At the Electronic Crossroads Once Again: The Myth of the Modern Computer Utility in the United States
| Autor: | Alexander Mirowski |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
General Computer Science
Computer science Computer Applications Management science business.industry media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences Legal aspects of computing Cloud computing 010402 general chemistry 050905 science studies computer.software_genre 01 natural sciences 0104 chemical sciences Term (time) Power (social and political) History and Philosophy of Science Grid computing Prosperity 0509 other social sciences business History of computing computer Law and economics media_common |
| Zdroj: | IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 39:13-29 |
| ISSN: | 1058-6180 |
| DOI: | 10.1109/mahc.2017.12 |
| Popis: | The term "computer utility" has been perennially present in the history of computing, though a precise definition of the term has been fleeting, even when it first appeared in the Mid-1960s. The recent resurgence of interest in the remote provision of computing power has brought with it the historical jumble of definitions that make up that term, and "computer utility" is once again being applied to computer architectures though with little justification or exposition given regarding this use. This article attempts to determine whether past and present applications of the term share any commonalities and in doing so questions whether there has ever existed a true "computer utility." To do so, incarnations of the "computer utility" are examined in two time periods--the 1960s and the 1970s--during which time computer time-sharing enjoyed significant prosperity and now as cloud computing has become increasingly popular and prolific. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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