The abc computer biography

John took electrical engineering correspondence courses at night and on weekends to further his education. In Brewster, JVA completed grade school at a two room schoolhouse, and later attended middle and high school at an accelerated pace, graduating with his high school diploma at age Throughout his developmental years, JVA exhibited the characteristics of an inventive personality, and was encouraged by his mother and father to exercise his wide interests in subjects ranging from crochet and British Literature to electrical circuits and the workings of farm machinery.

He developed a fascination with calculating devices when his father gave him a slide rule, with which JVA used to solve simple math problems. Amazed at the precision achieved, he experimented with more complex equations and began studying logarithms, algebra, and differential calculus. His mother helped him to understand number bases other than base and he eventually learned how to make calculatations using a variety of bases, including base-2, also known as binary math.

The abc computer biography: John Vincent Atanasoff ().

This early exposure to different methods of calculation would later inform his work on the ABC. While taking these courses, he became interested in electronics and continued on to higher mathematics. He graduated from the University of Florida in with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He had a straight "A" academic average.

Even though he had many offers of teaching fellowships, including one from Harvard, he accepted the one from Iowa State College, because it was the first one he received and because of the institution's fine reputation in engineering and sciences. So it was, that one day in the summer of the year-old boarded the train that took him to Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State College.

He was ready to make his mark in the world of science. From September to November he was busy working on his master's degree and teaching two undergraduate mathematics classes. Even though his social life was minimal due to his busy schedule, he was familiar with one campus organization, the Dixie Club, a club organized for southern students away from home.

One evening, he decided to drop by the club to see what was going on. There he met Lura Meeks, a beautiful, brown-haired, blue-eyed year-old home economics major from Oklahoma. This chance meeting led to another date, and then another. An engaging biography of John Atanasoff reveals the obscure origins of the computer, explains John Gilbey.

Who invented the digital computer? Depending on your definition, mathematical pioneers such as John von Neumann or Alan Turing might spring to mind, but its origin lies with US physicist John Atanasoff. Although few people could name him today, this rewarding biography by Pulitzer prizewinning author Jane Smiley may change that. Atanasoff embodies the American Dream.

The son of a Bulgarian immigrant who had fled to the United States as a child in the late s, he grew up on the family farm in Florida. Through mastering the slide rule, helping his father with house electrical wiring and driving the family's Model T Ford at age 11, he developed a passion for engineering and mathematics. After graduating from the University of Florida in Gainesville inwith the highest grade average it had ever recorded, Atanasoff joined a master's programme at what is now Iowa State University in Ames.

He returned to Iowa State — again declining an offer from Harvard — as an assistant professor. But to meet his wider scientific aspirations — in particular, to solve simultaneous linear equations quickly — he realized that he would have to build a calculator himself.

The abc computer biography: An engaging biography of John Atanasoff

His struggle to design it concluded with an episode of pure cinema. Sitting in a roadside tavern with a glass of bourbon and soda, the solution fell into place. He began to make notes on a paper napkin. Crucially, Iowa State had an excellent college of engineering. Built on a shoestring budget, the simple 'breadboard' prototype that emerged the abc computer biography significant innovations.

A January 15,story in the Des Moines Register announced the ABC as "an electrical computing machine" with more than vacuum tubes that would "compute complicated algebraic equations" but gave no precise technical description of the computer. The system weighed more than seven hundred pounds kg. It contained approximately 1-mile 1. It was not programmable, which distinguishes it from more general machines of the same era, such as Konrad Zuse 's Z3 or earlier iterations and the Colossus computers of — Nor did it implement the stored-program architecturefirst implemented in the Manchester Baby ofrequired for fully general-purpose practical computing machines.

The memory of the Atanasoff—Berry computer was a system called regenerative capacitor memorywhich consisted of a pair of drums, each containing capacitors that rotated on a common shaft once per second. Data was represented as bit binary fixed-point numbers. The electronics of the memory and arithmetic units could store and operate on 60 such numbers at a time bits.

The alternating current power-line frequency of 60 Hz was the primary clock rate for the lowest-level operations. The arithmetic 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. The control logic functions, which only needed to operate once per drum rotation and therefore did not require electronic speed, were electromechanical, implemented with relays. Although the Atanasoff—Berry computer was an important step up from earlier calculating machines, it was not able to run entirely automatically through an entire problem.

An operator was needed to operate the control switches to set up its functions, much like the electro-mechanical calculators and unit record equipment of the time. 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.

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. The largest problem that could be solved without the use of the intermediate output and input was two simultaneous equationsa trivial problem.

Intermediate results were binary, written onto paper sheets by electrostatically modifying the resistance at locations to represent 30 of the bit numbers one equation. Each sheet could be written or read in one second. The reliability of the system was limited to about 1 error incalculations 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 decimal, via standard IBM column punched cardsand output was decimal, via a front-panel display. The ABC was designed for a specific purpose — the solution of systems of simultaneous linear equations.

It could handle systems with up to 29 equations, a difficult problem for the time.

The abc computer biography: He and Berry built

Problems of this scale were becoming common in physics, the department in which John Atanasoff worked. The machine could be fed two linear equations with up to 29 variables and a constant term and eliminate one of the variables. This process would be repeated manually for each of the equations, which would result in a system of equations with one fewer variable.

ISBN Retrieved January 22, — via Internet Archive.

The abc computer biography: A remarkable team of

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