History of Computing
Steve Maurer, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy
Geoff Voelker, UCSD Computer Science & Engineering
Syllabus / Lecture Schedule /
EXPECT FREQUENT CHANGES
Before the first day of class, read the text A History of Modern Computing, Paul E. Ceruzzi, 2003. An electronic version of the text is available through the UW library. Do a title search for “A History of Modern Computing” here. If you are off-campus and a UW student, you might want to use the library’s proxy system. The number of simultaneous users is limited – please don’t squat.
Also, please review the materials for the course Women in Computing, UCSD, Fall 2006.
The following may be generally useful during the course:
The IEEE Annals of the History of Computing is a great source of background material, project ideas, etc.
Here’s a good list of other History of Computing courses – again, a source of background material, project ideas, etc.
Wikipedia is terrific on many history of computing topics, particularly the earlier ones.
See also our annotated list of reference books.
Wednesday September 27
Computing to 1940 / Steve Maurer: Pre-history of data, Pascal, Leibnitz, Babbage, Hollerith, Vannevar Bush, Atanasoff-Berry
Read the first two sections of this web material (“It Weaves Algebraic Patterns: Abacuses, Looms, and Arithmetic Engines (c.3000 B.C. to c.1870)” and “The Apotheosis of Mechanical Computers (1890-1940)”), including the linked material (within reason!)
Wednesday October 4
Computing from the end of WW II to the dawn of System/360 / Steve Maurer: ENIAC, Univac, MANIAC, Aiken, SAGE, the early IBM machines (709, 7090, 7094), etc.
Review chapters 1 and 2 of A History of Modern Computing
Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945 (pdf)
John von Neumann, First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, June 1945 (pdf)
Read this web material and the linked material:
For the real geeks in the crowd:
The IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator, John W. Sheldon & Liston Tatum, Review of Electronic Digital Computers, December 1951
A Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems, US Army Ballistic Research Laboratories Report No. 971, December 1955
The IBM System/360 / Ed Lazowska: A landmark – the first architectural family.
Review chapter 5 of A History of Modern Computing
Wednesday October 11
Minicomputers and DEC / Gordon Bell [from Berkeley]: Gordon, a renowned computer engineer, was VP of Engineering at DEC during the glory years of the PDPs and DECsystems.
Read the material linked from Gordon Bell's DEC website, most particularly:
Bell's Law of Computer Classes, Wikipedia.
Website of 41-year history of DEC.
Skim C. Gordon Bell, J. Craig Mudge, John E. McNamara, Computer Engineering, Digital Press, 1978.
Review Chapters 4 and 6 of A History of Modern Computing.
[Maurer will be on travel]
[Voelker will be on travel]
Wednesday October 18
Xerox PARC, workstations, and distributed computing / Butler Lampson [from Berkeley]: Much of modern personal computing and distributed computing was invented at PARC: bit-mapped displays, Alto, Ethernet, laser printing, Remote Procedure Call, modern distributed file systems and distributed mail systems. Butler was in the middle of all of it.
Butler W. Lampson, Personal Distributed Computing: The Alto and Ethernet Software, ACM Conference on History of Personal Workstations, 1986 (pdf).
Charles P. Thacker, Personal Distributed Computing: The Alto and Ethernet Hardware, ACM Conference on History of Personal Workstations, 1986 (pdf).
Books, for those with deeper interest:
M. Mitchell Waldrop, The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal, 2002. (Only a couple of chapters are directly about PARC, but it’s a really excellent book.)
Michael A. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age, 2000. (This is the best book that’s focused on PARC.)
Wednesday October 25
Origins of software / Armando Fox [from Berkeley]
Review chapter 3 of A History of Modern Computing
Antitrust / Steve Maurer
Abbott B. Lipsky, Jr., Memorandum for the Attorney General Re: U.S. v. International Business Machines Corp., January 1982 (pdf)
[Lazowska will be on travel]
[Voelker will be on travel]
Wednesday November 1
Personal computing and Apple / Steve Wozniak [from
Review Chapter 7 of A History of Modern Computing
Just for fun: PC World, “A Brief History of Computers, As Seen in Old TV Ads”
Wednesday November 8
High-performance computing /
“Introduction to Supercomputers,” The History of Computing Project
“Supercomputers,” Gordon Bell
“A Seymour Cray Perspective,” Gordon Bell
A book, for those with deeper interest:
Charles J. Murray, The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer, Wiley, 1997
[Voelker will participate from Seattle]
Wednesday November 15
Collaboration software / Ray Ozzie [from UW]: In the 1970s, as an undergraduate in computer science at the University of Illinois, Ray was a systems programmer on PLATO – the world’s first “online community.” Ray has devoted his career to turning PLATO’s vision of the future into a commercial reality available to everyone. At Software Arts he contributed to VisiCalc and TK!Solver. At Lotus Development Corp. he was instrumental in the development of Lotus Symphony. He left Lotus to found Iris Associates, where he created what became Lotus Notes. His next startup, Groove Networks – another innovator in collaboration software for individuals and enterprises – was acquired by Microsoft in 2005, at which point Ray became one of Microsoft’s three Chief Technical Officers. In June 2006, Ray was named Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect – the title previously held by Bill Gates.
“Rebuilding Microsoft,” Wired, October 2006
“A Conversation with Ray Ozzie,” ACM Queue 3,9, November 2005
“The Internet Services Disruption,” Ray Ozzie, October 2005
“The Nature of the Firm,” R.H. Coase, Economica, 1937 (pdf)
Wednesday November 22
The Role of DARPA / Ed Lazowska: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been responsible for stimulating an enormous proportion of the fundamental advances in information technology. Why?
“Power Play: The DARPA Model and U.S. Energy Policy,” William B. Bonvillian, The American Interest II,2, November/December 2006 (pdf)
A book, for those with deeper interest:
M. Mitchell Waldrop, The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal, 2002. (A really excellent book.)
Women in Computing / Kate Deibel
Gürer, D., "Pioneering women in computer science," SIGCSE Bull. 34, 2 (Jun. 2002).
Fritz, W.B., "The women of ENIAC," Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE, Volume 18, Issue 3, Fall 1996.
Lazowska, E., "Pale and male: 19th century design in a 21st century world," SIGCSE Bulletin, 34, 2 (Jun. 2002).
Lynn Conway, "Career Retrospective."
For those who want to delve deeper:
Oral histories from the Charles Babbage Institute:
Wednesday November 29
The 1960s cultural influence on computing / John Markoff [from
Material will be drawn from What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer, John Markoff, Penguin Group, 2005.
Macintosh software, from the original Mac to OS-X, and leveraging open source
/ Bud Tribble [from
Wednesday December 6
Mathematical Origins of Computing / Christos Papadimitriou [from
“The Sheer Logic of IT,” Christos H. Papadimitriou, American Scientist, 2001
World War II Codebreaking / Mike Koss [from UW]: Bletchley Park, Turing, Colossus, Enigma. Mike, an ex-Microsoft MIT alumnus who is a friend of UW CSE, has an Enigma machine that he will bring to class.
Print, assemble, and bring to class a paper Enigma simulator