The fascinating history of the personal computer from Altair to the IBM PC revolution. Written by computer legend Stan Veit, who turned Computer Shopper into the world's largest computer magazine.

An unprecedented combination of computer history and striking images, Core Memory reveals modern technology's evolution through the world's most renowned computer collection, the Computer History Museum in the Silicon Valley. Vivid photos capture these historically important machines including the Eniac, Crays 1 3, Apple I and II while authoritative text profiles each, telling the stories of their innovations and peculiarities

"From the tiniest gadget to vast scientific simulators, computers are integral to our lives, and are developing at ever-increasing speed. The Computer traces the evolution of this vital machine from its earliest roots through its exciting application in code-breaking during the Second World War, from its initial use in the workplace and home, to is current status as a totally indispensable -- and increasingly portable - part of twenty-first century life. Highly illustrated, the book brings home the rapid reduction in computer size and growth in capacity, and its vast range of uses. From colossus to the iPad -- this book tells the whole extraordinary story." -- Back cover.

CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy’s Underdog Computer is the first book to document the complete history of the Tandy Color Computer (CoCo), a popular 8-bit PC series from the 1980s that competed against the era’s biggest names, including the Apple II, IBM PC, and Commodore 64. The book takes you inside the interesting stories and people behind this unique, underdog computer. Both noted computer science and technology advocates, authors Pitre and Loguidice reveal the story of a pivotal period in the home computing revolution from the perspective of Tandy’s CoCo. As these computers were sold in Radio Shack stores throughout the United States and other countries, they provide a critical point of reference for key events in the unprecedented evolutionary period for the PC industry in the 1980s. The book also features first-hand accounts from the people who created and promoted the CoCo, from the original Tandy executives and engineers to today’s active product creators and information keepers. The CoCo impacted many lives, and this book leaves no stone unturned in recounting this fascinating slice of the PC revolution that is still in play today. From early telecommunications experiments to engineering and budgetary challenges, it covers all the aspects that made the CoCo a truly personal, useful computing experience in as small and inexpensive a package as possible.

Silicon Valley gets all the credit for digital creativity, but this account of the pre-PC world, when computing meant more than using mature consumer technology, challenges that triumphalism. The invention of the personal computer liberated users from corporate mainframes and brought computing into homes. But throughout the 1960s and 1970s a diverse group of teachers and students working together on academic computing systems conducted many of the activities we now recognize as personal and social computing. Their networks were centered in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Illinois, but they connected far-flung users. Joy Rankin draws on detailed records to explore how users exchanged messages, programmed music and poems, fostered communities, and developed computer games like The Oregon Trail. These unsung pioneers helped shape our digital world, just as much as the inventors, garage hobbyists, and eccentric billionaires of Palo Alto. By imagining computing as an interactive commons, the early denizens of the digital realm seeded today’s debate about whether the internet should be a public utility and laid the groundwork for the concept of net neutrality. Rankin offers a radical precedent for a more democratic digital culture, and new models for the next generation of activists, educators, coders, and makers.

Historical Information Science is an extensive review and bibliographic essay, backed by almost 6,000 citations, detailing developments in information technology since the advent of personal computers and the convergence of several social science and humanities disciplines in historical computing. Its focus is on the access, preservation, and analysis of historical information (primarily in electronic form) and the relationships between new methodology and instructional media, techniques, and research trends in library special collections, digital libraries, data archives, and museums.

Electronic computers are arguably the greatest invention of the 20th century. They are the enablers for many of the technologies that the developed world now relies upon and their impact on society cannot be overestimated. The story of their creation is a fascinating one which encompasses many of the great advances in engineering, mathematics and the physical sciences that have taken place over the past 400 years.The Story of the Computer is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject written from both a technical and a business perspective. It sets out to chart the complex evolutionary process that has resulted in the creation of today's computers, picking out those innovations and discoveries which contributed most to the pool of knowledge through their influence on later advances and taking into consideration the business drivers as well as the specific technical breakthroughs. To put developments into context and provide a more rounded picture, it also covers the advances in science and technology, or 'building blocks', which have facilitated them.The book is divided into four parts, beginning with humanity's earliest efforts to automate the process of calculation, first through mechanical means, then electromechanical and finally electronic. Part two describes the transformation from sequence-controlled calculators to stored-program computers and the birth of the computer industry. In part three we see the industry maturing and new market segments beginning to emerge for faster or smaller computers, facilitated by the introduction of solid-state components. The final part brings the story up to date with the development of mass-produced personal computers, computer graphics and the World Wide Web.Written in a highly accessible style with illustrations throughout, The Story of the Computer should provide a rewarding read for both the specialist and the general reader.

This volume focuses on the role of the computer and electronic technology in the discipline of history. It includes representative articles addressing H-Net, scholarly publication, on-line reviewing, enhanced lectures using the World Wide Web, and historical research.