stored$-$program computer, a computer that stores instructions in its memory to enable it to perform a variety of tasks in sequence or intermittently. The idea was introduced in the late $1940$s by John von Neumann, who proposed that a program be electronically stored in binary$-$number format in a memory device so that instructions could be modified by the computer as determined by intermediate computational results. $($Previous computers had their program instructions determined by the wiring of the machine or by holes on punched tape.$)$ Other engineers, notably John W$.$ Mauchly and J$.$ Presper Eckert, contributed to this idea, which enabled digital computers to become much more flexible and powerful. Nevertheless, engineers in England built the first stored$-$program computer, the Manchester Mark I, shortly before the Americans built EDVAC, both operational in $1949.$

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