Perhaps the most traditional aspect of TIME--the categorization of news into clearly defined sections--has over the years required the most careful and regular review. Responding to changes in society and to the inventions and perceptions that shape such changes, the editors periodically drop or merge old departments and start new ones. Last year two new sections were added, Design and Video. This week marks the introduction of TIME's newest department, Computers. No section is ever christened without deliberate second-guessing and parent-like worry. But the decision this time seemed both easy and logical. Simply put, a Computers section added up. As TIME said in its 1978 cover story "The Computer Society," the new microtechnology is akin in significance to the moment prehistoric man first wrapped his fingers around a rock, thereupon enormously improving his competitive advantage against nature by becoming a user of tools. Computers constitute yet another quantum leap in the ability to cope with the world. This week's cover, "The Computer Generation," is in part the story of young minds wrapping themselves around their computer consoles every bit as enthusiastically and hopefully as the primitive clutching that rock. The very act of engagement, and continued involvement, changes the dimensions and character of a person's thinking about himself and his environment. Our new department is therefore not only about hardware but also about the softest software of all: the human mind.

To launch this new journalistic undertaking, the editors of TIME will use a kind of interdisciplinary approach.

The section will have the services of its own writer and reporter-researcher and of Senior Editor Thomas Plate--depicted, for the purpose of demonstrating the technology's growing capabilities, by Time Inc. technicians using a Norpak IPS 2 Telidon graphics-creation terminal. The section will also draw on the talents of writers in other departments. This week's cover story, for example, was the work of Senior Writer Fred Golden, who as TIME's science editor has observed the metamorphosis of computer technology from the days of the transistor to today's microchip.

The effect of computers--from complex telecommunications systems to pocket calculators--and their use by both giant corporations and the smallest retail businesses have hit our society with the velocity of a true technological revolution. Lifestyles, as well as thought processes, are subject to the impact of the microchip. To keep readers abreast of this fast-developing scene, TIME is pleased to unveil its Computers department.

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