A compact and accessible history of computing, from punch cards and calculators to UNIVAC and ENIAC, the personal computer, Silicon Valley, and the Internet An MIT Press Essential Knowledge series title In an accessible style, computer historian Paul Ceruzzi offers a broad though detailed history of computing, from the first use of the word "digital" in 1942 to the development of punch cards and the first general purpose computer, to the internet, Silicon Valley, and smartphones and social networking. Ceruzzi identifies 4 major threads that run throughout all of computing's technological development: Digitization: the coding of information, computation, and control in binary formThe convergence of multiple streams of techniques, devices, and machinesThe steady advance of electronic technology, as characterized famously by "Moore's Law"Human-machine interface The history of computing could be told as the story of hardware and software, or the story of the Internet, or the story of "smart" hand-held devices. In this concise and accessible account of the invention and development of digital technology, Ceruzzi offers a general and more useful perspective for students of computer science and history.