Topics and features, offering many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions and summaries, exercises, and a glossary. Presents detailed information on major figures in computing, such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon, Turing, Zuse and Von Neumann. Reviews the history of software engineering and of programming languages, including syntax and semantics. Discusses the progress of artificial intelligence, with extension to such key disciplines as philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neural networks and cybernetics. Examines the impact on society of the introduction of the personal computer, the World Wide Web, and the development of mobile phone technology. Follows the evolution of a number of major technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft and Apple.