| Contents Notes |
Preface -- Part One: The historical background up to World War II -- Beginnings -- Charles Babbage and his analytical engine -- The astronomical ephemeris -- The Universities: Maxwell and Boole -- Integrators and planimeters -- Michelson, Fourier Coefficients, and the Gibbs Phenomenon -- Boolean Algebra: x2=xx=x -- Billings, Hollerith, and the Census -- Ballistics and the rise of the great mathematicians -- Bush's differential analyzer and other analog devices -- Adaptation to scientific needs -- Renascence and triumph of digital means of computation -- Part Two: Wartime developments: ENIAC and EDVAC -- Electronic efforts prior to the ENIAC -- The ballistic research laboratory -- Differences between analog and digital machines -- Beginnings of the ENIAC -- The ENIAC as a mathematical instrument -- John von Neumann and the computer -- Beyond the ENIAC -- The structure of the EDVAC -- The spread of ideas -- First Calculations on the ENIAC -- Part Three: Post-World War II: The von Neumann Machine and the institute for advanced study -- Post-EDVAC days -- The institute for advanced study computer -- Automata theory and logic machines -- Numerical Mathematics -- Numerical Meteorology -- Engineering activities and achievements -- The computer and UNESCO -- The Early Industrial Scene -- Programming languages -- Conclusions -- Appendix: World-Wide Developments -- Index. In 1942, Lt. Herman H. Goldstine, a former mathematics professor, was stationed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. It was there that he assisted in the creation of the ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer. The ENIAC was operational in 1945, but plans for a new computer were already underway. The principal source of ideas for the new computer was John von Neumann, who became Goldstine's chief collaborator. Together they developed EDVAC, successor to ENIAC. After World War II, at the Institute for Advanced Study, they built what was to become the prototype of the present-day computer. Herman Goldstine writes as both historian and scientist in this first examination of the development of computing machinery, from the seventeenth century through the early 1950s. His personal involvement lends a special authenticity to his narrative, as he sprinkles anecdotes and stories liberally through his text. |
