von Neumann pointed out that there were undecidable propositions in any axiomatic system. < P Von Neumann solved Hilbert's fifth problem, that is, he proved that the locally Euclidean compact group is a Lie group. In 1934, he unified the compact group theory with Bohr's almost periodic function theory. He also had a deep understanding of the structure of general topological groups, and made it clear that its algebraic structure and topological structure were consistent with real numbers. He made pioneering work on operator algebra and laid its theoretical foundation. Thus, operator algebra, a new branch of mathematics, is established. This branch is called von Neumann algebra in contemporary mathematical literature. This is a natural extension of matrix algebra in finite-dimensional space. von Neumann also founded game theory, another important branch of modern mathematics. In 1944, he published a fundamental and important paper, Game Theory and Economic Behavior. The paper contains a description of the pure mathematical form of game theory and a detailed explanation of practical game application. This paper also contains teaching ideas such as statistical theory. Von Neumann has done important work in lattice theory, continuous geometry, theoretical physics, dynamics, continuum mechanics, meteorological calculation, atomic energy and economics.
Von Neumann's greatest contribution to mankind is his pioneering work in computer science, computer technology and numerical analysis.
Now it is generally believed that ENIAC is the first electronic computer in the world. It was developed by American scientists and started to run in Philadelphia on February 14th, 1946. In fact, the "Crosas" computer developed by Tommy, Rauls and other British scientists was more than two years earlier than the ENIAC computer, and started to run in Blackley Park on January 1th, 1944. The ENIAC computer proved that the electronic vacuum technology can greatly improve the computing technology, but the ENIAC computer itself has two major shortcomings: (1) it has no memory; (2) It is controlled by wiring boards, even if it has to be overlapped for several days, the calculation speed will be offset by this work. Moakley and eckert of the ．ENIAC machine development group obviously felt this, and they also wanted to start developing another computer as soon as possible, so as to improve it.
In 1944, Neumann took part in the development of the atomic bomb, which involved extremely difficult calculations. In the study of nuclear reaction process, we should give a "yes" or "no" answer to the propagation of a reaction. Solving this problem usually requires billions of mathematical operations and logical instructions. Although the final data is not required to be very accurate, all intermediate operations are indispensable and should be as accurate as possible. His Los Alamos laboratory employs more than 1 female calculators for this purpose, and it is still far from meeting the needs by using desktop computers to calculate from morning till night. Endless numbers and logical instructions suck up people's wisdom and energy like a desert.
Neumann, who was troubled by computers, learned about the development plan of ENIAC computer by a very accidental opportunity. Since then, he has devoted himself to the grand cause of computer development and established the greatest achievement in his life.
One day in the summer of p>1944, Neumann, who was waiting at the train station, happened to meet Goldstein and had a short talk with him. At that time, Goldstein was the military director of the American Ballistic Laboratory, and he was involved in the development of the ENIAC computer. During the conversation, Goldstein told Neumann about the development of ENIAC. The visionary Neumann was attracted by this development plan, and he realized the far-reaching significance of this work.
von Neumann was introduced by Lieutenant Gordes Ting of the ENIAC machine development team to participate in the ENIAC machine development team, and then he led these innovative young scientific and technological personnel to March towards higher goals. In 1945, on the basis of discussion, A brand-new "stored program general electronic computer scheme"-EDVAC (abbreviation of electronic discrete variable automatic computer) was published. In this process, von Neumann showed his strong basic knowledge of mathematics and physics, and gave full play to his advisory role and ability of exploring problems and comprehensive analysis. Neumann drafted a 11-page summary report entitled "Draft Report on EDVAC". The report introduces the new ideas of manufacturing electronic computers and programming extensively and concretely. 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 scheme clearly established that the new machine consists of five parts, including arithmetic unit, logic control device, memory, input and output devices, and described the functions and relationships of these five parts. In the report, Neumann further demonstrated the two major design ideas in edvac, which set a milestone for computer design.
One of the design ideas is binary. According to the characteristics of bistable operation of electronic components, he suggested adopting binary in electronic computers. The report mentions the advantages of binary system and predicts that the adoption of binary system will greatly simplify the logic circuit of the machine.
Practice has proved the correctness of Neumann's prediction. Nowadays, the application of logic algebra has become an important means to design electronic computers, and the main logic circuits used in EDVAC have been used all the time, but the engineering method to realize logic circuits and the analysis method 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 2 registers, its program is extrapolated, and its instructions are stored in other circuits of the computer. In this way, before solving the problem, it is necessary to get all the instructions needed and connect the corresponding circuits by hand. This kind of preparation takes hours or even days, while the calculation itself takes only a few minutes. There is a great contradiction between the high speed of calculation and the manual work of the program.
In order to solve this problem, Neumann put forward the idea of program memory: if the operation program is stored in the memory of the machine, the programmer only needs to look for the operation instruction in the memory, and the machine will calculate by itself, so that it is not necessary to reprogram every problem, thus greatly speeding up the operation process. This idea marks the realization of automatic operation and the maturity of electronic computer, and has become the basic principle of electronic computer design.
In July and August of p>1946, when von Neumann, Gordes Ting and Boxer developed IAS computers for the Institute of Advanced Studies of Princeton University, they put forward a more perfect design report, A Preliminary Study on the Logic Design of Electronic Computers. These two documents with both theory and concrete design set off a "computer craze" all over the world for the first time. Their comprehensive design EDVAC, Is the famous "von Neumann Machine", the center of which is the principle of storing programs-instructions and data are stored together. This concept is known as "a milestone in the history of computer development". It marks the real beginning of the era of electronic computers and guides computer design in the future. Everything in nature is always developing. With the progress of science and technology, today people realize the shortcomings of "von Neumann Machine", which hinders it. And put forward the idea of "non-von Neumann machine".
von Neumann also actively participated in the popularization and application of computers, and made outstanding contributions to how to compile programs and engage in numerical calculation. In 1937, von Neumann won the Potzer Prize of the American Mathematical Society. In 1947, he was awarded the Meritorious Medal of the President of the United States and the Outstanding Citizen Service Award of the United States Navy. In 1956, he was awarded the Freedom Medal, Einstein Memorial Award and Fermi Award by the President of the United States.
After von Neumann's death, the unfinished manuscript was published in 1958 under the name of Computer and Human Brain. His main works were collected in six volumes of The Complete Works of von Neumann and published in 1961.
In addition, von Neumann's book published in the 194s He is recognized by economists as the father of game theory. At that time, young johnf nash began to study and develop this field while studying at Princeton, and won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his outstanding contribution to game theory.