ABC's of Computers

By Allan Herbert Lytel

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1014680832
• ISBN13: 9781014680839
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: Hassell Street Press
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful retro guide to the basics

This book was written in 1961 so you can imagine the sophistication of the machines and the readers of the time. That coupled with the optimism of the modern thought at the time ("...so will electronic ultimately free him from the drudgery of ordinary mental labor in computation and record keeping....") makes this a hilarious and informative read. Informative because the theory of a digital computer has not changed, only the sophistication, miniturization, efficiency. I suppose that the first book on hammers might or might not be as funny since the hammer was possibly invented before written language, but the hammer has probably evolved slightly in 5 or 10 thousand years compared to how the power and dominance of computers have increased in the last 44 years. And yes, that's even counting the jack-hammer. The chapters cover switching devices, numbering systems, arithmetic, circuit logic (AND/OR/NOR), memory, magnetic storage, programming and the peripheral devices of the time. As far as brand names go, IBM, Honeywell, UNIVAC, ENIAC and NCR are mentioned. Languages include COBOL, FORTRAN and SPS. The current reader will note that this book was written before networking was foreseen to be a major aspect of computing, so nothing of it is mentioned. My favorite aspect of the book is the large number of illustrations, mostly circuit symbols and schematics helping to explain how everything works.