John Vincent Atanasoff

John Vincent Atanasoff (October 4,1903 – June 15,1995) was a prominent American computer engineer of Bulgarian origin. His work was instrumental in the development of the digital computer.

Computer development

Partly due to the drudgery of using the mechanical Monroe calculator, which was the best tool available to him while he was writing his doctoral thesis, Atanasoff began to search for faster methods. At Iowa State, Atanasoff researched the use of slaved Monroe calculators and IBM tabulators for scientific problems. In 1936 he invented an analog calculator for analyzing surface geometry. The fine mechanical tolerance required for good accuracy pushed him to consider digital solutions. The Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC) was conceived by the professor in a flash of insight during the winter of 1937-1938. With a grant of $650 received in September 1939 and the assistance of his graduate student Clifford Berry, the ABC was prototyped by November of that year. The key ideas employed in the ABC included binary math and Boolean logic to solve up to 29 simultaneous linear equations. The ABC had no central processing unit (CPU), but was designed as an electronic device with vacuum tubes for high speed. It also used separate regenerative capacitor memory, a process still used today in DRAM memory.

Related Topics:
Monroe calculator - IBM - Tabulator - 1936 - Atanasoff Berry Computer - 1937 - 1938 - 1939 - Clifford Berry - Binary - Boolean - Central processing unit - Vacuum tubes - Capacitor - DRAM

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