The many firsts of computer development [Books] - IEEE ... - IEEE Xplore

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step this perennial controversy by speaking of multiple firsts rather than a singular first. As the historian Michael Williams suggests in his introduction, “If you add ...
The many firsts of computer development NATHAN ENSMENGER

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any fruitless attempts have been made over the years to identify the “first” computer. The debate thus far has proven more vigorous than productive, generating much heat but little light. In their collection of essays, The First Computers—History and Architectures, editors Raúl Rojas and Ulf Hashagen neatly sidestep this perennial controversy by speaking of multiple firsts rather than a singular first. As the historian Michael Williams suggests in his introduction, “If you add enough adjectives to a description you can always claim your own favorite. For example the ENIAC is often claimed to be the ‘first electronic, general purpose, large scale, digital computer’ and you certainly have to add all those adjectives before you have a correct statement. If you leave any of them

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off, then machines such as the ABC [Atanasoff-Berry computer], the Colossus, Zuse’s Z3, and many others…become candidates for being ‘first.’ ” For the most part, the essays in the book make no absolute claims about priority, but focus on the unique characteristics of particular computers. The result is a well-balanced and fascinating perspective on a wide range of early computing devices from the United States, Germany, Britain, Japan, and elsewhere. Scholars interested in pursuing comparative research will find it an invaluable resource, while for readers drawn to the nuts-and-bolts history of computer hardware development, The First Computers is a treasure trove of information. In a tribute to past accomplishments, some recent reconstruction projects are described in loving and comprehensive detail: the Atanasoff-Berry computer, the

The First Computers— History and Architectures Raúl Rojas and Ulf Hashagen (eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2000, ISBN 0-262-18197-5, 432 pp., $39.95.

IEEE SPECTRUM DECEMBER 2000

Eniac-on-a-chip project (developed by electrical engineering students at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Eniac’s 50th birthday celebration), the Bletchley Park Colossus machine, and the Manchester Baby. Along with these purely physical recreations, Martin Campbell-Kelly, who specializes in the history of computing, supplies an account of his Edsac simulator project, and Seiichi Okoma, a professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University in Japan, describes the development of his series of six simulators of early Japanese computers. Other articles are rich descriptions of the inner workings of assorted early computer architectures. Although some of these machines are familiar, many are not: the Dehomag D11 Tabulator and the G1 and Gottingen family of digital computers, for example— devices that have not previously been well known outside Germany. Some of the authors are historians; others are computer science and engineering practitioners; a few, such as Harry Huskey, Friedrich Bauer, and Eiiti Wada, are well-known computing pioneers in their own right.

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The essays are organized by geographical region, and although none is explicitly comparative, the juxtaposition of various national technological styles and contexts is intriguing. Eiiti Wada, for instance, suggests that the Parametron Computer PC-1 he helped develop in 1958 at the University of Tokyo, was roughly modeled after Britain’s Edsac but differed significantly in its architectural details. Hartmut Petzold, of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, describes how Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer who started building mechanical computing devices in the 1930s, compensated for his company’s modest development capacity by exploiting innovations produced at research institutes in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria. Although most of the collection focuses on technical description, a few useful historical essays provide a larger context for these early computers. In his “Nothing New Since von Neumann: A Historian Looks at Computer Architecture, 1945–1995,” Paul Ceruzzi briefly surveys some of the evolutionary milestones in the development of modern computing. William Aspray uses a case study of the

Princeton Institute for Advanced Study computer, designed by John von Neumann, to explore some of the concepts used by business historians and historians of technology, including technology transfer, organizational buy-in, first-mover advantages, and organizational continuity. Robert Seidel discusses the tension between the historian’s use of artifacts and the practitioner’s reconstruction of them: he emphasizes the dangers of separating these reconstructions from their larger social, political, and economic contexts. Besides hardware aficionados and scholars pursuing comparative research, who is likely to enjoy and benefit from reading The First Computers? Certainly theoretical computer scientists will appreciate Michael Mahoney’s account of the origins and rise of their discipline, as well as Friedrich Bauer’s description of Zuse’s Plankalkul programming language. But more casual readers may also enjoy the book’s eclectic collection of essays. And the reminder that the development of technology is a social endeavor that involves a series of interrelated firsts, rather than a singular, isolated first, will be appreciated by even the most experienced and sophisticated historian.

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Nathan Ensmenger, a PH.D. candidate in the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, is writing a dissertation on the development of the software engineering discipline.

Fourier analysis for the masses ARTHUR D. SNIDER

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o engineers, mathematics is a tool—like optics, oscilloscopes, and lathes. But the math tool is unique in that it is always reliable. It never breaks down or becomes outdated, and it rarely requires upgrades. We confidently rely on our colleagues in the math departments to guarantee its consistency (or, at worst, to confine the consistency questions to areas far removed from engineering applications). However, many engineering disciplines involve applications of frequency analysis: that is, signal processing, modal testing, circuit theory, communications designs, controls, and radiating systems. It is in these areas that some mathemati-

IEEE SPECTRUM DECEMBER 2000

cal consistency issues poke their noses right in our face. For example, obviously all our signals are time-limited, and we often model them as band-limited as well. Yet mathematics says there are no such functions (other than zero). Again: why is it you can convolve delta functions, but not square them? And who among us has ever seen a convincing derivation of the Fourier transform of the signum function? Thoughtful students and practitioners who seek a resolution to these troubling details are quickly repelled by the jargon of the mathematical literature, which requires prior scholarship in matters such as measure theory, Lp spaces, and Lipschitz continuity. The good news is that David Kammler has exploited his considerable experience as a research analyst, industrial mathematician, university professor (at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale), and mesmerizing storyteller to create a book on Fourier analysis that explains these issues to nonmathematicians. Using only the basic calculus con- A First Course in Fourier Analysis David W. Kammler, Prentice-Hall, cepts of ordinary (Riemann) integration, Upper Saddle River, N..J., 2000 , convergence, and continuity, A First Course ISBN 0-13-578782-3, 830 pp., $84. in Fourier Analysis expounds nearly the

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