{"product_id":"9780262517676","title":"Computing: A Concise History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA compact and accessible history, from punch cards and calculators to UNIVAC and ENIAC, the personal computer, Silicon Valley, and the Internet.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of \"smart\" hand-held devices, with subplots involving IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. In this concise and accessible account of the invention and development of digital technology, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broader and more useful perspective. He identifies four major threads that run throughout all of computing's technological development: digitization—the coding of information, computation, and control in binary form, ones and zeros; the convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices, and machines, yielding more than the sum of their parts; the steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by \"Moore's Law\"; and the human-machine interface.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCeruzzi guides us through computing history, telling how a Bell Labs mathematician coined the word \"digital\" in 1942 (to describe a high-speed method of calculating used in anti-aircraft devices), and recounting the development of the punch card (for use in the 1890 U.S. Census). He describes the ENIAC, built for scientific and military applications; the UNIVAC, the first general purpose computer; and ARPANET, the Internet's precursor. Ceruzzi's account traces the world-changing evolution of the computer from a room-size ensemble of machinery to a \"minicomputer\" to a desktop computer to a pocket-sized smart phone. He describes the development of the silicon chip, which could store ever-increasing amounts of data and enabled ever-decreasing device size. He visits that hotbed of innovation, Silicon Valley, and brings the story up to the present with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and social networking.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47018565107952,"sku":"9780262517676","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780262517676_p0.jpg?v=1765232838","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780262517676","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}