von Neumann's missing "Second Draft": what it should contain

TL;DR

This paper critiques the classical von Neumann computing model, emphasizing the increasing importance of transmission delays within modern systems, and proposes a new measure for dispersion affecting performance and energy efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative dispersion measure and derives a revised procedure to account for transfer times in current technological conditions, extending von Neumann's model validity.

Findings

Dispersion measure correlates with technological progression.

Transfer times critically impact system performance at all levels.

von Neumann's model is valid only within certain technological limits.

Abstract

Computing science is based on a computing paradigm that is not valid anymore for today's technological conditions. The reason is that the transmission time even inside the processor chip, but especially between the components of the system, is not negligible anymore. The paper introduces a quantitative measure for dispersion, which is vital for both computing performance and energy consumption, and demonstrates how its value increased with the changing technology. The temporal behavior (including the dispersion of the commonly used synchronization clock time) of computing components has a critical impact on the system's performance at all levels, as demonstrated from gate-level operation to supercomputing. The same effect limits the utility of the researched new materials/effects if the related transfer time cannot be proportionally mitigated. von Neumann's model is perfect, but now it is used outside of its range of validity. The correct procedure to consider the transfer time for the present technological background is also derived.