Abstract
Computers are an integral part of modern society, and new technology has transformed the world that we live in. In the past, communication involved writing letters, sending telegrams or using the home telephones. Today, communication is instantaneous between people, and the new technology has transformed the world into a global village. The developments in computers and information technology have allowed business to be conducted in a global market.
The objective of this book is to give a concise account of the contributions of a selection of those technology companies that have made important contributions to the computing field. It is not feasible, due to space constraints, to consider all those firms that merit inclusion, and the selection chosen inevitably reflects the bias of the author.
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Notes
- 1.
The Whirlwind computer (developed in the early 1950s) occupied an entire building. One room contained the operating console consisting of several input and output devices.
- 2.
Leibniz is credited (along with Newton) with the development of the calculus.
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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O’Regan, G. (2015). Background. In: Pillars of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21464-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21464-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21463-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21464-1
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