IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

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The IEEE Annals of the History of Computing is a quarterly journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It contains peer-reviewed articles and other contribitions on the history of computing by computer scientists and historians. It is widely considered to be the leading journal in this field.

The first issue of the Annals appeared in July 1979, edited by Bernard Galler. It included articles by Nancy Stern about the history of the BINAC, John Backus on the history of FORTRAN, I.J. Good on the early computers built at Bletchley Park, and F.J. Gruenberger on the history of the JOHNNIAC. With the computer industry more than 30 years old in the 1970s, the history of computing had become a hot topic with the revelation of the Colossi in England—electronic digital computers that predated the ENIAC in the United States—and the controversy spawned by the Honeywell v. Sperry Rand decision, which invalidated the ENIAC patent.