-
Computing Primes (1929–1949): Transformations in the Early Days of Digital Computing
- IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
- IEEE Computer Society
- Volume 37, Number 3, July-September 2015
- pp. 44-54
- Article
- Additional Information
In the early days of digital computing (1929–1949), the computation of a list of primes was often used as a test or demonstration problem. The historical sequence of computing prime numbers is marked by a turn from dedicated hardware to writing and debugging software, although special-purpose sieve machinery was built and used after 1949.