The First Computers

This history of computing focuses not on chronology (what came first and who deserves credit for it) but on the actual architectures of the first machines that made electronic computing a practical reality. The book covers computers built in the United States Germany England and Japan. It makes clear that similar concepts were often pursued simultaneously and that the early researchers explored many architectures beyond the von Neumann architecture that eventually became canonical. The contributors include not only historians but also engineers and computer pioneers. An introductory chapter describes the elements of computer architecture and explains why being first is even less interesting for computers than for other areas of technology. The essays contain a remarkable amount of new material even on well-known machines and several describe reconstructions of the historic machines. These investigations are of more than simply historical interest for architectures designed to solve specific problems in the past may suggest new approaches to similar problems in today''s machines.ContributorsTitiimaea F. Ala''ilima Lin Ping Ang William Aspray Friedrich L. Bauer Andreas Brennecke Chris P. Burton Martin Campbell-Kelly Paul Ceruzzi I. Bernard Cohen John Gustafson Wilhelm Hopmann Harry D. Huskey Friedrich W. Kistermann Thomas Lange Michael S. Mahoney R. B. E. Napper Seiichi Okoma Hartmut Petzold Ral Rojas Anthony E. Sale Robert W. Seidel Ambros P. Speiser Frank H. Sumner James F. Tau Jan Van der Spiegel Eiiti Wada Michael R. Williams