The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of "smart" hand-held devices, with subplots involving IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Twitter. In this account of the invention and development of digital technology...

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1. Verfasser:	Ceruzzi, Paul E. (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2012]
Schriftenreihe:	MIT Press essential knowledge series.
Schlagworte:	Computer science > History. Informatique > Histoire. COMPUTERS > Computer Literacy. COMPUTERS > Computer Science. COMPUTERS > Data Processing. COMPUTERS > Hardware > General. COMPUTERS > Information Technology. COMPUTERS > Machine Theory. COMPUTERS > Reference. Computer science COMPUTER SCIENCE/General SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/History of Technology History
Online-Zugang:	Volltext
Zusammenfassung:	The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of "smart" hand-held devices, with subplots involving IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Twitter. In this account of the invention and development of digital technology, the author, a computer historian, offers a broader and more useful perspective. He identifies four major threads running throughout all of computing's technological development: digitization, the coding of information, computation, and control in binary form, ones and zeros; the convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices and machines, yielding more than the sum of their parts; the steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by "Moore's Law"; and the human-machine interface. He guides us through computing history, telling how a Bell Labs mathematician coined the word "digital" in 1942 (to describe a high-speed method of calculating used in anti-aircraft devices), and recounting the development of the punch card (for use in the 1890 U.S. Census). He describes the ENIAC, built for scientific and military applications; the UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer; and ARPANET, the Internet's precursor. His account traces the world-changing evolution of the computer from a room-size ensemble of machinery to a "minicomputer" to a desktop computer to a pocket-sized smart phone. He describes the development of the silicon chip, which could store ever-increasing amounts of data and enabled ever-decreasing device size. He visits that hotbed of innovation, Silicon Valley, and brings the story up to the twenty-first century with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and social networking
Beschreibung:	1 online resource (xvi, 199 pages) : illustrations
Bibliographie:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:	9780262310383 0262310384 1280777753 9781280777752 9786613688149 6613688142 9780262310390 0262310392