A Brief History of Computing

This lively and fascinating text traces the key developments in computation – from 3000 B.C. to the present day – in an easy-to-follow and concise manner. The book embarks upon a journey from ancient Egypt to modern times-- taking in mechanical calculators, early digital computers, to software engineering, to the first personal computers and mobile phones, and the invention of the World Wide Web, among other topics. This expanded and revised 4th edition examines legal and ethical issues that arise in the computing field, as well as innovations such as quantum computing and Bitcoin. Topics and features: Offers many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions and summaries, exercises, and a glossary Discusses major figures such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon, Turing, and Von Neumann Reviews early computers developed in the United States, Germany and Britain Explores the development of the IBM 360 and the birth of the software industry Reviews the history of software engineering, programming languages, and operating systems, and examines ethical software engineering Investigates progress of the field of artificial intelligence, including ethical AI Revi…