The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was an electronic digital computer [1] [2] and was a major step in the history of computing . It was built by Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry at Iowa State University during 1937-42. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer represented several innovations in computing, including a binary system of arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative memory, and a separation of memory and computing functions. It is sometimes referred to by its initials, ABC. John Vincent Atanasoff was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George H. W. Bush in a Ceremony at the White House on November 13, 1990. John Vincent Atanasoff (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was a prominent computer engineer of Bulgarian origin. ... Clifford Berry (1918 - 1963) helped John Vincent Atanasoff create the first digital electronic computers in 1939 - the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC). ... Iowa State University (ISU) is a public land-grant university and space-grant university located in Ames, Iowa. ... Parallel processing is the ability of the brain to simultaneously process incoming stimuli. ... Dram can mean several things: for the imperial unit of volume see dram (volume) for the imperial unit of weight or mass see avoirdupois and apothecaries system of mass for the Armenian monetary unit see dram (currency) DRAM is a type of RAM and unlike dram is spelled in all... The National Medal of Technology is an honor granted by the President of the United States to inventors and innovators that have made significant contributions to the development of new and important technology. ... George Herbert Walker Bush, GCB, (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). ...

The Atanasoff-Berry Computer, constructed in the basement of the Physics building at Iowa State University, took over two years to complete due to lack of funds. The prototype was first demonstrated in November of 1939. The computer weighed more than seven hundred pounds (320 kg). It contained approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) of wire, 280 dual-triode vacuum tubes, 31 thyratrons, and was about the size of a desk. http://www. ... http://www. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube (U.S. and Canadian English) or (thermionic) valve (outside North America) is a device generally used to amplify, or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ... A thyratron is a type of gas filled tube used as a high energy electrical switch. ...

It was not a Turing complete computer, which distinguishes it from later, more general machines, such as the 1946 ENIAC, 1949 EDVAC, the University of Manchester designs, or Alan Turing's post-War designs at NPL and elsewhere. Nor did it implement the stored program architecture that made practical fully general-purpose, reprogrammable computers. In computability theory a programming language or any other logical system is called Turing-complete if it has a computational power equivalent to a universal Turing machine. ... ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was long thought to have been the first electronic computer designed to be Turing-complete, capable of being reprogrammed by rewiring to solve a full range of computing problems. ... The EDVAC as installed in Building 328 at the Ballistics Research Laboratory. ... The Victoria University of Manchester almost always referred to as simply the University of Manchester (except where there was a need to distinguish between it and the new university in which case it was often known by its initials VUM) was a university in Manchester in England. ... Alan Turing is often considered the father of modern computer science. ... The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington, near London. ... The term von Neumann architecture refers to a computer design model that uses a single storage structure to hold both programs and data. ...

The machine was, however, the first to implement three critical ideas that are still part of every modern computer:

1. Using binary digits to represent all numbers and data
2. Performing all calculations using electronics rather than wheels, ratchets, or mechanical switches
3. Organizing a system in which computation and memory are separated.

In addition, the computer pioneered the use of regenerative capacitor memory, as in the DRAM still widely used today. The binary numeral system (base 2 numerals) represents numeric values using two symbols, typically 0 and 1. ... This is a hub page for electronics. ... Computation can be defined as finding a solution to a problem from given inputs by means of an algorithm. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Dram can mean several things: for the imperial unit of volume see dram (volume) for the imperial unit of weight or mass see avoirdupois and apothecaries system of mass for the Armenian monetary unit see dram (currency) DRAM is a type of RAM and unlike dram is spelled in all...

The memory of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was a pair of drums, each containing 1600 capacitors that rotated on a common shaft once per second. The capacitors on each drum were organized into 32 "bands" of 50 (30 active bands and 2 spares in case a capacitor failed), giving the machine a speed of 30 additions/subtractions per second. Data was represented as 50-bit binary fixed point numbers. The electronics of the memory and arithmetic units could store and operate on 60 such numbers at a time (3000 bits). A capacitor is a device that stores energy in the electric field created between a pair of conductors on which equal but opposite electric charges have been placed. ...

The AC power line frequency of 60 Hz was the primary clock rate for the lowest level operations. city lights viewed in a motion blurred exposure. ... The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ...

The logic functions were fully electronic, implemented with vacuum tubes. The family of logic gates ranged from inverters to two and three input gates. The input and output levels and operating voltages were compatible between the different gates. Each gate consisted of one inverting vacuum tube amplifier, preceded by a resistor divider input network that defined the logical function. A logic gate is an arrangement of electronically-controlled switches used to calculate operations in Boolean algebra. ...

Although the Atanasoff-Berry Computer was an important step up from earlier computing machines, it was not a stored program computer. An operator was needed to operate the control switches to set up its functions, much the way boot programs would be entered in later computers. Selection of the operation to be performed, reading, writing, converting to or from binary to decimal, or reducing a set of equations was made by front panel switches and in some cases jumpers. The so-called von Neumann architecture is a model for a computing machine that uses a single storage structure to hold both the set of instructions on how to perform the computation and the data required or generated by the computation. ... An Internet payphone loading Windows XP In computing, booting is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. ...

There were two forms of input and output. Primary user input and output and an intermediate results output and input. The intermediate results storage allowed operation on problems too large to be handled entirely within the electronic memory.

Intermediate results were written onto paper sheets by electrostatically modifying the resistance at 1500 locations to represent 30 of the 50 bit numbers. Each sheet could be written or read in one second. The reliability of the system was limited to about 1 error in 100,000 calculations by these units, primarily attributed to lack of control of the sheets' material characteristics. In retrospect a solution could have been to add a parity bit to each number as written. This problem was not solved by the time Atanasoff left the university for war-related work.

Primary user input was via standard punched cards and output via a front panel display. The punch card (or Hollerith card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. ...

The ABC was designed for a fairly specific purpose, the solution of systems of simultaneous linear equations. It could handle systems with up to twenty-nine equations, which was large for the time. Problems of this scale were becoming common in physics, the department in which John Atanasoff worked. Basically, it could be fed two linear equations with up to twenty-nine variables and a constant term and eliminate one of the variables. This process would have to be repeated manually for each of the equations, which would result in a system of equations with one fewer variables. Then the whole process would have to be repeated to eliminate another variable.

The initial funds to start development and demonstrate the circuits involved was from the Agronomy department which was also interested in such problems for economic and research analysis. Further funding to complete the machine came from Research Corporation of America, in New York. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 455 km 530 km 13. ...

Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were the first to patent a digital computing device, their ENIAC computer. ABC had been examined by John Mauchly in June 1941, and is alleged to have influenced his later work on ENIAC, although Mauchly denied this. In 1967 Honeywell started a court case against Sperry Rand in an attempt to break their patent, based on the ABC being prior art. The court released its final judgement on October 19, 1973. In Sperry Rand Vs. Honeywell the court voided the ENIAC patent as a derivative of John Atanasoff's invention. The decision was not appealed. ENIAC ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was long thought to have been the first electronic computer designed to be Turing-complete, capable of being reprogrammed by rewiring to solve a full range of computing problems. ... John William Mauchly (August 30, 1907 – January 8, 1980) was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, long held to be the first electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States. ... For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Honeywell NYSE: HON is a major American multinational corporation that produces electronic control systems and automation equipment. ... In most patent laws, prior art or state of the art is all information that has been disclosed to the public in any form before a given date. ...

Atanasoff was quite generous in stating, "there is enough credit for everyone in the invention and development of the electronic computer." Eckert and Mauchly received most of the credit for inventing the first electronic-digital computer. Historians now say that the Atanasoff-Berry computer was the first.

The original ABC was eventually dismantled, when the University converted the basement to classrooms, and all of its pieces except for one memory drum were discarded. In 1997, a team of researchers from Ames Laboratory (located on the Iowa State campus) finished building a working replica of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer for a cost of $350,000. This replica dispelled any doubt over whether or not the ABC actually could perform the tasks it was designed to do. The new ABC is now on permanent display in the first floor lobby of the Durham Center for Computation and Communication at Iowa State University. 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ames Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Ames, Iowa. ...

See also

• History of computing hardware

Computing hardware has been an essential component of the process of calculation and data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared. ...

References

• Anthony Ralston and Edwin D. Reilly (ed), Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 3rd Ed. , 1993, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York ISBN 0442276796
• Clark R. Mollenhoff, Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer, 1988, ISBN 0-8138-0032-3

Clark R Mollenhoff (April 16, 1921-1991) was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, lawyer, and columnist for the Des Moines Register. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII in Roman) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• The Birth of the ABC
• Rebuilding the ABC