Computer

Aug 12, 2004
Paperback
US $41.00
CAN $52.00
UK £24.99
ISBN: 9780813342641
ISBN-10: 0813342643
Published by Westview Press

Description

Computer: A History of the Information Machine, Second Edition traces the story of the computer, and shows how business and government were the first to explore its unlimited, information-processing potential. Old-fashioned entrepreneurship combined with scientific know-how inspired now famous computer engineers to create the technology that became IBM. Wartime needs drove the giant ENIAC, the first fully electronic computer. Later, the PC enabled modes of computing that liberated people from room-sized, mainframe computers. This second edition now extends beyond the development of Microsoft Windows and the Internet, to include open source operating systems like Linux, and the rise again and fall and potential rise of the dot.com industries.

Reviews

"Terrific! This is the best general history of computing yet written, by two of the field's most prominent historians. Computer is comprehensive, engaging, and a pleasure to read. Aspray and Campbell-Kelley paint the big picture of the information revolution that is affecting all of our lives."
— David A. Mindell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics

"Starting back when computers were people, computer historians Campbell-Kelly and Asprey meticulously trace the forces and personalities that gave birth to the computer age. From Babbage's failed "analytical engine" to mechanical calculators, IBM's room-sized mainframes, minis, Microsoft, and the Internet, their in-depth narrative gives us a peek inside the back rooms of early computer companies and into the lives of industry pioneers, both sung and unsung."
— Thomas M. Georges, Author of Digital Soul

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