Engines of the Mind The Evolution of the Computer from Mainframes to Microprocessors

by Shurkin, Joel N.

• ISBN13: 9780393314717
• ISBN10: 0393314715
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-02-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

When John Mauchly and Presper Eckert developed the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II, their intention was to aid artillerymen in aiming their guns. Since then, in the past fifty years, ENIAC and its offspring have changed the way we go about both business and science. Along with the transistor, the computer has brought about transformation on a scale unmatched since the industrial revolution. Now, in a lively and evenhanded account, Joel Shurkin introduces us to the often-feuding players and the discoveries that made the computer possible-from the first models to the creation of the chip and beyond. Here is the first full account of an invention that changed the world. For this new paperback edition, Shurkin has added an epilogue and a new chapter on the latest milestones in the ongoing computer revolution.

Table of Contents

Introduction	9	(4)
Acknowledgments	13	(6)
One, Two, Many	19	(18)
Sir Alphabet Function	37	(29)
Hollerith	66	(27)
Dinosaurs and Flip-Flops	93	(24)
Eckert and Mauchly	117	(22)
ENIAC	139	(34)
Von Neumann	173	(36)
UNIVAC	209	(39)
The First Dwarf	248	(32)
Bleak House	280	(20)
The Revolution	300	(23)
Epilogue	323	(16)
Glossary	339	(6)
Bibliography	345	(4)
Index	349