On 2009-03-05 T. J. Sawyer, wrote: This book resulted from papers presented at the International Conference on the History of Computing in Paderborn, Germany, in August 1998. It is notable for containing first-hand or nearly first-hand accounts of developments in America, England and Germany in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
The first part of the book, unfortunately, could put the reader to sleep and result in even a serious student of the subject never reaching ´the good stuff.´ But once I hit Harry Huskey´s paper on page 69, I realized that I was seeing first hand reports with details not previously published. Details on both the Eniac and the IAS computer at Princeton filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge.
The parts of the book dealing with both British and German development shed a lot of light on important developments that are frequently omitted or only superficially covered in many works.
If you have some knowledge of vacuum tube electronics and early computer technology, most of the book will be easily understood. In other words, it´s good for old-timers.
Highly recommended! . And summed up by saying A Great Book with a Slow Start. Currently The First Computers--History and Architectures (History of Computing) has an overall rating of 10 over 10.
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Raúl Rojas claimed 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.
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