The Computers that Made the World
eBook - ePub

The Computers that Made the World

  1. 296 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Computers that Made the World

About this book

Discover the birth of the technological world we now live in through the origins of 12 influential computers built between 1939 and 1950.​

In 1940, a computer was someone who ploughed through grueling calculations each day. A decade later, a computer was a buzzing machine that filled a room. This book tells the story of how our world was reshaped by a dozen such computers — and the geniuses that brought them into being, from Alan Turing to John von Neumann.​

This world tour through the modern history of computing begins in 1939 with the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry computer (ABC). The story of computing in World War II takes readers through Germany, UK, and the US, before covering the explosive post-war years when anything seemed possible. Learn the fascinating stories behind the Manchester Baby, EDSAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC, Princeton IAS, and Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE and the birth of artificial intelligence.​

The Computers that Made the World chronicles how a new world, built on technology, sprang into being.

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Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Timeline – From 1936 to 1950
  6. Introduction – Charles Babbage – inventor of the first mechanical computer
  7. Chapter 1: ABC – The Atanasoff-Berry computer
  8. Chapter 2: Zuse Z3 – An early electromechanical computer
  9. Chapter 3: Complex Number Calculator – Building the foundations of digital computers
  10. Chapter 4: Colossus – Code-breaking computer that helped win a World War
  11. Chapter 5: Harvard Mark I – Another pioneering electromechanical computer
  12. Chapter 6: ENIAC – The first programmable digital computer
  13. Chapter 7: Manchester Baby – The first electronic stored-program computer
  14. Chapter 8: EDSAC – Pioneering British computer
  15. Chapter 9: EDVAC, UNIVAC, & Princeton IAS – Three computers with shared origins
  16. Chapter 10: Pilot ACE – Vacuum-tube powered early computing
  17. Chapter 11: What happened next – The growth of commercial computing
  18. Timeline – From 1951 to 1965

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Yes, you can access The Computers that Made the World by Tim Danton in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Computer Science & Computer Science General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.