This introduction to computers presents the fundamental ideas and principles on which modern computers are built. While used as a text for courses in computer appreciation as well as introductions to computer science, the book has found a wide audience among computer users who wish to understand the basis of the machines that form and transform our society.

What Computers Do * Teaching Silicon to Compute * Building a Computer *Theoretical Computers * Real Computers * Programming * Subroutines and Recursion * Real Programming Languages * Applications * Cooperating Computers * Graphics * Artificial Intelligence * Answers * The text is supplemented by a web site that gives access to other problems and projects.