Title
Digital state : the story of Minnesota's computing industry / Thomas J. Misa.
ISBN
9780816683314 (hardback)
9780816683321 (pb)
9780816688357 (electronic bk.)
Published
Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2013]
Copyright
©2013
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (318 pages) : illustrations
Call Number
HD9696.2.U63 M565 2013
Dewey Decimal Classification
338.4/700409776
Summary
" Accounts of the early events of the computing industry--the Turing machine, the massive Colossus, the ENIAC computer--are well-told tales, and equally well-known is the later emergence of Silicon Valley and the rise of the personal computer. Yet there is an extraordinary untold middle history--with deep roots in Minnesota. From the end of World War II through the 1970s, Minnesota was home to the first computing-centered industrial district in the world. Drawing on rare archival documents, photographs, and a wealth of oral histories, Digital State unveils the remarkable story of computer development in the heartland after World War II. These decades found corporations--concentrated in large part in Minnesota--designing state-of-the-art mainframe technologies, revolutionizing new methods of magnetic data storage, and, for the first time, truly integrating software and hardware into valuable products for the American government and public. Minnesota-based companies such as Engineering Research Associates, Univac, Control Data, Cray Research, Honeywell, and IBM Rochester were major international players and together formed an unrivaled epicenter advancing digital technologies. These companies not only brought vibrant economic growth to Minnesota, they nurtured the state's present-day medical device and software industries and possibly even tomorrow's nanotechnology. Thomas J. Misa's groundbreaking history shows how Minnesota recognized and embraced the coming information age through its leading-edge companies, its workforce, and its prominent institutions. Digital State reveals the inner workings of the birth of the digital age in Minnesota and what we can learn from this era of sustained innovation."-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-287) and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Machine generated contents note:
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: Minnesota Goes High-Tech
1. Philadelphia Story: Wartime Origins of Minnesota Computing
2. St. Paul Startup: Engineering Research Associates Builds a Pioneering Computer
3. Corporate Computing: Univac Creates a High-Tech Minnesota Industry
4. Innovation Machine: Control Data's Supercomputers, Services, and Social Vision
5. First Computer: Honeywell, Partnerships, and the Politics of Patents
6. Big Blue: Manufacturing and Innovation at IBM Rochester
7. Industrial Dynamics: Minnesota Embraces the Information Economy
8. High-Technology Innovation: Medical Devices and Beyond.
