Loadstar 234/234.d81/t.abc

Text File | 2003-01-01 | 5.7 KB | 202 lines

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   T H E   A B C   C O M P U T E R
        by E. Grady Glover III


    The ABC Computer (Atanasoff-Berry
Computer) was the first electronic
computer invented, built between the
years 1939 and 1942 at Iowa State
University by Professor John Vincent
Atanasoff and graduate student
Clifford Berry.

    John Vincent Atanasoff was born on
October 4, 1903, in Hamilton, New
York, and moved to Florida, where John
Vincent completed grade school and
began his understanding of
electricity. At nine years old, John
Vincent became interested in the study
of logarithms not long after his
father gave him a slide rule -- which
he studied carefully. This opened the
door to studies in trigonometric
functions.

    With the help of his mother, he
learned about number bases other than
decimal, including binary math. In
high school, he excelled in science
and math. At the University of Florida
in Gainesville in 1921,  he took
electrical engineering classes and
advanced mathematics. He graduated in
1925 with a Bachelor of Science Degree
in Electrical Engineering.

    From there he went to Iowa State
University to work on his master's
degree and teach undergraduate math
classes. He met Lura Meeks there, and
they were married in 1926, mere days
after receiving his Master's Degree in
mathematics. They moved to Madison,
Wisconsin, where John Vincent had been
accepted as a doctoral candidate. In
1930, Ph.D completed, he moved back to
Iowa State University to become part
of the faculty as a professor in
mathematics and physics.

    In 1939, Atanasoff received a $650
grant from the University to begin
work on his ideas for a computer. He
hired an electrical engineering
student, Clifford E. Berry, to help
with the project.

    Clifford Edward Berry was born on
April 19, 1918, in Gladbrook, Iowa.
Clifford's father, Fred, owned an
appliance and repair shop, where
Clifford began learning about
electricity and radio. He was
brilliant, even at a young age, and
skipped a year of grade school. In
1929, he built his first ham radio.

    Sadly, while Clifford was in High
School, his father was killed by an
employee who had been fired. His
family moved to Ames, Iowa, when
Clifford began college at Iowa State.
He was an impressive student, and
received his
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical
Engineering in 1939.

    The ABC Computer had several
innovations that the modern computer
uses today..

* It was semi-programmable,
* Used a binary system of arithmetic,
* Had regenerative memory,
* Parallel processing, and a
* Separation of memory and computing
    functions.

    The computer was used to help
graduate students with physics
problems at the University.

    Atanasoff and Berry used binary
numbers, vacuum tubes, and capacitors
in their computer. The capacitors were
on a rotating drum and held memory in
the form of an electrical charge.

    After spending two years improving
their work, the finished machine was
about the size of a desk and weighed
700 pounds. It had over 300 vacuum
tubes and wire that ran for a mile's
distance. The ABC could calculate one
operation every fifteen seconds.

    The ABC Computer did not receive a
patent due to the onset of World War
II. The war also brought any further
work on the computer to a halt.
Unfortunately, the ABC was dismantled
when the physics department needed the
extra storage space. This came as a
shock to Atanasoff and Berry since no
word about the destruction came to
them until after the fact. Only a few
pieces remained.

    When work stopped on the ABC
Computer, Atanasoff and Berry went
separate ways --  both into defense
related jobs. In 1949, Atanasoff
became chief scientist for the Army
Field Forces in Fort Monroe, Virginia.
After a year, he went to Washington
as director of the Navy Fuse Program
at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. In
1952 he established The Ordnance
Engineering Corporation, which later
became the Aerojet General Corporation
in 1957. He retired in 1961.
.

    Atanasoff died of a stroke on June
15, 1995, but not before getting his
rightful title as inventor of the
[first electronic digital computer].

    A US federal judge handed down
this ruling on October 19, 1973, after
discovering that some of Atanasoff's
ideas were "borrowed" and patented by
J. Presper Eckert and John William
Mauchly for their ENIAC Computer in
1946.

    As for Berry, he received his
Masters of Science in Physics in 1941.
Completing his doctorate in 1948, he
became Chief Physicist of Consolidated
Engineering Corporation in 1949 and
Assistant Director of Research in
1952. He was Director of Engineering
of the Analytical and Control Division
in 1959. He left the company to become
Manager of Advanced Development at the
Vacuum-Electronics Corporation in
1963. At the time of his death on
October 30, 1963, Dr. Berry had
received 19 patents in the area of
mass spectrometry and 11 other patents
in the field of electronics.

 EGGII


[DAVE'S AFTERTHOUGHT]: This article is
Dave Peterson's fault. Dave lives in
Ames, Iowa, and knows a thing or two
that East Coast Intellectuals don't.
He passed along a Web address.

Meanwhile, Grady was wanting to
contribute something to LOADSTAR, so I
gave him the address, and he wrote
this article. Well done!

Compared to ENIAC, the ABC was a
"laptop," about the size of a desk.
The capacitor memory (not unlike
Dynamic RAM) was built into coffee-can
sized drums, with capacitor wires
pointing out in all directions.
Evidently, the drums were turned to
access memory locations.

The fact that Eckhart and Mauchly
"borrowed" ideas from Atanasoff brings
up the sticky issue of Intellectual
Properties. When is an idea unique and
therefore "ownable," and when is it
general knowledge in the public
domain. Both are necessary for
progress. Seems that once a
corporation gets its hands on an
Intellectual Property, it never lets
go.

 DMM