How the Computer Changed History

How the Computer Changed History — page 1
CHAPTER 1 THE INTERCONNECTIONS PROBLEM Computers Computers are everywhere today But these modern machines have existed for only a few decades The first electronic digital computers were created in the 1940s for military purposes and they were costly room filling machines The military needed computers for activities such as breaking enemy code and performing calculations to improve the accuracy of artillery fire By the 1950s computers were being mass produced for business government and scientific use but they were still very large and very expensive One key technology that helped reduce the size and cost of computers was the transistor invented in 1947 and used in the wildly popular transistor radio in the mid 1950s