The earliest computer architectures were designed on paper and then directly built into the final hardware form.
Later, computer users came to use the term in many less explicit ways. Subsequently, Brooks, a Stretch designer, opened Chapter 2 of a book called Planning a Computer System: Project Stretch by stating, “Computer architecture, like other architecture, is the art of determining the needs of the user of a structure and then designing to meet those needs as effectively as possible within economic and technological constraints.” īrooks went on to help develop the IBM System/360 (now called the IBM zSeries) line of computers, in which “architecture” became a noun defining “what the user needs to know”.
To describe the level of detail for discussing the luxuriously embellished computer, he noted that his description of formats, instruction types, hardware parameters, and speed enhancements were at the level of “system architecture”, a term that seemed more useful than “machine organization”. Johnson had the opportunity to write a proprietary research communication about the Stretch, an IBM-developed supercomputer for Los Alamos National Laboratory (at the time known as Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory). Brooks, Jr., members of the Machine Organization department in IBM's main research center in 1959. The term “architecture” in computer literature can be traced to the work of Lyle R.