A Brief History of Computing

Preface.- What is a Computer?.- Computing in Early Civilisations.- Foundations of Computing.- The First Digital Computers.- The First Commercial Computers.- Early Commercial Computers and the Invention of the Transistor.- Integrated Circuit and Silicon Valley.- The IBM System/360.- Minicomputers and Later Mainframes.- The Microprocessor Revolution.- Home Computers.- The IBM Personal Computer.-History of Operating Systems.- Birth of Software Industry and Human Computer Interaction.- History of Programming Languages.- History of Software Engineering.- A Short History of Telecommunications.- The Internet Revolution.- The Smartphone and Social Media.- A Miscellany of Innovation.- History of Databases.- History of Artificial Intelligence.- Ethics and Professional Responsibility.- Legal Aspects of Computing.-Computer Crime and Cybersecurity.- Epilogue.- References.- Glossary.- Index.