Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-245) and index.

By the 1960s, IBM, once a manufacturer of mechanical tabulators, had beaten all rivals and dominated the world computer market. But IBM came late to the race. From the 1930s to the 1950s, small independent teams on four continents worked on the development of the very first modern computers - practical, electronic, multipurpose, digital machines with memory for data and programs. From interviews with surviving members of those original pioneering teams, the author builds up a picture of the eccentric, obsessive and fiercely loyal men and women who laid the foundations for the computerized world we now live in, and re-creates the atmosphere of those early days.

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