An essential contribution to the study of the history of computers, this work identifies the computer's impact on the physical, biological, cognitive, and medical sciences. References fundamental to the understudied area of the history of scientific computing also document the significant role of the sciences in helping to shape the development of computer technology. More broadly, the many resources on scientific computing help demonstrate how the computer was the most significant scientific instrument of the 20th century.

The only guide of its kind covering the use and impact of...

Originally a military and scientific computational tool of a small number of government, scientific, and corporate elites in the late 1940s, the computer has evolved significantly in less than 70 years to become a revolutionary technology and the basis for one the largest industries in America. The Internet, email and personal computer have become necessities in most offices and college dorm rooms and many homes. Narrative chapters trace the emergence and development of the computer industry in the United States as seen in the economic, historical, and social context of its times from the...

More than a century ago Herman Hollerith pioneered punch card tabulation technology. In 1911 his enterprise became the centerpiece of a new corporation (renamed in the 1920s), International Business Machines (IBM). Over the past century IBM has transformed how we record, calculate, and process information -- forever changing business, science, engineering, government, and leisure. Far more than any other firm, IBM created the IT revolution.

This unique volume brings together fascinating memoirs of key IBM engineers and managers of the past 100 years -- from Walter Jones, who started as...