The First Computers: History and ArchitecturesRaul Rojas, Ulf Hashagen 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. Contributors |
Contents
Some Remarks on the First Generation of Computers | 1 |
The Structures of Computation | 17 |
The Challenge of HighTech Artifacts | 33 |
A Classification Scheme for Program Controlled Calculators | 53 |
Hardware Components and Computer Design | 69 |
Reconstruction of the AtanasoffBerry Computer | 91 |
Howard Aiken and the Dawn of the Computer Age | 107 |
History Operation and Reconstruction in VLSI | 121 |
The Plankalkul of Konrad Zuse Revisited | 277 |
The G1 and the Gottingen Family of Digital Computers | 295 |
Konrad Zuse and Industrial Manufacturing of Electronic Computers in Germany | 315 |
Helmut Hoelzer Inventor of the Electronic Analog Computer | 323 |
The Colossus of Bletchley Park The German Cipher System | 351 |
The Manchester Mark 1 Computers | 365 |
Rebuilding the First Manchester Computer | 379 |
The Atlas Computer | 387 |
A Case Study in the Application of Concepts from the History of Technology | 179 |
A Historian Looks at Computer Architecture 19451995 | 195 |
The DEHOMAG D11 Tabulator A Milestone in the History of Data Processing | 221 |
The Architecture of Konrad Zuses Early Computing Machines | 237 |
Architecture Programming and Modifications at the ETH Zurich | 263 |
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Common terms and phrases
accumulator addition Aiken algorithm amplifier analog architecture arithmetic artifacts Atanasoff Automatic binary bits Bletchley Park calculations card reader chip circuit clock Colossus components computer science core cycles decade counter decimal digits DEHOMAG delay lines device early computers EDSAC EDVAC engineers ENIAC example executed exponent Figure flip-flop floating-point FUJIC Function Table gate hardware historians History of Computing Hoelzer IAS computer implemented input Institute instruction set Konrad Zuse Laboratory logic magnetic drum Manchester Manchester Mark mantissa mathematical mechanical memory multiplication Museum Neumann operation output panel paper tape parametron Plankalkül problems processor produced program control pulse punched card punched tape puter RC circuit reconstruction relay reset result sequence shift simulator stepper storage stored program subtraction switches tabulator tape reader thyratron tion transfer transistors transmitted unit University vacuum tubes voltage wiring Zuse's