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Hilbert College |
Annotated Bibliography: History of Personal Computing |
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Basil, Richard. (1984) "Origin of PC's." PC Magazine. Ziff-Davis Publishing. Basil discusses the evolution of the personal computer and Cray, mainframe computers. He establishes that both types of computers, although very different now, have similar past and similar futures. He predicts that there will be supermini computers with 8 gigabytes and a 64-bit word length that fits on a chip. Also, he predicts that current mainframes could shrink to chip size.
Bello, Francis.(1966).Southern Regional Education Board. In this compilation, the history of all computing is generalized. Many of the authors state the importance of looking towards the future.
Ceruzzi, Paul. (1999) History of Modern Computing. MIT press. This book emphasizes the fact that computers did not fall into the laps of mankind. Personal computing was a result of commercial computing. Calculators led to the advent of more popular machines that performed greater duties. The text harolds the develpment of several early models.
Donaldson, Rory. (1987) "An incomplete History of Microcomputing." Whole Earth Review. Point Foundation Publishing. The article gives a timeline of the history of microcomputers. It starts with the invention of the abacus in 3000 BC After the abacus, there are many different inventions of different kinds of calculators. It mentions Augusta ADA, the first computer programmer, who was a software genius. It also mentions Mark I by IBM, which came before ENIAC but was not productive. It discusses the silicon chip and the first personal computer in 1964, known as the Linc.
Farrington, Gregory C. (1996) "ENIAC: The Birth of the Information Age." Popular Science. Times Mirror Magazine INC. Farrington considers ENIAC the first general all purpose electronic computer, which was built at the University of Pennsylvania, intended for calculating trajectories of projectiles and bombs. It was big and unreliable, but it was far better than other machines. "Miniaturization made it possible for desktops to have more power than ENIAC by 1980's. Today, Desktops are telecommunication centers. He further discusses the impact of telecommunication of computer on society.Something about the article or book goes here.
Fogarty, Terence. (1944). Evolutionary Computing. Springer-Velag. Fogarty focuses mainly on the mathematical background of all computing and helps the reader to understand the methods used to create the earliest computers.
Goff, Leslie. (1999) "Genesis of the Computer." Computerworld. Goff highlights a different year each week in Computerworld from the past fifty years in computing. This article describes 1950. During this year, the creators of ENIAC, Mauchly and Eckert, also create UNIVAC {Universal Automatic Computer), but they lose their financial backing and must find someone to buy their company EMCC. Goff emphasizes Mauchly as a visionary.
Goldburg, Adele. (1988) A History of Personal Workstations. ACM Press Goldburg uses the book to take the reader through the history of personal workstations from the early fifties to The LINC to the Promis Technology. There is a useful chart on page 38 which gives computer characteristics and costs, etc... The APANET development has a chapter devoted to it, as does The Linc.
Golden, Frederich. (1999) "Who Built the First Computer?" TIME This article questions if ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Intergrater and Computer) built by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert in 1946 was really the first computer. ENIAC was the size of 2 semis that was reprogrammable and did mathematical calculations, especially for bombs in WWII. However, a physicist named John Atanasoff claims that he invented the first computer, known as ABC (Atanasoff Berry Computer). ABC was not programmable but it used binary numbers, which ENIAC did not. The author concludes that ENIAC is what lead to modern computers regardless of whether it was first.
Guterl, Fred. (1995) "Reinventing the PC." Discover. Walt Disney Co." This article gives a brief history of computers and then suggests possible futures for personal computers. Some envision "computers with clothes, electric fields that sense a human's states and movements, omnipresent information, speech comprehension aided by hand and lip movements, and information-searching software servants."
Harmon, Margaret. (1975) Stretching Man's Mind: A History of Data Processing. Mason and Charter. Harmon harolds the history of calculating machines and computers. The history, while slow at its' beginnings, had sped up significantly; even in 1975. The Roman Abacus, early calculators, and Boolean Algebra are discussed as are their respective inventors. The UNIVAC is featured as being far superior to its predecessor, the ENIAC.
Kleper, Scott J. "Failure as a Driving Force in the Personal Computer Industry." www.stanford.edu/~klep/../papers/sts-termpaper.html. This web site gives a very detailed history of personal computers. The author explains that there have been many failures in the technology of personal computers. But those failures have only shaped the industry as a whole. The article mentions Xerox Palo Alto, Macintosh, IBM, Apple, Microsoft, etc.
Langer,Arthur. (1997) The Art of Analysis. Springer. This book deals with many of the problems that have faced personal computers for years. With new user interfaces etc...the problems have mounted due to bugs viruses etc...
Lash, Bob. Online: http://bambi.net/bolo/homebrew.html This website features Mr. Lash's first encounters with computing and personal computers. The site sheds much light on how different people can view the personal computing world.
This article goes through the history of personal computers. First, the author states that the development of microprocessors has lead to personal computers, which has leas to the Internet. He describes the process and gives a detailed timeline. He describes the impacts of Charles Babbage, Alan Turning, John Von Neumann, Ted Hoffins, and Ed Roberts. For the future, he predicts microscopic devices that will change how we think of materials, digital ink, and "artificial life" software.
Metropolis, N., Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo. (1980)A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century. Academic Press This collection of essays from many respectable professionals tells the tales of early computers, their languages, and inventors. One of the earliest computers was called the COLOSSUS. It had four valves and a cell as its major components. It was pioneered by Alan Turring. It was classified by the government. Many offshoots of the early computer appeared when an attempt was made to declassify it.
Runyan, Linda. (1991) "Forty Years on the Frontier." Datamation. Cahners Publishing. Runyan discusses how personal computers have turned into a $256 billion global industry. Also, she maintains that the United States Government, especially the department of Defense, has always been the largest consumer of processing power and they have always financed and pushed for better technology. She writes that Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was the birth of personal computers because lots of bookkeeping was necessary for the New Deal.
Smith, Hugh. (1980). Human Interaction With Computers. Academic Press. This text deals largely with the way humans have learned to deal with the phenomenon of personal computing. The idea that mankind created computing soley for communication purposes is discussed.
Verity, John W. (1984) "Where It All Began." Datamation. Cahners Publishing. The article introduces Claude Shannon. Shannon formulated the seminal information theory on which computers and communications technology is based. He also provided the mathematical basis for computers. His theory describes how information travels in a channel and can be disrupted by noise, which distorts the message.
Williams, Micheal. (1985) A History of Computing Technology. Prentice-Hall. Williams takes the history of computing not only back to the Twentieth century, but also back to the Egyptians, Greeks and early Europeans. Finger Reckoning, commercially produced machines, and the Babbage machines. Many other inventors such as Percy Ludgate and Samuel Morland are introduced in this text. (/P> Lash, Bob. Online: http://bambi.net/bolo/homebrew.html This website features Mr. Lash's first encounters with computing and personal computers. The site sheds much light on how different people can view the personal computing world. |
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