The correct answer is: A. John von Neumann.
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath, widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. He made major contributions to many fields, including mathematics, physics, economics, computer science, and statistics.
One of von Neumann’s most important contributions was the idea of the stored program. A stored program is a program that is stored in the memory of a computer, rather than being hardwired into the machine. This allows for much greater flexibility and programmability in computers.
Von Neumann’s idea of the stored program was first proposed in a 1945 paper, “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC.” The EDVAC was one of the first electronic computers, and it was designed to implement von Neumann’s ideas.
The stored program concept has had a profound impact on the development of computers. It is one of the key concepts that has made computers so versatile and powerful.
The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:
- Charles Babbage was an English mathematician and inventor who is considered to be the “father of the computer.” However, he did not propose the idea of the stored program.
- Howard Aiken was an American physicist and computer scientist who is best known for his work on the Harvard Mark I computer. However, he did not propose the idea of the stored program.
- Basic Pascal is a programming language that was developed by Niklaus Wirth in the early 1970s. It is not a person.
- None of the above is the correct answer.