1.2 The History of Computing
The historical foundation of computing goes a long way toward explaining why computing systems today are designed as they are. Think of this section as a story whose characters and events have led to the place we are now and form the foundation of the exciting future to come. We examine the history of computing hardware and software separately because each has its own impact on how computing systems evolved into the layered model we use as the outline for this book.
This history is written as a narrative, with no intent to formally define the concepts discussed. In subsequent chapters, we return to these concepts and explore them in more detail.
A Brief History of Computing Hardware
The devices that assist ...
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