with the cooperation of Robert V. D. CampbellThis collection of technicalessays and reminiscences is a companion volume to I. Bernard Cohen's biography, Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer. After an overview by Cohen, Part Ipresents the first complete publication of Aiken's 1937 proposal for an automaticcalculating machine, which was later realized as the Mark I, as well asrecollections of Aiken's first two machines by the chief engineer in charge ofconstruction of Mark II, Robert Campbell, and the principal programmer of Mark I, Richard Bloch. Henry Tropp describes Aiken's hostility to the exclusive use ofbinary numbers in computational systems and his alternative approach.Part IIcontains essays on Aiken's administrative and teaching styles by former studentsFrederick Brooks and Peter Calingaert and an essay by Gregory Welch on thedifficulties Aiken faced in establishing a computer science program at Harvard. PartIII contains recollections by people who worked or studied with Aiken, includingRichard Bloch, Grace Hopper, Anthony Oettinger, and Maurice Wilkes. Henry Troppprovides excerpts from an interview conducted just before Aiken's death. Part IVgathers the most significant of Aiken's own writings. The appendixes give the specsof Aiken's machines and list his doctoral students and the topics of theirdissertations.
- ISBN10 0585130434
- ISBN13 9780585130439
- Publish Date 13 May 2014
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint MIT Press Ltd
- Format eBook
- Language English