COMPUTERS, HISTORY OF

the contribution of major individuals, machines, and ideas to the development of computing. A computer might be described with deceptive simplicity as an apparatus that performs routine calculations automatically. Such a definition would owe its deceptiveness to a naive and narrow view of calculation as a strictly mathematical process. In fact, calculation underlies many activities that are not normally thought of as mathematical. Walking across a room, for instance, requires many complex, albeit subconscious, calculations. Computers, too, have proved capable of solving a vast array of problems, from balancing a checkbook to evenin the form of guidance systems for robotswalking across a room. Before the true power of computing could be realized, therefore, the naive view of calculation had to be overcome. The inventors who laboured to bring the computer into the world had to learn that the thing they were inventing was not just a number cruncher, not merely a calculator. For example, they had to learn that it was not necessary to invent a new computer for every new calculation and that a computer could be designed to solve numerous problems, even problems not yet imagined when the computer was built. They also had to learn how to tell such a general problem-solving computer what problem to solve. In other words, they had to invent programming. They had to solve all the heady problems of developing such a device, of implementing the design, of actually building the thing. The history of the solving of these problems is the history of the computer. That history is covered in this article, and links are provided to entries on many of the individuals and companies mentioned. In addition, separate articles exist on computer science and supercomputer. Additional reading Early history and overviews Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Computer: A History of the Information Machine (1996), is a comprehensive history that begins with early computational devices and proceeds through the creation of the first computers.Betty A. Toole (ed.), Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers (1992), gives an edited and annotated selection of the letters of Ada Lovelace, dealing with her education, passion for mathematics, and work with Charles Babbage.Charles Eames and Ray Eames, A Computer Perspective, ed. by Glen Fleck (1973, reprinted 1990), is a pictorial record of the authors' creation of a computer exhibition for IBM that covered developments from the 1890 U.S. Census up to the stored-program computer, 18901950. Invention of the modern computer N. Metropolis, J. Howlett, and Gian-Carlo Rota (eds.), A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century (1980), collects essays by participants in the events described, with hard-to-find details on wartime computer work in England, early computer development in Europe and Japan, and ENIAC.William Aspray, John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing (1990), describes von Neumann's accomplishments in computing, mathematics, and economics, including the design of his computer systems.Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing (1983), is a clearly written biographical account that covers some of the crucial work on the foundations of computer science.G. Pascal Zachary, Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (1997), presents a detailed account of Bush's role in transforming scientific research in the United States through government funding. The age of Big Iron Joel Shurkin, Engines of the Mind: The Evolution of the Computer from Mainframes to Microprocessors, updated ed. (1996), is a readable overview of the history of computers with anecdotes and personalities.Robert Sobel, IBM: Colossus in Transition (1981), explores the history, growth, and evolution of IBM up to the early microcomputer days.Richard L. Wexelblat (ed.), History of Programming Languages (1981), presents an academic and anecdotal history of 10 significant early programming languages, including FORTRAN, COBOL, and BASIC.Thomas J. Bergin, Jr., and Richard G. Gibson, Jr. (eds.), History of Programming Languages II (1996), gives a mixture of academic research and anecdotal accounts from participants, covering the history of ALGOL, Pascal, and more modern languages through C and Smalltalk.Gerrit A. Blaauw and Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution (1997), is a highly technical history of the development of the concepts in computer architecture. The personal computer revolution Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer (1984), describes the nascent years of the personal computer industry and the growth that took place in Silicon Valley.Michael S. Malone, The Big Score: The Billion-Dollar Story of Silicon Valley (1985), explains how the invention of the semiconductor transformed Silicon Valley. Living in cyberspace Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores, Understanding Computers and Cognition (1986), discusses the connections between computers and human language, thought, and action.Peter J. Denning and Robert M. Metcalfe, Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing (1997), the computer revolution is just beginning; essays by experts on the social, scientific, and economic impact of computers during the coming decades. Paul A. Freiberger Michael R. Swaine