http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Computer. (remove spaces from all links or they won’t work)

In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer that he called “The Analytical Engine”.[2] Due to limited finance, and an inability to resist tinkering with the design, Babbage never actually built his Analytical Engine.

EDSAC was one of the first computers to implement the stored program (von Neumann) architecture. Konrad Zuse developed electromechanical “Z machines”. The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being the world’s first operational computer.

Several developers of ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and elegant design, which came to be known as the stored program architecture or von Neumann architecture. This design was first formally described by John von Neumann in the paper “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC”, published in 1945. Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the stored program architecture, making it the single trait by which the word “computer” is now defined.

A couple of other opinions/sources: (remove spaces from links)

http://articles.techrepublic. com.com/5100-10878 _11-5025672.html

http://www.mail-archive.com/ [email protected]/ msg07968.html

Best wishes to you!