Electronic Digital Computers: Their Use in Science and Engineering describes the principles underlying computer design and operation. This book describes the various applications of computers, the stages involved in using them, and their limitations. The machine is composed of the hardware which is run by a program. This text describes the use of magnetic drum for storage of data and some computing. The functions and components of the computer include automatic control, memory, input of instructions by using punched cards, and output from resulting information. Computers operate by using numbers represented by the binary system of 0 and 1. Earlier machines used numbers on wheels which were rotated to different positions, perforations in paper, or blackened spots on films. The computer can handle large numbers only to many numerical places: it does this by rounding off numbers "on the right," or by avoidance of numbers greater than the machine can handle "on the left." The book also addresses machine installation, management, and personnel requirements for trouble-free computing. Computer programmers, engineers, designers of industrial processes, and researchers involved in electrical, computer, or mechanical engineering will find this book informative.

I have been using the first edition of this book as a text for a number of years. This was in a Stanford University first-year graduate course that is taken by students from Electrical Engineering or Computer Science who are interested in computer organization. Because computer tech nology has been changing so rapidly, it became necessary to supplement the text with additional readings. My colleagues and I examined many newly-published books for possible use as texts. We found no book with the same excellent choice of topics and thorough coverage as Dr. Gschwind's first edition. Springer-Verlag's request that I prepare a second edition of this book came at a time when I had many other projects underway. Before I de cided whether to take on the project of preparing a revision, I asked many of my students for their opinions of Dr. Gschwind's first edition. Even I was surprised by the enthusiasm that this rather skeptical and critical group of students displayed for the book. It was this enthusiasm that convinced me of the value and importance of preparing the revision.

Digital Computers in Action is an introduction to the basics of digital computers as well as their programming and various applications in fields such as mathematics, science, engineering, economics, medicine, and law. Other topics include engineering automation, process control, special purpose games-playing devices, machine translation and mechanized linguistics, and information retrieval. This book consists of 14 chapters and begins by discussing the history of computers, from the idea of performing complex arithmetical calculations to the emergence of a modern view of the structure of a general purpose computing machine. Some of the most important applications of computers are also considered. This text introduces the structure and capabilities of the modern electronic digital computer; what operations can be performed by a typical machine and how these operations make the process of automatic calculation a useful one; and the uses of digital computers in mathematics, science, engineering, economics, medicine, and law. This book also examines the applications of computers to the automation of production engineering, process control in refinery transportation and the factory, and machine translation and mechanized linguistics. The final chapter deals with the use of computers in information storage and retrieval. This reference material is intended for students who wish to know how computers can be of assistance in their own disciplines.