John Vincent Atanasoff - Revision history

Jnc: Sort by last name, in cat

2024-08-31T18:40:04Z

Sort by last name, in cat

Jnc: Clarify what he meant by "comput[ation] by direct logical action, not by enumeration"

2024-08-12T20:55:13Z

Clarify what he meant by "comput[ation] by direct logical action, not by enumeration"

Jnc: /* External links */ +biography at IEEE

2024-08-11T14:27:50Z

‎External links: +biography at IEEE

Jnc: Jnc moved page John Atanasoff to John Vincent Atanasoff: Usually referred to by his full name

2024-08-11T11:56:31Z

Jnc moved page John Atanasoff to John Vincent Atanasoff: Usually referred to by his full name

Jnc: Brief, but covers the important bits

2024-08-11T11:55:24Z

Brief, but covers the important bits

New page

'''John Vincent Atanasoff''' was an American [[computer scientist]] (although the term did not yet exist when he did his most consequential work). He created the first [[digital]] [[electronic]] [[computing device]], the [[Atanasoff-Berry Computer]]. (Although it was never ''fully working'', the purely electronic portion of it eventually worked fine; its main remaining problem was elsewhere.)

At the undergraduate level, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Florida; his graduate education started with a master's in mathematics at Iowa State College (as it was then). For his doctorate in theoretical physics, he switched to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; his interest in creating a better computing device was developed during his doctoral work. He had been a a teaching fellow back at Iowa State College in 1925, and became a professor in mathematics and physics there in the fall of 1930.

He continued to think about creating a better computing device, and starting with a famous late-night drive in the winter of 1937-38, he came up with the basic concepts of the ABC:

* Use [[electronic]]s
* Use [[binary]] internally
* Use [[capacitor]]s for memory, using [[memory refresh|refresh]]
* "comput[ation] by direct logical action, not by enumeration"

He soon began to work on creating his imagined device; starting with a prototype.

In December, 1940, he fatefully met [[John Mauchly]], who was also interested in creating a computing device, at a professional meeting, and briefly described the ABC to him. Mauchly arranged to come visit Atanasoff, and see the ABC, which he did during a lengthy visit in June, 1941. This led to the [[Atanasoff-Mauchly controversy]].

With the start of World War II, Atanasoff was diverted onto other work - but he had still been the first person down the trail.

==Further reading==

* Clark R. Mollenhoff, ''Atanasoff: Forgotten Father of the Computer'', Iowa State Press, Ames, 1988
* Jane Smiley, ''The Man Who Invented the Computer'', Doubleday, New York, 2010
* Alice Rowe Burks, Arthur W. Burks, ''The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story'', University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1988
* Alice Rowe Burks, ''Who Invented the Computer? The Legal Battle That Changed History'', Prometheus, Amherst, 2003 - a somewhat tendentious work, which attempts to claim the crown for Atanasoff
* Alice R. Burks, Arthur W. Burks, [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.act2080.0036.201 Who Invented the Computer? A Memoir of the 1940s], ''Michigan Quarterly Review'', Volume XXXVI, Issue 2, Spring 1997
* Allan R. Mackintosh, "The First Electronic Computer", ''Physics Today'', Volume 40, Issue 3, March 1987 - a fairly well-known early cannon-ball in the dispute
* Allan R. Mackintosh, [https://public.callutheran.edu/~reinhart/CSC521/Week3/Atanasoff.pdf Dr. Atanasoff's Computer], ''Scientific American'', Volume 259, Number 2, August 1988, pp. 90-96 - likely a variant on the above
* [https://alpoma.info/machines/dr-atanasoffs-computer/ Dr. Atanasoff’s computer] - not totally accurate, but it gives a good idea of his current image

==External links==

* [https://jva.cs.iastate.edu/jvabio.php John Vincent Atanasoff Biography] - biography at Iowa State University, his home institution
** [https://jva.cs.iastate.edu/inventor.php John Vincent Atanasoff - The Inventor]
* [https://www.columbia.edu/~td2177/JVAtanasoff/JVAtanasoff.html John Vincent Atanasoff: The father of the computer] - biography at Columbia
* [https://augustana.net/users/arwalters/jva/html/story1.htm The beginning of the invention of the electronic digital computer] - a good summary
* [https://www.sciencemusings.com/a-long-fast-drive-into-computer-history/ A long, fast drive into computer history] - good summary of the creation of the ABC

[[Category: People]]

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 * Alice Rowe Burks, Arthur W. Burks, ''The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story'', University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1988
 * Alice Rowe Burks, ''Who Invented the Computer? The Legal Battle That Changed History'', Prometheus, Amherst, 2003 - a somewhat tendentious work, which attempts to claim the crown for Atanasoff
 * Allan R. Mackintosh, "The First Electronic Computer", ''Physics Today'', Volume 40, Issue 3, March 1987 - a fairly well-known early cannon-ball in the dispute
 ==External links==
 * [https://history.computer.org/pioneers/atanasoff.html John Vincent Atanasoff] - biography at [[IEEE]]
 * [https://jva.cs.iastate.edu/jvabio.php John Vincent Atanasoff Biography] - biography at Iowa State University, his home institution
@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 * [https://www.sciencemusings.com/a-long-fast-drive-into-computer-history/ A long, fast drive into computer history] - good summary of the creation of the ABC
 [[Category: People]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 '''John Vincent Atanasoff''' was an American [[computer scientist]] (although the term did not yet exist when he did his most consequential work). He created the first [[digital]] [[electronic]] [[computing device]], the [[Atanasoff-Berry Computer]]. (Although it was never ''fully working'', the purely electronic portion of it eventually worked fine; its main remaining problem was elsewhere.)
-At the undergraduate level, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Florida; his graduate education started with a master's in mathematics at Iowa State College (as it was then). For his doctorate in theoretical physics, he switched to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; his interest in creating a better computing device was developed during his doctoral work. He had been a a teaching fellow back at Iowa State College in 1925, and became a professor in mathematics and physics there in the fall of 1930.
+At the undergraduate level, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Florida; his graduate education started with a master's in mathematics at Iowa State College (as it was then). For his doctorate in theoretical physics, he switched to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; his interest in creating a better computing device was developed during his doctoral work, where he had to do a great deal of work with a mechanical calculator. He had been a teaching fellow back at Iowa State College in 1925, and he became a professor in mathematics and physics there in the fall of 1930, after getting his doctorate.
 He continued to think about creating a better computing device, and starting with a famous late-night drive in the winter of 1937-38, he came up with the basic concepts of the ABC:
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 * Use [[binary]] internally
 * Use [[capacitor]]s for memory, using [[memory refresh|refresh]]
-* "comput[ation] by direct logical action, not by enumeration"
+* Computation by use of [[logic]] [[circuit]]s acting on binary numbers in a single operation, not by repetitive increments or decrements of numbers held in a [[register]]
 He soon began to work on creating his imagined device; starting with a prototype.

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